Why does transactional email matter?

Just in time for the holidays: deliver valuable brand engagements with post-purchase journeys

We’re about to go into what is the busiest time of year for most online retailers, and so the latest addition to the dotdigital integration for BigCommerce merchants couldn’t be better timed.

From October 21st all BigCommerce merchants with dotdigital Engagement Cloud accounts can access a library of beautifully branded transactional email templates, pre-loaded with code that personalizes the content for that recipient and order. 

“What is transactional email”, we hear you ask? In essence, this could be any communication that is triggered by an important store event. For example, when a new account is created or when an order is made. Black Friday and the holiday seasons that follows is a great opportunity to acquire new customers. Keeping them engaged and driving that loyalty-inducing next purchase, is a different matter. And this is where post-purchase marketing comes in. Keep reading as we dive into the often overlooked world of transactional email below.

Why does transactional email matter?

Marketing for ecommerce success is about more than getting your customer to cart. To be a successful marketer and drive repeat purchases, you must consider the whole customer lifecycle. After all, it is more cost effective to retain customers than to just attract new ones. This is where post-sale marketing and building lasting relationships with customers really comes into play. The emails that your customers are sent automatically to provide them with order updates are another brand touchpoint. All too often these are not in-sync with your other communications, and off brand. You get the point - not putting your best foot forward after you’ve won them over doesn’t leave a good or a lasting impression. 

Done well, transactional emails can have a huge impact on how your customers perceive the service you’ve delivered to them, plus it’s an opportunity to stand out from the rest, with an increase in loyalty and customer lifetime value as the result.

Now, it’s that easy.

Making your automatic transactional emails beautifully branded can often slip to the bottom of a priority list for many marketers. Especially when there are so many to create. It can feel like a nice to have, and most marketers know they should do something about it, but it’s typically time-consuming to address. Until now.

With dotdigital’s transactional email manager, you’re just a few clicks away from sending beautiful post-purchase campaigns that deliver.

• You’ll be asked to upload your logo, brand colors and font, and footer copy. That’s all we need.
• Next, you get to select which types of emails you want to trigger. 
• And that is it! You can preview the templates, customize them even further, or setup a different campaign to trigger in that event altogether. 
• One last thing, so that customers don’t get duplicate emails at each stage, you’ll probably want to disable the automatic emails being sent out by BigCommerce. All transactional emails sent via Engagement Cloud use our dedicated highest reputation delivery systems managed by our in-house team of deliverability and delivery experts. This ensures the best inbox placement and delivery rates, with over 90% of emails being delivered within one minute.

Tips and trick for creating personalized experiences with post-purchase emails

Turn transactional emails into another valuable opportunity to delight your customers, highlight complementary products or services, and deliver better end-to-end experiences altogether.

• Say Thank You. This seems obvious, but how you say it can make a difference. This is where you can great creative with messaging and imagery.
• Actions speak louder than words. Say Thank You with a coupon code that they can redeem against their next order.
• And finally, transactional emails are a great place to tell customers how your support team is always-on. Remind them of service hours, and where to speak to someone over live chat if you offer this line of communication.

About dotdigital for BigCommerce 

dotdigital is a leader in omnichannel marketing automation technology. dotdigital’s Engagement Cloud is the platform of choice for businesses seeking to engage customers across all touchpoints. The platform’s features empower 4,000+ brands across 150 countries to acquire, convert, and retain customers. Users can connect customer data, surface powerful insights, and automate intelligent messages across email, SMS, social, and more. dotdigital is a global company with over 350 employees, serving companies of all sizes and in all verticals for over 20 years.

dotdigital Engagement Cloud for BigCommerce brings customer engagement to the forefront. So you can work faster, smarter, and achieve greater results. The joint forces of BigCommerce and dotdigital unlock the full potential of your store-side data. Deliver intelligent marketing messages to more shoppers, that will keep them coming back.

To learn more about dotdigital for BigCommerce, visit:https://dotdigital.com/integrations/bigcommerce