Transactional e-mail

Transactional email writing, following the usual structure, and adapting the content to its context and format.

Table of contents

• Problem

• Good practices

• E-mail: deadline reminder

• Spanish

Language

Problem

Being a transactional email, it does not have a commercial purpose, but rather seeks to inform in the clearest and most concise way possible.

I have taken the following aspects into account when writing this e-mail:

• The message should be clear, concise and useful.

• Technical terms or jargon will make it harder to understand.

• Spelling and grammar should be correct.

• The message should be personalised, whenever possible, and there should be access to an up-to-date database.

• The structure: subject, pre-header, body and call to action.

• I have not included commercial images because I have not considered them necessary for the message.

Good practices

E-mail: deadline reminder

The user is finishing a postgraduate degree at Shifta University and should receive an e-mail reminding her that the deadline for her final paper is approaching.

Setting

Sender

“Shifta by Elisava ”

In order to make it easily identifiable, and to increase the trust and open rate of the message, the sender is the name of the university.

Paragraph

"Hello Ana, we remind you that the last day to submit your postgraduate final paper will be: March 25th at 23:00 (CEST)".

The message begins with a personalized greeting, to improve the connection with the user.

I then clearly explain the key piece of information: the due date. In the date I have included the day, month, year, and time zone, to avoid confusion with students who are taking the postgraduate course online from another country.

"When you have the document ready, you can upload it in pdf format, by accessing the virtual campus".

The next thing to do is to inform you of the format and the place where the work is to be delivered.

At this point I include the CTA, which invites the user to submit the paper now.

"If you need help or have any questions, do not hesitate to contact your tutor or teachers".

And finally I invite her to get in touch if she needs help, showing the helpful and supportive nature of a university.

Pre-header

"Reminder of the deadline for the final paper".

In the subject line I explain very clearly what the email is about. I start with the key word "reminder" and then explain what we are reminding them about.

Subject

"Pre-header: 5 days left to submit your postgraduate final paper".

The pre-header acts as a preview of the e-mail, so I use it to expand the subject line with the most important detail: how much time is left until the deadline.