We’ve all received them, right? The email confirmation that arrives immediately after we make a purchase online. The text message that hits our phone asking us to verify our identity when trying to access a website. The appointment reminder we receive every six months from our dentist like clockwork. These are transactional messages. 

Transactional messaging is an incredible tool for sending the most important messages while also increasing customer engagement. And it can make a big impact. In fact, according to Litmus’ 2019 State of Email research, 33% of brands generate more than 25% of their email revenue through transactional and triggered emails. 

Messages defined

How can sending both your promotional and transactional messaging from the same platform make an even bigger impact on the customer experience?

Before we dig in, let’s review the difference between transactional and promotional messaging.

Transactional messages are sent in response to a user’s interaction with your website or business or service. Examples include shipping notifications, account alerts, and identity validation. 

Promotional messages, or commercial messages, are sent to a list of subscribers who have opted-in to receive marketing-type content from your brand. Examples include newsletters, sale notifications, new product announcements, event invitations, and inspirational updates.

3 reasons to combine message types

Offer an exceptional experience to build customer loyalty

According to the State of the Connected Customer, 84% of customers say the experience a company provides is as important as its products and services. Managing and sending all of your messages – both promotional and transactional — from the same place will allow your brand to communicate from one voice, offering a seamless experience for your customers whether they’re receiving a monthly newsletter from marketing or a purchase confirmation from customer service.

An integrated solution also allows you to honor subscriber preferences by communicating on a customer’s preferred channel. As an example, when traveling, some of us prefer to receive gate change notifications by email, while some of us prefer a text message. An airline recognizes that by managing all of these messages in one place, they are creating a much better experience for their customers, while simultaneously making it easier for the marketer to build and measure the campaign.

Use data to personalize your content even more

Marketers collect a lot of data on their customers as interactions with their brand take place. Data is usually collected at each lifecycle stage within the journey, from awareness to purchase to retention. Think of all that data — the demographic data from the initial sign-up, CRM data gathered from your sales team, behavioral data from website browsing, and engagement data from previous campaigns. Take all of the data you have on your customers to personalize your transactional email content.

And although transactional messages are often critical in nature, that’s not to say you can’t promote your brand in a transactional message! As long as the main intent of the message is transactional, you can include a bit of promotional content. Transactional messaging provides a clear path to get closer to your already-engaged customer; offer a great experience by including options related to the transaction, whether it’s a purchase or an alert or a reminder. For example, a purchase receipt can include the transaction details at the top of the message, then display a few product recommendations at the bottom or direct them to a service to further enhance their purchase, such as installation or warranty options.

Gain rich insights into your overall marketing program 

When sent from the same platform, the metrics for reporting on both promotional and transactional messages are consistent, and they can be built easily into the same report. The benefits of reporting on one platform can surface common customer patterns. Does engagement with promotional messages peak just before a transactional message is sent? What is the average time between purchases? These types of insights are easily found when you’re able to compare the messages and experiences side by side.

You can also more easily level up your transactional messaging by using the promotional elements in Marketing Cloud. All of the content, analytics, everything you have access to with your promotional sending can be used for your transactional sending.

By managing and sending all messaging from the same place, you can offer an exceptional customer experience by leveraging a single brand voice, use data to personalize content, and gain better insights into your overall marketing program. 

Want to learn more about transactional messaging in Marketing Cloud? Check out our on-demand webinar, “Power Mission Critical Messages with Marketing Cloud Transactional and Event Notification APIs: here.