sendwithus dead end transactional email optimization for sendgrid delivered
DESCRIPTION
At sendwithus we see the majority of transactional emails are actually a "dead end". In this talk I covered why dead end emails happen, how it's crucial for an online business to fix them, and how to identify any dead-end email you might be sending. I also cover how to optimize transactional email for opens/clicks, and different strategies for engaging transactional email. A fundamental thesis in this talk is that transactional email is an extension of your product, and it should be treated with the same care. Your email experience needs to match your product experience, and in truth, your transactional email should be owned by your customer-facing teams (marketers).TRANSCRIPT
Dead-End Transactional Email
Matt Harris sendwithus.com
@mrmch
Hi, I’m Matt
● From Canada (Victoria, BC)
● CEO/founder sendwithus.com
● SendGrid partner
● Over 10 years experiencebuilding web products
Objectives
● Show what dead-end emails are
● Why they’re important to your business
● Provide a few examples of good and bad emails
● Explain how to fix bad emails
Transactional Email● One to one
● Very important to user engagement
● Closely tied to actions in your website or product
● People like it
Transactional Email :(
● We often see “dead-end” emails
Definition: dead-end email“An email that does not containa clear call to action or nextstep for your user.”
Why do dead-end emails matter?
● Part of your users website workflow● Discontinuous experience
Dead-end emails create poor user experiences
How does this happen?Marketer owned landing page Developer owned email
How does this happen?
Landing Page● owned by marketer● optimized for
engagement● customer-centric
Transactional Email● owned by developer● focus is information● information-centric
Example: Welcome Email
Details: Welcome Email
● very hard email to read● no call to action
● very clear goal, “click the blue link”
Example: Notification Email
Details: Notification Email
● no call to action● unclear purpose
● clear context● direct call to action
Example: Payment Receipt
Details: Payment Receipt
● no call to action● broken formatting
● clear call to action● good presentation of
information● AirBnb has clearly put
effort into this email
How to identify dead-end email
High Low
High Yay! Subject
Low Body, CTA Subject, Body, CTA
Open Rate
Clic
k R
ate
Granular analytics, per email template
High Low
High Yay! Subject
Low Body, CTA Subject, Body, CTA
Open Rate
Clic
k R
ate
Granular analytics, per email template
High Low
High Yay! Subject
Low Body, CTA Subject, Body, CTA
Open Rate
Clic
k R
ate
Granular analytics, per email template
High Low
High Yay! Subject
Low Body, CTA Subject, Body, CTA
Open Rate
Clic
k R
ate
How to identify dead-end email
Visual Identification
Ask yourself:
● Is it clear who this email is from?
● Is it clear what my next step is?
● Is there an opportunity for me to engage further?
Increase Open Rate
Increase Click Rate
One last thing - A/B test!● Don’t assume. Test.● Treat email like a landing page● Email is complicated, you can test
○ subject line○ intro text○ body style○ headings○ call to action
Wrapping up
● Email is an extension of your product● Email experience has to match product● Identify dead-ends● Put your customer-focused team in control● Test everything
