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
