TRANSACTIONAL EMAILS VS COMMERCIAL EMAILS

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Understanding the Difference

Whether you send transactional or commercial emails, making sure your message is seen and leaves an impact is crucial. What's the difference? Transactional emails are sent to a recipient in response to a specific user action. Commercial emails are advertisements sent to a user in an effort to raise awareness, promote engagement, or close a deal.

Ensure your messages reach your recipients and stay out of the spam folder whether you're sending a transactional or marketing email by following some simple best practices.

Transactional Emails

This type of email is a message sent after a user interacts with a website or another digital element.

Types

• Password changes.
• Legal notices.
• Acceptable use policy updates.
• Electronic receipts.
• Delivery confirmations.

Characteristics

• User activities serve as triggers and not their explicit consent.
• Whitelisting of sending IP addresses used for transactional email is not required.
• While not strictly necessary, feedback loops are a good practice.
• Using responsive design when creating transactional emails promotes multi-platform readability.
• Enhancing deliverability and providing transparency to the message and sender are achieved through clear branding in the sender address and subject line.

Commercial Emails

These emails are sent to a list of recipients who have opted in to receive them.

Types

• Sales promotions.
• Third-party offers.
• Event invitations.
• Newsletters.
• Product updates and announcements.

Characteristics

• Double opt-in subscription processes form the basis of good commercial email practices.
• Whitelisting of IPs used for sending commercial email is required.
• Subscribe to all offered ISP lists to stay updated on email best practices.
• Consider responsive email design for improved multi-platform rendering.
• To increase user engagement, use commercial subject lines and a clearly identified "From" address.