There are certain customer interactions that require transactional email contacts.
Coordinating transactional email messages is an important strategy to improve user experience and increase additional customer spend and engagement.
Ecommerce operations are conducted primarily through email contacts. An online customer purchases the contents of a shopping cart that initiates a series of email messages as the logistics process moves from order confirmation all the way to follow up emails that encourage a review in the weeks following actual delivery.
The default mechanisms that generate emails are somewhat stand alone and are not usually scrutinized by the operators of an ecommerce store to present uniform branding graphics, to track open and engagement rates, or to optimize messages for further order stimulation.
This post is a detailed examination of the process of examining such an email sequence in order to coordinate a more uniform presentation across all process emails, to examine opportunities for tracking, and to insert supplemental messaging to stimulate additional sales.
There are additional email messages that are initiated by site visitors activity that fall short of a perfected transaction that should be included in this exercise to streamline, brand consistent messaging this may also include new opportunities.
Transaction messages
- Order confirmation
- Abandoned shopping cart
- Shipping/tracking email complete
- Shipping/tracking email partial first
- Shipping tracking email partial final
- Follow up satisfaction email/ review generation
Non-transaction messages
- Email newsletter subscription follow up confirmations
- Email marketing newsletters
Survey existing emails
We will focus on three main transaction emails to improve presentation, information density, message consistency and re-engagement signaling. The current default emails are incomplete and unsophisticated to varying degrees.
A message sent after a successful order confirmed with the total payment
A tracking email sent after the shipping label is printed, helpful for customers to track their shipment.
This is the message the customer receives as a newsletter signup confirmation.
Goals
- graphic/branding format consistency
- track open rates
- contact messaging inclusion (ease of calling us etc)
- personalize messages (recognize existing customers) thanks etc
- call to action new sales/reengage site visits (similar products, add-ons)
Consistency
- Uniform fonts
- Logo
- Image
- Company address and contact information
Story and Branding
- Packaging description
- Free gift ideas
- Handmade copy
- Videos of construction
- Show link to customer profile
- Call to follow social accounts
- Technical Attributes
- Images and line items all have links
- Mobile friendly
- Opens and click tracking
- Tracking information autolinks/populates
Supplemental Marketing
- Show promotional link
- Show add-on related items (maybe shipping promotion)
- Offer immediate special deal
- Immediate re-order special(within x number of days expired)
- Call to recommend to a friend