Leveraging Transactional E-Mails
Usability expert Jakob Nielsen recently published a study conducted in two phases, five years apart, of close to 100 transactional e-mails. The results aren’t pretty.
“Judging by many of the messages we tested, e-mail design often seems to be a side effect of the software implementation and consists of copy written by the programmer late at night,” he wrote.
“Alternatively (and even worse), some messages are hard-hitting, written by aggressive sales people without a true understanding of Internet marketing’s emphasis on relationship building.”
Besides order and service confirmations and shipment notifications, Nielsen said his firm also tested reservation confirmations and e-tickets; available-now notices; billing and payment notices; cancellations, returns, refunds, rebates, bonuses; information-request responses; government responses; customer-service messages; failure notices; and registration and account information.
“As the many message types show, transactional e-mail offers abundant opportunities for enhancing a site’s relationship with its customers,” he wrote.
Unfortunately, most companies are apparently failing to take advantage of the opportunity.
Nielsen also concluded that marketers’ use of transactional messages didn’t improve in the five years between the two studies.
“Transactional messages still exhibit the same problems as five years ago: subject lines are vague, and body text continues to be too long, difficult to scan, and lacking in clear facts,” he wrote.
Got an e-mail tip to share? Contact Ken Magill at [email protected]
