Email Marketing by the Numbers: How to Use the World’s Greatest Marketing Tool to Take Any Organization to the Next Level

Some Emails Are More Prone to Engagement Than Others

Of course you want to know what kind, so you can deliver more of these messages and optimize what you include in them. Here they are:

• Transactional email: Transactional email is a huge wasted opportunity when it comes to marketing. Many people associate transactional email with a purchase, but it can be a follow-up to any type of interaction. This could be a response to a phone call, a meeting, event attendance, or other contact. Recipients are nearly guaranteed to engage with the email (as long as it is timely and relevant) because it is a follow-up to something pertinent to them.

  A few months ago, I bought a 42-inch plasma television online. It was from a company I found on Shopping.com, and one I’d never done business with. This company did a good job acquiring me for this one time purchase... but then what? Shouldn’t they want to have a further relationship with me? Well, let’s judge that by the transactional email they sent me.

  I received three lines of text in an email confirmation acknowledging my order. It gave me a tracking number. It asked me not to reply to the email. That’s right—it said, “Please don’t respond to this email.” This company has no information about me other than the TV I just purchased. Don’t they find this frustrating? They spent all this money to find me, and they’ve missed a huge opportunity for a potential long-term relationship.

  What if they had included a survey within the confirmation email? What ...