Email Marketing News
Transactional emails 'must be more usable'
Tuesday, 21 October 2008Businesses must do more to ensure that transactional email messages are as usable and relevant as possible.
This is according to usability expert Jakob Nielsen, who wrote in his latest Alertbox column that new studies by his organisation show that the user experience offered by transactional messages has remained poor over the last five years.
He explained that this form of email marketing still seems to be dominated by vague subject lines that prompt users to think the messages are spam, as well as overly long and confusing body text.
Mr Nielsen stressed the importance of placing the most relevant information - such as confirmation of an order or shipping - at the top of the message, with any promotional text preferably located lower down.
"Confirmation email and other automated transactional messages are great for connecting a website with its customers and for closing the loop in e-commerce and other transactions. Just remember: email is a user interface," he commented.
A recent study by JupiterResearch for StrongMail Systems suggested that adding promotional messages to transactional emails can increase annual revenues by up to $2.9 million (£1.7 million).