Boost Revenue Using Transactional Emails

After you have spent a significant amount of time, creative effort and marketing budget acquiring an online customer - they finally delight you with a purchase. What do you do? You send them a boring, text only, order confirmation or delivery note.

According to the results of a new study by Silverpop, an email service provider, into 84 top online retailers’ use of transactional emails, marketers aren’t taking full advantage of this opportunity at a time when email communications are almost guaranteed to be read and have the potential to increase revenue.

"Far too many companies allow their companies' IT departments to send static, text-only messages," said Elaine O'Gorman of Silverpop. "When control over transactional messaging resides outside of the marketing function, the e-mails often lack cross-sell and up-sell promotional content that can boost revenue."

Silverpop's report also revealed that, of the stores involved in the study, only a third promoted e-newsletters or promotional mailings in their transactional emails and just 20 percent used them as a tool to cross- or up-sell their products.

"Savvy marketers recognize the power of transactional e-mails to enhance customer relationships, solidify branding and cross-sell and up-sell additional products, because transactional e-mails reach customers at a time when they are most likely thinking about the company in a positive light," said O'Gorman.

Tags: email marketing, online retailing