What are Email Confirmations, and Why Are They Important?

Mar 2, 2023
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Transactional emails are an important part of email marketing as they allow businesses to interact with customers and subscribers at different stages of their customer journeys.

They also help businesses nurture customer relationships and deliver a complete buyer’s journey. One type of transaction email is the confirmation email.

What is a Confirmation Email?

A confirmation email is a transaction email sent to a customer or subscriber, depending on their actions. An email confirmation can be sent for any number of customer actions, including signing up, sending the business an email, completing an order, event registration or ticket booking.

Customers expect confirmation emails for necessary actions like subscribing and completing orders. They can help create a great first impression, pressure the recipient of the actions they took and help build trust. A business is not expected to send all types of transaction or confirmation emails, but it is at least expected to send ones for important actions.

The Elements of a Confirmation Email

Businesses send confirmation emails for different types of transactions, so there is no single template for all email confirmation emails. However, some elements should be included in all confirmation emails, and they have:

  • A recognised “From” name and a catchy subject line.
  • An on-brand email design that includes brand colours and a logo.
  • Personalisation – Greeting the customer by name and using their name where appropriate.
  • Relevant information – This could include the order number and summary or shipping information like the method and address, depending on the email.
  • The next step – Let the customer know what happens next, what they need to do or what the business will do.
  • A call to action – Ideally, one.
  • Support information – This allows customers to get in touch with the business if they need to.
  • Extra information – This is an extra section for things like rewards, referral programmes, recommendations and other information the customer might be interested in.

Let us now look at why sending an email confirmation is so important.

An Email Confirmation is Reassuring

Imagine you have found a great deal on something you have wanted for a long time. You order it and then check your email to see if you got the deal, only not to find a confirmation email. You will be rightly confused, wondering if the transaction was completed and whether you need to order the product again.

The lack of a confirmation email can be incredibly frustrating and confusing and can cause a customer not to want to order from your store again. Setting up an automated confirmation email is so easy today as businesses can use the different tools and services available. Because of this, there is no reason why a business cannot implement automated confirmation emails for all transactions.

Connect with Subscribers When You Send a Confirm Email

There are many reasons why people subscribe to mailing lists. Regardless of their reasons, those who subscribe expect value, respect and remarkable content from you occasionally. Not providing all of these can lead to your conversations suffering and higher-than-normal bounce rates, and low email open rates.

Instead of spamming your subscribers with emails they may not find useful, you should send them helpful emails that help you build relationships with your customers and subscribers. Doing so makes converting them to paying customers much easier because they will get value from whatever deals and promotions you tell them about.

Email Confirmations Move Customers Along the Journey

Even though many businesses send one-time confirmation emails, this does not mean you have to do so too. You can use automation email confirmations to engage with your customers as you move them through the customer journey.

The three types of confirmation emails that help you do this include:

  • Payment confirmation
  • Shipping confirmation
  • Delivery confirmation

These types of emails provide important touchpoints that can benefit the business in the future. For example, they can help increase brand awareness among customers if you use brand elements like colours, logos, and fonts in the emails.

They can also serve as crucial mediums for keeping your brand in the minds of customers, so they are a lot more likely to think about your business when looking to purchase additional products.

A Confirmation of Email is Great for Business Relationships

Email confirmations should not only be for marketing-related activities and actions, as they can also be crucial for business relationships. A confirmation of email is a confirmation email a business sends to say it has received an email from a customer or other business partner.

A confirmation of email is especially important if the business owner or person to whom the email is addressed cannot reply to the email immediately. It reassures the sender that their communication has been received and acknowledged and that someone will attend to it soon.

Sending such an email also shows that you care about the emails you receive and take all forms of communication seriously. Remember that people want to feel acknowledged when they reach out; sending this type of email helps achieve this.

Confirmation Emails Provider Additional Marketing Opportunities

Confirmation emails have a very high open rate because people expect them and want to know what they contain, what will happen next and what additional steps they need to take, if any. Because of this, they provide additional marketing opportunities for businesses that can take advantage of them.

Take advantage of people’s curiosity and the high open rate to drive engagement by upselling add-ons, suggesting related products and cross-selling.

If you do this, you should ensure that your confirmation emails are transactional emails first and marketing emails second. This means that the bulk of the email should contain the confirmation information customers seek. Below that, you can include engagement and marketing messages such as:

  • Asking for feedback or reviews – You can ask about the purchase and checkout process so you can use this information to improve things.
  • Offering a discount – Doing this can help you increase sales as people are more likely to become repeat shoppers if they know they will get a good discount with their next purchase.
  • Links to your social media, other profiles or websites, so customers know how to reach and engage further with you if they wish.

Types of Confirmation Emails

Now that you know what confirmation emails are and what they are important, what types of confirmation emails can you send?

E-commerce Confirmation Emails

This is perhaps the most common type of email confirmation. This category includes other types of email confirmations, such as:

  • Order confirmation emails – Sent after the customer completes the checkout process.
  • Shipping confirmation – Sent once the product or package ships.
  • Delivery confirmation – Sent after the successful delivery of products or packages.
  • Download confirmation – Sometimes, the customer needs to download their purchase like a book, ticket, or gift card.

Registration Confirmation

As the name suggests, businesses send this type of information after a customer registers for a service or subscribes to an email newsletter.

Cancellation confirmation emails also fall under this category. Just like businesses try as hard as possible to make it easier for people to subscribe to their lists or register for a service, they should also make it easy to unsubscribe or rescind their application. This email is what comes after they do any of the two.

The cancellation confirmation email is typically the last chance the business has to win back the customer or to find out what happened to ensure it does not happen again with other customers.

Event and Local Service Confirmations

These emails provide the necessary details about an appointment. They can include the time, location, and other details the customer should know. Ideally, they should allow the customer to add the event to their calendar.

Tickets and access to webinars may also be included in event confirmation emails if that is what the customer bought or signed up for.

Travel Confirmation Emails

As with e-commerce confirmation emails, this category has different types of emails. They include:

  • Accommodation booking
  • Flight confirmation emails

Many people get anxious about travelling and want to know that all details are finalised before they leave home. Sending these types of emails is reassuring, provides your customers with all the information they need about their flight or accommodation, and helps them with their planning.

Confirmation Email Automation

Because of the different types of confirmation emails you have to send, it would be best to automate the process. The good news is that most email services and tools help you automate these types of emails.

Once you create your emails and templates using the elements described above, you only need to load everything up and let the service do everything for you. Do test different scenarios to see if your customers will receive the correct email after taking action.

It is your turn to start thinking about creating the right confirmation emails for your business. Consider customers’ actions on your website, see which require confirmation, and then create the right emails for each scenario and action.

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