Commercial vs. Transactional Emails: 5 Powerful Ways to Optimize Your Message

What would your email marketing team do with $650,000?

Whether you’re a hundred-strong team or a scrappy team of one, that’s a lot of moolah.

That’s the amount of an FTC settlement against Experian Consumer Services for violating CAN-SPAM by confusing transactional and commercial emails. The issue was not that their emails included colorful designs or even that it included information about Experian products.

It was that they did not allow members to opt-out of their emails.

Don’t make the same mistake.

Your transactional emails aren’t a place for promoting upcoming deals, products, or partnerships—but they don’t have to be boring missives full of legalese, either. Ahead, we’ll talk through the differences between commercial and transactional emails (and how best to optimize them):

What is a transactional email?

Transactional emails are messages that relate to the exchange of goods and services—specifically, ecommerce emails like receipts, shipping confirmations, invoices, password reset requests, support interactions, or legal notices. Basically, if it feels like it’s a “boring” email, it’s probably transactional in nature.

 Source: Really Good Emails

The FTC calls these “transactional or relationship content,” and defines it as an “email which facilitates an already agreed-upon transaction or updates a customer about an ongoing transaction.”

Don’t get confused by the word “relationship” in this definition.

The relationship it refers to is limited in scope. If a customer engages with your support team in a chat, the system automatically sends them a transcript of the conversation. Or if someone books a room at a hotel, they’ll receive a confirmation of that booking alongside any other relevant information to their upcoming stay.

But that’s it—no more emails unless they’re directly related to that specific transaction. This applies to subscriptions and memberships, too.

The difference between commercial and transactional emails

Commercial emails are the bread-and-butter promotional messages you send every day as an email marketer—whether that’s newsletters, deals, product launches or recommendations, giveaways, or invitations.

The FTC defines it as “an email with the primary purpose of promoting a commercial good or service.” Basically, if you’re sending an email with the hopes that someone will make a purchase from you, it’s commercial. (And yes, top-of-funnel content counts.)

Source: Really Good Emails

What makes transactional email special, besides that it relates specifically to the exchange of goods and services, is that anyone can receive it—whether they’ve subscribed to your emails or not. Legally, transactional emails also do not need to include an unsubscribe link.

5 ways to optimize transactional emails (+ transactional email examples)

But wait! Yes, transactional emails don’t require consent… but that doesn’t mean it’s a green light to bombard them with more promotional content.

Transactional emails must have their primary purpose focus on the specific transaction, so you can’t write a one-sentence email confirmation above a spread for your next product launch.

Here’s how to optimize your transactional emails to achieve your business goals (without risking a CAN-SPAM violation):

1. Only include relevant information

Think about it more like an 80/20 rule. The majority of your email must be about the transaction at hand—the notification a product has shipped or the receipt from a recent purchase—but you can include a few other pieces of information.

For your transactional emails, keep it very, very low-key. Think one or two lines of copy or a single image block at the bottom of your email, and no more.

 Source: Really Good Emails

For example, this booking confirmation has a single block about their mobile app, which is a liiiittle bit on the promotional side. However, it makes sense for that stage in the customer journey, as it helps the person get ready to check-in, rather than advertising other properties or upselling on amenities.

2. Keep transactional emails on-brand

Just because it’s transactional doesn’t mean it has to be boring. You can absolutely use color and design for these emails, as long as those designs don’t take away from the primary message of that email.

Source: Really Good Emails

The most important element of a transactional email is the text, such as the receipt, confirmation, or other number.

But you don’t have to bury that information in too many images or text. Keep it simple, with a minimalistic version of your branding so that the important information is easy to see at-a-glance. This example above does a great job of using color and imagery without overwhelming the important message.

3. Add an opt-in message

Depending on the transactional message, someone may be receiving it without actually subscribing to receive your commercial emails. Make it easy for them to hop on to your email list with the option to subscribe in the email or a link to a preferences center.

 Source: Really Good Emails

This back-in-stock email straddles the line between promotional and transactional (if it was truly transactional, the block of trending products should be a little smaller, and you’ll see there is an unsubscribe link).But what stands out is the footer block: “Want early access? Sign up here”. It’s a great way to encourage guests to deepen their relationship with you.

You can also add a checkbox to subscribe at trigger points on your website, like at checkout or for a back-in-stock email like this one, so that they’re already on your list.

4. Make your transactional emails personalized

Transactional emails should stay true to their place in the customer journey. They’re meant to accomplish a specific task—deliver mission-critical information for a person who may or may not be a subscriber—and only that task.

That doesn’t mean you can’t zhuzh them up a little bit. A little “first name” personalization can’t hurt.But what we’re really talking about is including the important pieces of information they need to know: their order number, shipping confirmation number, reservation number, or other data from the transaction.

Source: Really Good Emails

You can also include recommended products based on their purchase—if you do so, keep it to one image block at the bottom of the email, like this example.

5. Keep your email designs minimal

Above all, don’t tempt fate by including too much information in a transactional email. If they’ve gotten this far in the journey with you to make a purchase, make a booking, or join a subscription, then they’re already interested in what you have to say.

That’s why your transactional emails should keep it minimalistic, both in design and in content.

 Source: Really Good Emails

This example does a great job of keeping the focus on the email message, clearly stating the order number at the top of the email, and including a link to browse their help forum in the meantime.

Why context matters for transactional emails

The true definition of a transactional email depends on the context. For example, while an abandoned cart email feels like it’s more transactional (it’s triggered by a behavior related to a purchase), because it occurs before the purchase takes place, it’s actually a promotional email.

 Source: Really Good Emails

But an automated welcome email that relates to account creation or permission? That can be transactional, depending on the product.

 Source: Really Good Emails

That doesn’t mean all welcome emails are transactional. Remember, even emails sent to community members or for subscription services, even if it takes place after a purchase, are often considered promotional. This welcome email, for example, is promotional:

 Source: Really Good Emails

Yes, it’s confusing! When in doubt, consider it a commercial email and add an unsubscribe link.

Don’t fear the unsubscribe

In the Litmus Community, we constantly get threads asking about whether an email needs to have an unsubscribe link. These questions are well-intentioned ways of figuring out what’s commercial and what’s transactional. But these email marketers are often asking these questions out of fear, not strategy.

Yes, technically, you don’t need to include an opt-out link in a transactional email…at least for your U.S.-based subscribers.

Legal and geographic technicalities aside, if someone doesn’t want to hear from you, let them go.

It’s much, much better to have folks unsubscribe than hang on to them and have them drag down your engagement—and potentially impact your deliverability. If you weren’t sure of the difference between these types of emails before reading this article, then a normal, non-email-geek certainly won’t. They’re much more likely to mark you as spam than understand why they can’t opt-out.With email clients like Gmail and Yahoo requiring one-click unsubscribes now anyway, it’s better to include an unsubscribe link.

Send better transactional emails with Litmus

Transactional emails have a “set it and forget it” reputation, but that’s not always the case. With Litmus, you can rest assured your tried-and-true transactional emails look great no matter where your customer is opening them—so you can breathe easy. See how we can help.