Marketing Email vs. Transactional Email: Differences, Benefits, and Examples

Marketing Email vs. Transactional Email: Differences, Benefits, and Examples

Email marketing is a great marketing platform where an organization uses the means of e-mail to promote their business and products. Email marketing service is facilitated through the exchange of informative content about the products with the customers. Also, Email Marketing Campaign Service is one way to ensure relationship building with the customers.

Email campaign management service is a lot more productive for increasing brand awareness and revenue than traditional methods. Customized emails to the customers help with customer-brand engagement. Reaching out for promotional offers and sales also helps with lead generation. These leads eventually turn into potential customers. Email marketing management also helps with the retention of information about products for customers.

There are two major ways of email marketing campaign services. One includes marketing emails, and the other includes transactional emails. Both of the emails help with the generation of potential leads and potential customers.

Marketing Email vs. Transactional Email

With the advent of digitalization of small and big businesses, email marketing is growing in popularity. There are different types of emails that are used, such as cold emails, promotional messages, transactional emails, and marketing emails. All these emails share much in common, and there is very little difference between them. Here we will look at some of the basic differences between marketing and transactional email.

Marketing Email, as the name suggests, is fundamentally used for the purpose of email marketing services. They are broad messages that are sent from one-to-many client profiles. These emails are used to promote, generate leads, and make sales. On the other hand, transactional emails services are the ones that are used to update the user or customers of the organization about their profile. They are trigger-based, that is, they are triggered or sent in reaction to a user’s action or preference.

Another fundamental difference is that to send a marketing email, an organization requires a valid email address, while no valid email address is required to send a transactional email. Marketing emails usually involve the sending of abroad cast message through an email marketing platform, while transactional emails are specific and target-based. If a business platform launches a Diwali sale, the promotional offers will be broadcast through email marketing service. However, the forgotten password and order updates from the same business platforms are tailored for the customers.

Major Examples

To understand the difference between transactional email and marketing email, let us study the examples.

A common example of the use of both types of mail happens in e-commerce platforms. Let us say that we purchased a household product from one of the many diverse online shopping platforms. The order updates and the transactional details will be sent by the online shopping platform as emails. These emails that are required to complete a process are known as transactional emails.

However, in your email account, there is a separate column of promotions wherein you will receive the marketing emails from the same platforms. These marketing emails are usually promotional messages or surveys used to increase customer engagement. Marketing emails involve digests, newsletters, product catalogues, and information about special offers. Email marketing campaign services can be very persuasive and may seem tailored to one’s personality.

However, despite the differences, there is a common structural layout for both the marketing and transactional emails. Both  sets of emails should contain clear and defined features. These features are defined ‘from’ line. Another common feature should be targeted subject lines. In marketing emails, the subject should state the major details of the offer. In transactional emails, the subject should define the purpose, such as "order update" or "forgot password". To increase brand recognition, both sets of mail should clearly address the organization and its unique identity. There should also be a personal connection established with the customers.

Hence, with differences, there are also some similarities between transactional and marketing email services.

Benefits of Marketing Email and Transactional Emails

  • Brand Visibility: Marketing emails effectively contribute to an organization's overall brand image and visibility. There is also leverage for the brand when there is a mixture of the right proportion of transactional and marketing emails. When used     strategically, both categories of emails help in the generation of potential customers, inquiry into existing customers' databases and insights, and quality customer interface. The emails are used for the growth and visibility of the brand and monetization of a simple marketing strategy.
  • Increase in Sales: Marketing emails include promotional offers, catalogues, digests, and newsletters. Such emails are usually sent after the customer gives permission through the opt-in check boxes. Customers are interested in the merchandise or service offered after receiving these offers and discounts. The follow-up email option can be used by them. These help with the generation of leads and the acquisition of potential customers. Hence, marketing emails help with the overall sales of the organization.

  • The Subtle Benefits of Transactional Emails: Transactional email services usually include emails that are used to complete an action or a process. The benefits of transactional emails are hence not clearly defined. However, there are different ways in which these transactional email services subtly help with the marketing and sales of products and services as well. The marketing team and the developers nowadays work together using HTML and codes to generate templates for transactional     emails. These templates can be tailored in a way that will help to subtly present the products and increase the brand's visibility. For example, when sending an order update, the organization could add an additional reference to another product. (If you found this satisfactory, you need to consider this as well.) Transactional emails can also have additional features such as surveys or referrals to learn more about the customers and their preferences. Transactional emails can also include links to support pages, forums, and customer care portals to increase the quality of a customer’s experience.

To conclude, email marketing services are increasingly becoming the need of the hour, especially with the advent of digital work spaces. It is not possible to distinguish clearly between the use of transaction emails and marketing emails. The difference between the two are too small and both hold equal value and advantage to small, local and big businesses alike.