A few reasons why these types of emails perform so well:

• Transactional emails are sent to already engaged customers, including recent purchasers.
• The recipients in most cases are expecting an email after a transaction and then interact with it once it arrives.
• Since the recipients are already engaged with your brand, they have a higher chance of making another purchase from the transactional email.

10 Transactional Email Best Practices:

1. Say “Thank You” in the email
2. Send optimized transactional emails using HTML
3. Include your branding
4. Include dynamic product cross-sells using product recommendation engines, or seasonal offers
5. Provide a link to track order and shipping status
6. Include some site navigation in the email creative
7. Test the Inclusion of an offer ($ off, % off, free shipping, etc.)
8. Include links to all of your social media efforts
9. Promote email sign up
10. Do not include an offer in the subject line or as the main message

* These statistics come from our June 4, 2010 webinar, “The Key Event-driven Triggers in the Consumer Lifecycle“

Recently I received a legitimate and noteworthy series of emails from Bank of America. Their first email introduced updates to their alert emails so that their customers could expect what to look for. The new features include a new look, personalization, a security checkpoint, alert information and more. I am sure Bank of America has been dealing with spoofed emails for some time now, so hopefully these changes will reduce security headaches and help stop the spammers.

The first educational email from Bank of America draws attention to the forthcoming  changes:

The second educational email from B-of-A explains the new features in more detail:

This is a strong campaign, especially for a company dealing with sensitive customer information like B-of-A. It is critical for financial institutions to set expectations for their customers so that the customers themselves are aware of what they are receiving, and can therefore recognize unauthorized emails more easily.

What do you think about the changes Bank of America has made? Do you think an email redesign will slow down the spammers? What else should businesses do to stop spammers? Share your thoughts!

The conversation went like this:

Salesperson: Here is the size 11 you had asked for.
Me: Thanks.
Salesperson: Do you use email?
Me: Yes.
Salesperson: Would you like to sign-up for our email program and get 10% off?
Me: Sure.
He hands me a pen and a sign-up form and continues talking.
Salesperson: Email is great because we save money by sending less mailers and we can pass those savings onto our customers. You will receive your welcome email and 10% off coupon in about 24 hours.
Me: Great.

I scribbled my email address on the form and handed it back to the salesperson.

Here is a look at the three inch by two inch sign-up form.

Big-5 did a great job.

• The sales person asked the right questions and provided just enough information to seal the deal.

• He was not overbearing or annoying.

• He had the form and a working pen at the ready.

• He verified the email address once I gave it to him.

• The form was clear and easy to understand.

• If I did not provide an email address in the store but kept the form, I could always sign-up at a later date online.

Well done!

Here is the welcome I received as promised in about 24 hours.  The subject line, which has the potential for improvement, was Subscription Notification.


Do you have any POS (Point of Sale) real-life stories? Please share them with us!

The specialty kitchenware retailer and culinary mecca, Sur La Table, recently updated their email header text.  The new text not only follows header text best practices, but it also conserves precious email real-estate, and looks great.

Here is the updated header text. Notice the links are all clickable and are in one line at the top of the email.

Here is the original header text.  The text is not all click-able, is a bit long-winded, and takes up valuable, above the fold, vertical real-estate.

What do you think about these updates?  Have you updated your header text?  Please share your experiences and thoughts with us!

Be sure to make new subscribers feel welcome by sending an appropriate and timely welcome message (and maybe an offer) to them. Or better yet, design an entire welcome series of emails. A welcome series is a string of welcome emails that not only says hello to the new subscriber but also can provide them more information about your brand and what you offer.

Regardless of whether you create one welcome message or a whole welcome series for your customers, be sure to take these 10 best practices into account:

1. Thank customers for providing their contact information
2. Send the welcome email as quickly as possible
3. Confirm source of acquisition (kiosk, POS/store, eCommerce, email sign up, etc.)
4. Test the inclusion of an offer or coupon in the welcome email
5. Accurately and creatively introduce your brand identity
6. Set expectations as to the types of emails your new subscribers will receive and how often they will receive them
7. Provide a link to “My Account” or “My Preferences”
8. Provide a link to white listing instructions in the email
9. Provide links to a store locator when appropriate
10. Test the inclusion of lifestyle or product imagery in the email

Below are four examples of welcome emails that treat the welcome process slightly differently:

• One simply welcomes the subscriber and introduces the brand.
• Another offers free shipping and asks for the subscriber’s gender.
• A third features an in-store/online offer.
• The fourth includes an offer and previews emails you might expect to receive.

Subject Line: Welcome to Eddie Bauer Email.
Sender: Eddie Bauer

Subject Line: A Gift to Welcome You to Bluefly
Sender: Bluefly

Subject Line: Here’s a Welcome Gift for you!
Sender: Hanna Andersson

Subject Line: Welcome to Frederick’s Newsletter
Sender: Frederick’s of Hollywood