You make an appointment for regular car maintenance and receive a confirmation email. Or, you order something online and get an order number, summary and status. From receipt acknowledgements (“Thanks for applying. We’ll get back to you. Or not.”) to account alerts (“Hey, are you in Turkey? Because that’s where your last credit card transaction took place, soooo … ”), automated emails for these transactions are a common form of customer communication for many businesses. While they usually inform customers of transactional milestones, they also contribute to customers’ overall impression and experience of your business and brand. Auto-generated emails are handy, often easy to personalize and create a paper trail for both you and your customers. However, they’re also often overlooked opportunities for consumer engagement.
Transactional emails are no longer limited to transactional language. Much like TV commercials and even product packaging, the boundaries of the written voice are expanding into more conversational and often humorous iterations. Naturally, accuracy and personalization are must-haves, but think about automated emails written with the same warmth, wit, authority, sentimentality (or any other attribute you can think of) as your website or other marketing emails that reflect your brand personality.*
There’s no reason these standard letters or transactional milestone messages can’t be awesome, with your voice, brand and even products and services represented front and center. Check out these examples of common automated emails and our thoughts on how we’d use good copy, design or many other tricks up our sleeve to improve them—and with minimal time and effort.
*Please note that all emails are marketing emails. Every communication you email your customers is a marketing email, because it shapes their experience of your brand, and plants the seeds for future interactions, for better or worse. Perhaps you assume that customers don’t pay much attention to auto-generated emails because they immediately recognize them as “form letters” more or less, but people do read them. And even if the vast majority don’t, use this touch point as an opportunity to build the relationship with those that do, rather than leave no impression or a less than stellar one. Smart communication efforts work overtime. They don’t inform, but market your product or service. Why spend the time and money on automated emails if you’re not squeezing every dollar out of those interactions? It can be as simple as adding a few lines of text at the bottom, but it really pays off when your customers think of their end-to-end experience of dealing with your business.
Now, let’s get to a few samples.
Shipment Confirmation: Great. So what?
The fact that my order is on its way is implicit in the “Shipping Confirmation” and order number included in the subject line (a nice bit of automation gives me a key piece of information right there in the subject line, but that’s a whole other post). This company’s products are inherently fun and adorable, so why shouldn’t their standard shipment email confirmation be written with a little bit of that levity? It’ll just be one more detail this company’s shoppers love about the experience. More is more!
Try “Details on your package—cuteness included.”
Or “Gah! We’re just know you’re gonna love it.”
Or “Get pumped, baby. Your stuff is coming.”
Appointment Reminder: Oh. I can hardly wait.
Indeed, I stand reminded. For context, I’m a loyal Honda owner. I’m on my sixth Honda, in fact. So I would love to see a little more appreciation in this business’s voice. Additionally, the experience of going to this dealership for regular maintenance is really outstanding. The environment (reliable Wi-Fi, cookies, beverages, cooking shows on large flat-screen TVs) plus the customer service make this tedious little errand one of my absolute faves. So, it’s somewhat odd to me—perhaps because I’m paying more attention than the average consumer—that these emails aren’t just as polished as the in-person experience of this business. Why not use this regular touchpoint as an opportunity to solidify that relationship, or at a minimum, to show your loyal customer more overt gratitude while you have them?
Try “Reunited and it feels so good. We can’t wait to welcome your Honda Odyssey back for its regular maintenance appointment.”
Or “Thank you for your continued business. As always, please enjoy complimentary cookies and Wi-Fi while you wait.”
Or “Bring this email with you for a 25% off a mini-detailing. Only 20 extra minutes added to your appointment and you’ll drive off feeling like new.”
Payment Confirmation: You paid. Good for you.
There’s so much “meh” about this, I’m not sure where to start. I get it. This company deals in financial transactions, so they’re accustomed to keeping their automated emails all just-the-facts-ma’am. But at a minimum, they could be using this space to advertise—even if it’s in a text-only format that’s subtle and informative—the other products, services or assistance that customers have access to. And at a bare minimum, this company should be making sure their subject lines are complete sentences and/or meaningful to customers. “SLFC OneTimeACH” means next to nothing to me. One quick way to fix this is to spell stuff out in the subject line and drop the company’s logo (rookie mistake!) into the body of the message, preferably somewhere near the top.
Try “Did you know you can reduce your rate by paying automatically? Learn more.”
Or “Have questions ? Contact Lisa, your account manager, to get them answered.” (link would then ideally go to a phone agent trained in cross-sales.)
Or “You have XXX payments left on this loan. Keep going!” (This would involve an extra bit of code, but it’s so right on so many levels. It encourages prompt payments while positively reinforcing them, and adds warmth and conversation to an otherwise cold and transactional email. Easy!)
Bonus tip: Me no reply? No, YOU no reply.
Automated emails should avoid any “do not reply” language, whether it’s in their email addresses or the body of their emails.
For example, my husband recently received an email with this as the subject line: Thank You For Your Purchase[DO NOT REPLY TO THIS E-MAIL]
Ouch. This is something of an old school practice used long before modern technology addressed the issue of unattended or unmanageable corporate email boxes. To respond to customers who still write back to these messages, a simple auto-reply with friendly language and the proper contact information should be established. What a waste of good subject line real estate! It could have been used for an order number, first and last name or pretty much anything other than an all-caps (yelling!) directive to not reply. Email has been around long enough that I’d venture to guess a lot of people know that hitting “reply” is a no-go.
All that’s really required in maximizing your automated emails is your own thoughts about the breadth of your communications, who they’re going to at which points in the transaction, and the opportunities you might be missing each time one hits an inbox. Remember to broaden your definition of “opportunities” beyond conversions, leads or even anything directly sales related. Every time you connect to inform or otherwise enhance the experience of your customer, you are investing in future sales. Sure, there are many ways to measure and quantify the success of your automated email enhancements, but for those areas less easily analyzed, know that for minimal time, effort and expense, you are in one small way or another, influencing your customers. In other words, make sure all of your emails have their “game face” on at all times.
Make all of your standard emails work harder and give us a shout today to get started on the simple plan.
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