the importance of transactional e-mail - webexpo 2014 - vincent van scherpenseel

The Importance of

Transactional E-mail

WebExpo 2014Vincent van Scherpenseel

Program

Introduction What is transactional e-mail.

Program

Introduction What is transactional e-mail.

Use-cases When and where to use it.

Program

Introduction What is transactional e-mail.

Use-cases When and where to use it.

Templating How to make it look good.

Program

Introduction What is transactional e-mail.

Use-cases When and where to use it.

Templating How to make it look good.

Optimization How to measure and optimize for success.

What is transactional e-mail?

A personal e-mail sent to a single individual usually

based on an action they performed.

What is transactional e-mail?

A personal e-mail sent to a single individual usually

based on an action they performed.

How to send it?

Your own mail server. Third-party service.

Why out-source it?

1. Deliverability

2. Maintenance

3. Actionable insights

4. Increase revenue, decrease costs+

Third-party services

Use-cases When and where to use it.

Account actions

Registration confirmation

Event announcements

Back-in-stock notification

Review request

Personal discount campaigns

Personal motivation

Webhooks!

Don’t let hard-bounces lead to dead-ends.

Templates How to make it look good.

Best Practices

• Understand what you want to achieve. • Have a very clear call-to-action. • Make images clickable (remember fallbacks). • Design for a maximum width of 600 px. • Web fonts support is extremely limited. E-mail client CSS support overview:http://tinyurl.com/emailcss

Responsive Web Design

Photo: Brad Frost

Responsive Web Design

Support for media queries on mobile devices is pretty good! Except for Google Mail. Useful overview: www.campaignmonitor.com/guides/ mobile/

Testing

From $79 per month.www.litmus.com

Spam filter testing from $149 per month.

From $45 per month.www.emailonacid.com

Spam filter testing included.

schema.org mark-up

Review ActionsInitiate the reviews directly from the inbox.

schema.org mark-up

Reservations Actions Display information in the same consistent way.Let users check in directly from their inbox.

Optimization How to measure and optimize for success.

Key Performance Indicators

• Deliverability (bounces & rejects)

• Opens

• Clicks

• Conversions

A/B testing

A/B testing your e-mails isas important as testing your website.

[..]! "tags": [ "password-reset" ],! [..]

A/B testing

A/B testing your e-mails isas important as testing your website.

Google Analytics

Auto-tag your transactional e-mailfor Google Analytics tracking.

[..]! "google_analytics_domains": [ “webexpo.net" ], "google_analytics_campaign": "registration_confirmation",! [..]

Respect your recipients

Use all data you have on your subscribers.

Respect your recipients

Use all data you have on your subscribers.

Measure the right things

Measure the right things

Having a lot of conversions does notmean you make the most money.

Key Take-Aways

• Don’t ignore this powerful medium.E-mail is far from dead.

• Templating sucks, but we have RWD! Make sure to test properly.

• Monitor your KPIs.Always Be Optimizing.

We’re hiring! www.dotblue.net/jobs/

http://vincent.io/@vanscherpenseel

Vincent van Scherpenseelvincent@dotblue.nl

Thank you!