Emails get a lot of love on our blog. A great email newsletter can help you connect with your target audience and grow your business. Plus, they’re an important part of launching a new offer, because a sales page alone doesn’t quite cut it.

Like any other content your biz puts out, emails gives you a chance to strengthen relationships with your audience, communicate what products or services you sell, and build your unique brand.

Those perks aren’t just limited to your email newsletters. Did you know that transactional emails — like order confirmations, download confirmations, or thank you emails — can be used as effective email marketing tools?

Transactional emails may seem boring, but they serve a specific purpose and they can pull double-duty, by reinforcing your customer’s decision to work with you.

Why spend time on transactional emails?

If email marketing is not your favorite, then we’re sure you’re rolling your eyes at yet another task you have to add to your checklist. Hear us out. Spending a little time sprucing up transactional emails is worth it.

For one thing, your customers already expect to receive transactional emails, because these types of emails are sent after they’ve already taken action on your website. If someone wants to finish redeeming an offer, download your free guide, check their brand new login info, or make sure that their purchase went through, they’ll find that transactional email in their inbox.

Because they’re expecting and/or looking for that email, your customers are more likely to open and read them. This is your chance to give them a better experience than a boring order number or email with a single line of text. And if you struggle with email open rates, then here’s your chance to improve. Get those numbers up by paying attention to the content of your transactional emails.

How to make the most of your transactional emails

Include CTAs in your emails

Review each transactional email in your arsenal. (Now’s a good time to make sure all the existing info you’re sending out is still accurate.) Once you have the basics covered, look for spots in your email where you can insert a relevant link to something the recipient may like.

If someone downloaded a free guide to choosing a brand name from your brand consultant website, for example, you know that this person will probably be interested in similar offers, like a complete brand guidelines template, or a consultation with you to help them start building their brand. 

When you have relevant offers to share with potential customers, link to them in your transactional email! You’ll move them along further in your sales funnel. And remember, they’ve probably already opened and read the transactional email. All you have to do is nudge them to take another action… and provide links to do those actions.

Make your email content shareable

When people like your emails, there’s a good chance they’ll share them with other people. (This is how Latasha introduced Jess to Drizly’s spectacular email newsletters.) If you wanna get more eyes on your emails, make them easy to forward and share on social media.

Include social media sharing links or buttons at the bottom of your emails. While you’re at it, don’t forget to include a link or button for your website, too. 

Use language that encourages the reader to share your email with their friends, coworkers, family members, most hated enemies, you get the idea. No need to write a novel; you can add a quick sentence or two that invites people to forward or share, like:

• Forward this email to a friend! We love meeting new people.
• Know someone who needs to hear this advice, too? 
• Let’s be buds on social media!

Pretty easy, right?

Avoid overstuffing these emails

Just because you can include extra goodies in your transactional emails doesn’t mean you should stuff each one with CTAs or unnecessary content. 

Your transactional emails should still serve one primary purpose, like thanking someone for their purchase or activating an offer or confirming an email subscription. That’s what your email recipients need. Don’t neglect that need in favor of upselling or cross-selling.

Revert expectations

You know when you get a confirmation email, and you just expect it to be a “Here’s your shipping information!” email? That’s not sexy. And while we don’t think that every piece of content has to be sexy, just imagine what would happen if you included something they didn’t expect on that email.

For example, one of our clients has an automatic sequence that’s triggered when you buy, that basically just has a GIF of her whole team dancing up and down with excitement embedded in it. When you join her coaching program, you know you’ve got a group of excited women dancing around their kitchens somewhere.

Another client includes funny GIFs in their shipping notification emails (you know GIFs are our love language by this point, right?).

It makes me think twice — and endears you to them. They may just have bought from you and been unsure if it was going to work. They may have downloaded a freebie to get a feel for what you offer. But making those “transactional emails” feel personal is where the magic happens.

Last but not least: You’re already in the inbox — make it count

Don’t waste the email open rate you already have! If your recipients are opening your transactional emails, then use that space to build a relationship, and to share another offer, resource, or service that they may be interested in. 

You’ll set your brand apart, meet your customers’ needs, nudge them along the sales funnel, and get your emails to do more for your business with minimal effort. Damn, that’s a lot of power for a “boring old transactional email,” yeah?