We often see designers and marketers focus their efforts on newsletters and sales blasts rather than transactional emails. This is often due to limitations within their shopping carts, and sometimes due to a lack of time. As we have discussed, transactional emails are a missed opportunity and it all begins with the order confirmation. To maximize the available opportunity, here are some tips and tricks to ensure you are sending out the best possible order confirmation.

1.Branding, branding, branding

We have all experienced a bad order confirmation like the one shown here. It isn’t recognizable in any way. At first glance, it is difficult to determine which online store this email is from. This is because of an utter lack of branding. The email does not emulate the company’s image. Not only is this an ugly email, sparse and unidentifiable emails often create a sense of uneasiness with customers who are fearful of having their identity stolen in a hack.

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Put a little extra effort in by adding your logo and some HTML.

2.Be Mobile Friendly

This seems like an obvious one, but many retailers don’t realize that their transactional emails aren’t optimized for mobile and tablet. With customers spending more and more time on mobile instead of desktop, it is imperative that all your emails, not just your marketing ones, are easy to read and interact with on mobile and tablet.

3. Include Valuable Content

We have discussed how order confirmation emails receive high open rates - in the 60-70% range - which makes them perfect for additional content. If you are launching a new product, send them to the pre-order page or a blog post about the upcoming release. Or if you are looking to send more traffic to your sale page, educate them on the great deal you are offering. Additional content in the order confirmation email may seem out of place, but it can be tremendously impactful.

4. Include an Opportunity to Review

Recent studies show that 55% of all customers find reading product reviews important before making a purchase, so it stands to reason that you should be encouraging your customers to leave reviews after purchasing your products. There is some debate over whether or not this should be offered after an order is confirmed or after the product has been delivered. Take into account that the customer may be a repeat buyer or be on a subscription. In these cases, asking for a product review in the order confirmation makes perfect sense. Plus, reviews from satisfied customers will boost your credibility and increase sales. And don’t forget to thank your customers for the purchase as well as for leaving a review!

5. Product Recommendations

You already know that a customer is interested in your products once they have purchased from you. Perhaps they are looking to make another purchase, whether that be more of the consumable you offer, or a matching pair of earrings to go with the bracelet you sold them. Provide them with information that they will find valuable based on their previous purchases

6. Get Social!

Growing your social communities is a daunting task. There are millennials all over the world working tirelessly to increase their company’s online community. Keeping that in mind, it makes sense to include a simple “Follow Us” in your order confirmation emails. Furthermore, you can incentivize them by letting them know about special offers and discounts available only through social channels.

Of course there are other actions you can take to improve your order confirmations, but if you are just starting the optimization process, these seven tips are a great place to start!

Check back in a couple weeks for more information on transactional emails and how to use them to increase your revenue.