Improving the Buyer Experience (and ROI)Through Transactional Email

A White Paper from ZRinity, Inc.October 2007

Table of ContentsIntroduction......................................................................................................................................3

Problem ...........................................................................................................................................4

Hypothesis .......................................................................................................................................4

Methodology....................................................................................................................................4

Transactional Email Defined...........................................................................................................5

The Benefits of Transactional Email...............................................................................................7

Increased Communication...........................................................................................................7Improved Customer Loyalty.........................................................................................................7Brand Reinforcement...................................................................................................................8Cost Effectiveness........................................................................................................................8Conversion Rates.........................................................................................................................9Receivers Are Customers.............................................................................................................9Cross-sell and Up-sell..................................................................................................................9Increase In Revenue...................................................................................................................10

Proceed With Caution to Ensure Compliance...............................................................................10

The Must-Haves in Transactional Email.......................................................................................12

Content.......................................................................................................................................12Delivery......................................................................................................................................13

Handling the Back Office..............................................................................................................13

In-House Programs....................................................................................................................14Outsourcing................................................................................................................................14Agencies.....................................................................................................................................14Marketing Service Providers.....................................................................................................14

Final Note.......................................................................................................................................15

The Zrinity Approach to Transactional Email...............................................................................15

About Zrinity.................................................................................................................................17

Recently, Amy Day, Chief Marketing Officer for Cowtown Creative, went online to purchase a new printer from a Website she learned about through a friend. According to Amy, the site itself was very innovative. It had loads of interesting links, was able to make recommendations based on preferences she had defined, and the shopping basket/checkout experience was fairly seamless.

“I recently Purchased a Printer Online”

Amy has been ordering office supplies online for some time and knew that she could expect an email confirmation of her order once the checkout process was complete. True to form, the email appeared in her inbox within one hour of the transaction. However, when Amy opened the email, expecting to find a communication that was just as advanced as her online experience with the company, she was a little put off to find a rich text notification containing only a confirmation number, tracking information and her mailing address along with a vague disclaimer about returns.

She found this odd for the seemingly advanced online provider. In the recent past, after purchasing from other companies online, she had received a follow-up email that not only provided her with the details of each transaction, but also the opportunity to purchase products that may have been overlooked while placing the original order. In this case, the company would have received a positive response from Amy, who forgot to purchase toner for the printer.

“The verification email failed as a potential marketing tool and lost the company money.”

Amy found that by continuing to do business with the site meant extra steps in the buying process, including loading the site, entering the search information, as well as re-entering all of her order detail again. As a result, she opted to go with a large name brand toner manufacturer who already has her account on file and required a simple one-step order method.

“The company forced me to re-enter data, and was cumbersome.”

“The truth is, the service that I received from the online experience from this company was superb, but the fact that their back office process seemed to lag far behind that of its online presence has made me think twice about ordering from them again,” says Amy. “I’m not a fan of spam mail, but I don’t think of this type of transactional email that way – I think about it as an extension of the business transaction. I am familiar with them, I’ve placed an order with them, and I only expect they’ll want my business. Therefore, I also expect that they’ll remind me of potential cross-sells or complimentary

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products of that which I just ordered. Had the experience been more user-friendly on the back-end, they probably would have captured my ongoing business.”

“They lost add-on revenue by not making me the right offers at the right time, and they lost my return business.”

It’s a simple scenario, but it’s easy to see how the absence of such a tool from a company’s arsenal of marketing activities could equate to lost revenue from future and ongoing purchases. This is in addition to the failure to turn one-time customers into long-term customers due to the inability to capture their continued business when competing against other companies that simplify their shopping experience through the use of transactional email.

“Properly implemented follow up and transactional email, such as up-sells and ease of log in from the emails would have saved an account and generated additional revenue.”

It is this and similar experiences as the result of the disconnect between businesses and this form of marketing that this paper will address.

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Problem Identification According to a recent survey released by marketing software provider, Alterian, “Email marketing still apparently has a long way to go in terms of integration and analysis. Sixty-five percent of marketers surveyed said they don’t integrate email with their other sales channels.”i However, by not utilizing such a tool, companies do not truly benefit from the direct communication and face-to-face time that such tools provide. It is through the absence of useful tools such as transactional email that companies are losing a significant amount of customers and, in turn, revenue.

HypothesisThis paper will prove that through the utilization of transactional emails, as a marketing and communications tool, companies can position themselves to increase revenue, boost conversion rates and, as a direct result, receive a greater return on investment.

MethodologyIn order to ground our argument that transactional email is a fundamental and beneficial marketing and revenue tool for companies, we turn to several stats and survey results from top marketing analysts and email experts, as well as the experiences of various companies worldwide…

“Tough competition will attempt to draw your customer base away by undercutting your costs and doing whatever possible to switch your customers over. The best way to prevent your customers from jumping ship is to build a relationship with them over time. What better way to do this than to provide useful information right to their email inbox?” – “The Benefits of Email Marketing,” from the Opt-in Email Resource Center

“It can be up to eight to ten times more expensive to acquire a new customer than to sell to an existing one. A good email marketing campaign will increase the frequency of repeat purchases from your existing customers.”ii – WebProNews.com

Only 24% of survey respondents reported the use of transactional email in 2006. Out of that same pool of respondents, 50% said they were only somewhat satisfied with their email marketing efforts. – Skylist, 2006 email Marketing Survey

“I find it inspiring because it means that email success and ROI is a direct result of our ability to build a relationship with our subscribers. Email, done well, creates the kind of relationship that drives incremental revenue, loyalty and word of mouth.” – Stephanie Miller, VP of Strategic Services

54% of transactional emails are very often or always read compared with only 21% who very often or always read opt-in emails.iii – Marketing Sherpa

And probably the most pointed to substantiate our argument is the following:

“Make it easy for potential customers to buy from you and more will buy. Look for ways you can make your buying process easier…and faster.”iv – Business Know-How

There are many more samples available. There is a wealth of information regarding the success companies experience through the use of transactional email including increased revenue, higher

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conversion rates and greater ROI, driven in large part due to the ease-of-use and functionality provided customers through these emails. There is also a myriad of evidence pointing to the fact that transactional email is highly valuable as a marketing tool when implemented efficiently.

Transactional Email DefinedA transactional email is a form of creative communication whereby a company uses operational forms of communication, such as an order confirmation or invoices and uses these emails to also deliver marketing information. So, if Amy just purchased her printer here’s how a basic transactional email would likely appear.

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Thank you for your recent order.Email: amy.day@cowtowncreative.netDate: October 5, 2007Order: 8473130

Thank you for placing an order with www.ABCcompany.com.Your order 8473130 left the warehouse on 10-07-2007.

Please visit us again at www.ABCcompany.com

The email example above provides just transaction data to Amy. To better utilize the communication opportunity the transactional email, if more dynamic, could present more useful transactional details, such as a method to approximate arrival dates, as well as providing more up-sell opportunities. With additional transactional details, there is more opportunity to provide marketing information, while keeping the sales to transaction info ratio lower. Many companies are beginning to use transactional emails to promote products that compliment the products purchased. An email from the company in the opening scenario to Amy, had they fully used transactional email, might look like this:

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Thank you for your recent order with www.ABCcompany.com Amy DayEmail: amy.day@cowtowncreative.netDate: October 5, 2007 Order #: 8473130We wanted you to know that your order 8473130 left the warehouse on 10-07-2007.Please refer to the shipping chart below to determine approximate shipping times.

In the U.S. Expected Delivery

UPS 2-3 business days

UPS Next Business Day 1 business day

USPS-U.S. Postal Service 5-7 days

International

Canada Post 4-10 business days

Japan Express Mail 1-3 weeks

All other countriesGround: 8-12 weeksAir: 2-4 weeksUPS: 1-2 weeks

Processing TimeWe usually fill your order within 24 hours.We ship orders to Alaska and Hawaiivia Airmail, usually in 2-3 business days.

If you'd like to track the progress of an item that was shipped via UPS, please consult its current status at http://www.ABCcompany.com/spawn.cgi?target=NODEORDER1198&mode If you have any questions about your order please email us at myorder@ABCcompany.com

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The first email had a small amount of information and no marketing purpose. The second had more useful information as well as a marketing purpose. The company is using the transaction confirmation to create a possibility whereby the customer might make another purchase while keeping the ratio between operational and sales information low. The key is to ensure that the customer can make the purchase from the email as opposed to returning to the site and mandating they go through the shopping cart experience all over again. Remember: simplicity is key—you want the customer to be able to click on your email, and place the order, seamlessly.

To further explain the technicalities of transactional email and what exactly constitutes such a communication, we look to the definition provided under CAN-SPAM. We will get more into the specifics such as the potholes associated with CAN-SPAM in a later section, but as for the basic definition, we see that it means any email “facilitating, completing or confirming a previously agreed upon transaction. Unlike commercial messages, transactional messages aren’t required to carry any of the following:• An advertisement notation at the top• A U.S. Postal Service address• An unsubscribe link.”v

The Benefits of Transactional EmailThere are so many benefits to transactional email, it is hard to know where to begin. First, we look at the basic benefits, which any marketing-directed email is going to provide. These include: increased communication, improved customer loyalty, brand reinforcement, cost effectiveness, and the ability to track returns. When considering transactional email, you get all these benefits plus: higher conversion rates, your receivers are customers, opportunity to cross-sell and up-sell, all resulting in an increase in revenue (and ROI). So, let’s take a look at each of these benefits in detail.

Increased CommunicationAs with any email marketing campaign, you are gaining more in-front of the customer time by communicating with them regarding the status of your relationship to and with them. As we look back to our section on Methodology, we see that two of the quotes dealt specifically with the act of relationship building through email:

The best way to prevent your customers from jumping ship is to build a relationship with them over time. What better way to do this than to provide useful information right to their email inbox?” – The Opt-in Email Resource Center

“Email, done well, creates the kind of relationship that drives incremental revenue, loyalty and word of mouth.” – Stephanie Miller

Improved Customer LoyaltyWhen a company begins to build a relationship with a customer they do so based on the premise of being able to almost predict a need and then know how to fill it for that customer. Companies can do this best by first understanding their customer base through research and really listening to customer preferences as well as using the information gathered from past transactions to form profiles that are matched with future offers. Then, companies should honor the wishes of their customers. We can’t emphasize this enough. The great thing about transactional emails as we stated briefly above and will

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go into more detail further down, is that they do not have to provide an opt-out option. However, just because this isn’t the case with transactional emails does not mean those emails should automatically be inserted into your list for other promotions. This type of sneaky work might cost you a customer, so beware.

On the other hand, by paying attention to customer needs and being responsive, you can benefit from increased loyalty. According to marketing expert, Claudia Bruemmer, “A major benefit of customer relationship campaigns is that they foster customer retention, which in turn results in increased profits for your business. Existing customers are known to spend more per sale, buy more frequently, refer other customers and cost less per sale. So priority one is to keep your existing customers happy.”vi

Brand ReinforcementEvery time your customers open an email from you (or, let’s back up), every time your customers even see your name on an incoming email, you are building brand recognition. Then, when they open the email and see your logo, you are building brand recognition. Some firms spend millions on brand recognition activities. But now, thanks to the Internet, companies also have the ability to build their brands with virtually every click. “It’s important that your email marketing campaigns reinforce the brand values you began to setup while the customer was on your website. While your customers may not become brand loyal after just one email marketing message, over time your brand will become ingrained in the ‘purchasing habits’ part of their psyche and that’s exactly what you are striving for.”vii

Cost EffectivenessThere are two sides to the cost effectiveness benefit: 1) use of resources and 2) actual cost savings. As far as the use of resources, we are addressing the divide that often occurs between different marketing functions. Frequently IT departments manage email communications including tracking, while the marketing department manages everything else. According to a survey conducted by Marketing Sherpa, “Most respondents said that the biggest obstacle to integration is that online and offline marketing activities are managed by separate departments.”viii Transactional emails combine two functions of marketing: sales and communication, thereby reducing necessary workload and removing some work from departments that handle more costly marketing strategies.

As far as actual cost savings, it is well documented, that email is extremely cost effective, especially compared with other marketing initiatives. It costs a small fraction to perform an email campaign in comparison to placing a one-time advertisement or managing a booth at a trade show. But with transactional email, this is taken one step further by providing cost savings of additional marketing promotions, including other emails or ads. This is the case because a transaction receipt should already be provided to the customer as a given for their purchase, participation, registration, etc. Using that platform to further communication increases revenue from existing and future sales, saves more time and resources which can be reinvested.

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Conversion RatesIncreasing conversion rates is extremely difficult. Thirty-four point eight percent (34.8%) of eRetailers experience less than a two percent (2%) conversion rate from email campaigns.ix And for this reason alone, it isn’t hard to understand why marketers shy away from email tactics. However, let’s compare these numbers with those that result from transactional emails:

“According to proponents, transactional email leads to significantly higher conversion rates—the ratio of shoppers to buyers, which goes up when the former is converted to the latter—than regular email marketing approaches.”x

“Using email professionally can improve rates as much as 100%.”xi

Receivers are CustomersWhat this means is exactly what it says. Those to whom you send transactional emails have purchased, applied, or conducted some form of business with you in the past, and hence, have separated themselves from prospects. They have done business with your company in the past, thus, it stands to reason that they might do so again. For this reason alone, a transactional email makes sense as it provides that customer with attentive and even desired follow-up, as well as the opportunity to become an ongoing customer. From Marketing Sherpa, “Presented with an email containing real marketing, 76% of respondents found the message appropriate.”xii

Additionally, since these individuals are customers and because of the limited regulations provided under CAN-SPAM recipients cannot unsubscribe. These emails are not perceived as spam, have a very low deletion rate and are nearly guaranteed to be opened and read. In fact, they have the highest open rates of any form of online communication. An good analogy might be in your mailbox right now. Chances are there are envelopes in your mail box that will never be opened, or read. But the envelopes from the companies you recognize, even if they contain dropped in coupons, will get opened almost every time.

Cross Sell and Up-sell Again, the previous customer status comes in handy here as well. This is, as we stated previously, due to the fact that if you send confirmation for a product purchase, transactional email provides you with a portal in which you can cross-sell similar products or complimentary products as well as up-sell other products to be purchased either at that time or in the future. For instance, as with the opening scenario, you can promote the ability to immediately purchase toner that might have been overlooked. In order to up-sell, you might provide information on the latest model of that printer a customer ordered a year ago when you send a warranty follow-up (transactional) email.

And this isn’t just the case with purchases. Let’s take the subscription to a company’s eNewsletter as another example. When a company sends a confirmation email for that customer’s subscription, they can cross-sell their pay-per-view Webinar on a related topic or they can up-sell by promoting a book written by the staff that gives more comprehensive information than what is provided by the summaries in the eNewsletter. This practice really can work for almost anything for which you would respond with transactional email.

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* http://searchnetworking.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid7_gci539194,00.html

Increase in RevenueIncreased conversion rates equates to action taken by the customer in a manner desired by the company. If this is obtaining more sales, then that conversion rate equates to increased revenue. However, don’t lose sight of the fact that even if you’re conversion rate is not the result of selling something directly, but instead is converting a prospect to a subscriber, you are still developing a relationship, building loyalty, enforcing your brand, filling a need, and therefore, giving that converted individual more reasons to continue doing business with your company.

Because your recipients are customers, they are more likely to make a repeat performance with a company that has established a reputation with them as reliable and attentive to their needs. As we learned from Claudia Bruemmer above, “Existing customers are known to spend more per sale, buy more frequently, refer other customers and cost less per sale.”And further to this point, increased revenue occurs directly as a result of the ability to cross-sell and up-sell to existing customers.

Proceed With Caution to Ensure Compliance

Earlier, we defined CAN-SPAM as any email “facilitating, completing or confirming a previously agreed upon transaction. Unlike commercial messages, transactional messages aren’t required to carry any of the following:• An advertisement notation at the top• A U.S. Postal Service address• An unsubscribe link.

Now, let’s get further into the details of formulating transactional emails and the standard rules of thumb. Below, we address three things that you must understand before embarking on a transactional email marketing strategy. All three of these components relate to one simple rule: all transactional information must be the first thing that customers see. You must always address all of the transactional data at the beginning and not until that portion is fully addressed should an email begin promotional or commercial activity.

With that in mind, we first discuss the subject line. This is the window of opportunity into your customers’ thought process. For transactional email, your subject line will need to identify the transaction, such as:• “Receipt of Your Order”• “Your Order Has Shipped”• “Your Registration Was Received”• “Please Keep for Your Records”

You will muddy the waters, decrease your open rate, and get into trouble with CAN-SPAM if you utilize the subject line to promote a product/service/offer in response to a transaction.

Second, the body of the email is part two and contains the crux of the message to be delivered. Thanks to special provisions, transactional email can contain mixed messaging, meaning that it can be both transactional and commercial (promotional) in nature. But how much commercial is allowed? A good rule of thumb is that 2/3 of the content MUST be transactional. If you want to be real careful, then do that math on equivalent lines graphics and wording and divide that by 33%—that is the amount of commercial material that a transactional email can contain. Note however, that this doesn’t ensure

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compliance. If you can stay under 2/3 and still get your commercial message across, it is always better to err on the side of caution.

Third and final, it is all about your customers. The first two rules above are provisions, but if your customers feel uncomfortable with the mixed messaging, you’ll be able to tell by your response rates or complaints. The best measure is to go with the metrics. If the open rates fall, and continue to fall, undo your last change. Also, run the look and feel test. For instance, say you’ve laid out a transactional email that looks like the sample below. In this example, this is 2/3 transactional and 1/3 commercial. But the question is: “Does it feel obtrusive?” If you were to receive this email from a company with which you were doing business, would you have a positive or negative response to it? If it feels primarily transactional, then it probably is…on the other hand, if it feels commercial, you should address your advertising and tone it down a bit.

We’ve said this before, but it warrants repeating: do not try to convert prospects using transactional email. This is a practice that could literally be detrimental to your company in the way of customers, regulations, and the bottom-line.

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Dear Amy,

Thank you so much for your order. It will be shipped tomorrow, October 16, 2007. Please use tracking number: Z23o7035098asflkj

If you have any questions or would like more information, please contact us at 1-866-555-0022.

Sincerely, Our Team

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The Must-Haves in Transactional EmailNow that we’ve reviewed the definition, benefits, and rules of transactional email, it’s time to address the other must-haves of transactional email. According to a recent article, Email Marketing Reports is saying that, “As people take more actions online (purchases, registrations, memberships), they generate ever more transactional emails. Does that put more pressure on you to make those emails engaging, valuable, and relevant?”xiii Our answer is yes. And below are some of the steps you can take to help ensure that your message gets noticed.

Content

RelevanceFirst and foremost, the content of a transactional email must be relevant, and by this we mean to the transaction. This has been touched on numerous times in the text above, but it deserves added attention. According to Marketing Sherpa, relevance is the key component to any email campaign, especially transactional, as we see in the aforementioned survey. Based on their results, “The vast majority of consumers—over 83%—will accept marketing messages in their transactional email so long as those messages are relevant.”xiv

This is also the accomplished through the personalization/customization of the commercial content, which is done by closely monitoring customer behavior and responding with a transactional email that delivers more solutions to meet their needs. “The more highly personalized the content, the higher the open rate, and more importantly, the sustained email engagement over time.”xv Keep in mind that as far as consumers are concerned, irrelevant information is the same thing as spam—and they don’t want either of them.

Use HTML FormattingHTML is better for several reasons including visibility, appearance, usability through links, and tracking. As a customer of other companies, you probably also prefer HTML to a rich text format simply because it allows you to do more. However, research has shown that customers have a higher response rate to companies that utilize HTML simply because it appears more professional and as though an investment is being made in that customer. As we’ll discuss more in the section below, HTML formatting is also the only way that you will be able to track open rates and click-throughs, which are critical to campaigns such as these.

Imply UrgencyYou should imply urgency where possible. By using phrases such as, “purchase now and for the next 20 minutes, you’ll also get XX for free,” gives customers this sense that they are going to miss out on something big if they don’t act fast. Use this sparingly, however. You don’t want to cry wolf and have your customers catch you using the same time-limited promotional week after week in a row.

Maintain Brand ConsistencyBrand recognition was earlier defined as a key benefit in the usage of transactional email. But to make your transactional email campaign a success, you need to ensure that you are using your brand consistently in every message. Where possible, you want to make sure that your messaging and delivery through email matches the delivery of your content in other forums or channels such as through your website or in print. When possible, consider having your marketing department handle

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this aspect. We earlier mentioned integration of marketing and IT as another benefit of this type of email, as this goes directly to our point. If you have marketing assume this responsibility, you can help ensure brand consistency across the board.

Delivery

Real-timeWhen it comes to the delivery of your transactional email, timing is everything. When a customer completes a transaction, it is fair to say that they assume your company will provide information regarding that transaction immediately. Through research, we determined that many sources will tell you that within 24 hours is a good rule of thumb, but we personally think this is too long to wait as that gives the customer time to consider complimentary purchases from other vendors and even in many cases to move onto other transactions having “checked” that purchase off their list. According to Antonio Ferrara of Premiere Global Services, “90% of existing transactional messages are delivered within 10 minutes of purchase.”xvi

Testing and TrackingTesting is critical to any successful marketing campaign. Through the use of survey, feedback, and monitoring, testing can be an easy to execute in-house project prior to the launch of any email campaign. Determining whether or not the email campaign is working comes on the back end of testing, which leads us to tracking the results. According to a survey by Magill, “70% of respondent [companies] said they applied basic or no analysis to any of their email campaigns.”xvii This really is mind blowing with respect to two points: 1) there are so many options available for tracking results and 2) there is little way to determine ROI on an email campaign without the use of tracking measures.

With respect to transactional email, they are just as much a part of the customer experience (which is why we discuss branding, loyalty, etc.) as any other communication that you have with that customer, so monitoring their responses should be a company’s first priority. While many companies are still on the outset of deep-inbox monitoring, your practices can and should include delivery, deletion without opening, open rates, click-through rates, link usage, and others. And what all this measuring, monitoring and tracking will do is show your company what is working, what is not and what needs to be modified based on feedback and responses.

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Handling the Back OfficeThese days, there are so many options for handling marketing campaigns, especially email marketing campaigns. According to a recent article on Multi-Channel Merchant, “44% of the marketers surveyed said they manage their email programs in-house, 29% said they outsource to email service providers, 15% said they send the work to agencies, and 11% said they use marketing service providers.”xviii Let’s explore each in a bit of detail.

In-house ProgramsThe downside to in-house programs is the amount of resources used for a team’s time to manage such programs when outsourcing quite often reduces overhead and frees up valuable marketing resources for other more pertinent tactics.

OutsourcingAccording to a survey conducted by Global Premiere Services, the following chart shows the reasons why companies chose to outsource their email marketing programs.

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

abilit

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easu

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ery

Ability

to m

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-t...

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Scala

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abilit

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Exec

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other

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Agencies

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Final Note

In this paper, we set out to prove our hypothesis that through the utilization of transactional emails as marketing and communications tools, companies can position themselves to take advantage of increased revenue, higher conversion rates and, as a direct result, a greater return on investment. To this end, we have explored what makes a transactional email unique, how to formulate them to achieve the best results and components transactional emails must contain in order to be successful. But with all the information that is available to the masses regarding best marketing practices such as these, we have to wonder, why isn’t everyone using this tool? “While transactional email offers the highest open and click through rates of any type of email, Harte-Hanks in 2005 said that most companies continue to send plain-text email with no branding or dynamic cross-sell offers.”xix Why is this the case? There are numerous reasons why companies should add this one, extra, simple step in its marketing strategy. The likely answer is that many email systems either do not offer these features or they are very cumbersome to use. Taking our word for it is our hope after you’ve read this paper, but if you need one last bit of convincing, here is what the experts as Merkle, Inc. have to say:

“These attitudinal data are corroborated and reflected in open rate data as well; the more highly personalized the content, the higher the open rate, and more importantly, the sustained email engagement over time. This means that marketers need to take advantage of these opportunities to insert their promotional and marketing messages in these updates, where they have the best opportunity for being viewed. Marketers who will achieve the largest gains in this area are those who follow traditional relevancy guidelines, and do not obstruct the main message of the email.”xx

The Zrinity Approach to Transactional Email

At Zrinity, we approach every customer as an individual with unique needs that deserve unique solutions. In other words, we do not believe that there is a cookie cutter solution or answer for all email campaign and customization is the way our customers will reach their goals of email campaign optimization, lower costs and a greatly improved ROI.

At Zrinity, one-to-one marketing is delivering personalized email to each customer based upon their profile, preferences, behavioral touch points and beyond. Owning the technology to truly offer one-to-one marketing is a critical necessity that Zrinity offers. Most email marketers do not have the tools necessary to conduct true one-to-one marketing so they continue to batch-and-blast campaigns using a shotgun strategy. Shotgun campaigns send all recipients the same offer. Campaign Intelligence enables companies to turn complex customer data into highly customized and relevant email campaigns.

The best way to connect with a customer is through transactional emails. As this white paper demonstrates, transactional emails give you the attention of the customer as they expect and await confirmation emails, billing statements, etc. You have instantaneous behavioral information about the customer since they just took an action to produce this confirmation email or purchased something from you.

With Campaign Intelligence you can now easily transform your transactional messages into relevant email the consumer can further act on and provide offers that are highly relevant and up sells. This

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strategy is currently in use by most major online retailers’ web sites in the form of, “People who bought this also bought”

We help ensure through behavioral email practices that your campaign delivers transactional communication that is highly relevant and timely to your customers, utilizing a vehicle that is one of the most effective methods to achieve high-level results—email.

The highest hurdle in behavioral email is typically integration with data so you can respond to customer actions. Zrinity’s email systems have a unique way to achieve data integration to meet this end. • New arrivals in customers interest categories • Pre-arrival announcements • Items back-in-stock • Cross sell/upsell similar items • New size/style color • Geographic sales items • Cross sell offers based on items in order • Include Relevant information based on items in order • Renewal reminders • Shopping cart abandonment • Remind me

Our goal is to help ensure that your messages are “heard” above the noise being created by other email marketing campaigns by simply being as relevant a possible.

Contact us today and let us show you how Zrinity is changing the face of email marketing through by simplifying the process for our customers.

www.zrinity.comZrinity Inc.502 Court Street, Suite 404Utica, NY 13502-4233

Phone: (866) 566-1867Local number: (646) 722-8673Fax/PO's: 866-764-9446

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About Zrinity

Zrinity is the leader in enterprise-class email marketing management solutions and content management solutions for marketing professionals and developers worldwide. Zrinity delivers software solutions that enable organizations to automate and manage internal and external service processes.

With more than 5,000 customers worldwide and over 11 years of product development and investment, Zrinity, delivers out-of-the-box, best-practice applications that help customers align service and support with business objectives, improve service levels, manage assets, and lower costs.

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i ”Marketers Not Integrating Email: Survey.” Magilla Marketing, by Ken Magill. Jan 17, 2007 3:16 PM. http://multichannelmerchant.com/webchannel/email/not_integrating_email_01172006/ ii “The Top 5 Benefits of Email Marketing,” Adrian Mullan on Fri, 04/07/2006 - 08:48. http://www.webpronews.com/expertarticles/2006/04/07/the-top-benefits-of-email-marketingiii “Consumer Attitudes Toward Transactional Email 2007,” Survey from Marketing Sherpa. p. 5iv “4 Dynamic Marketing Tactics,” Bob Leduc. http://www.businessknowhow.com/marketing/dynamic.htmv “Transaction Email,” Return on Subscriber. June 27, 2006. http://www.returnonsubscriber.com/2006/06/transactional_email.phpvi “Generate Customer Loyalty With Email,” Claudia Bruemmer. March 5, 2007. http://www.searchengineguide.com/claudiabruemmer/2007/03/generate_customer_loyalty_with.htmlvii “Email Marketing Boosts Your Brand,” August 30, 2007. http://www.promotionworld.com/newslet/articles/article/070829EmailMarketing.htmlviii “Consumer Attitudes Toward Transactional Email 2007,” Survey from Marketing Sherpa. p. 5ix Email Marketing Statistics and Metrics. EmailLabs.com. http://www.emaillabs.com/tools/email-marketing-statistics.html#retailconversionsx http://www.bitpipe.com/rlist/term/Email-Marketing.htmlxi www.FoundPages.comxii “Consumer Attitudes Toward Transactional Email 2007,” Survey from Marketing Sherpa. p. 20xiii “Integrating Promotional Content Into Transactional Email Messages” http://www.b2bemailmarketing.com/2005/11/integrating_pro.htmlxiv

“Consumer Attitudes Toward Transactional Email 2007,” Survey from Marketing Sherpa.xv

“A View From the Inbox – Actionable Information From the Annual Consumer Email Attitude and Usage Study” – Merkle, Inc. www.merkleinc.com page 3xvi http://www.internetworld.co.uk/Digital-Marketing/premiere%20global.ppt. slide 32.xvii ”Marketers Not Integrating Email: Survey.” Magilla Marketing, by Ken Magill. Jan 17, 2007 3:16 PM. http://multichannelmerchant.com/webchannel/email/not_integrating_email_01172006/xviii Ibid.xix “Prerequisites for Leveraging Transactional Email,” Feb 20, 2007 10:30 AM. http://multichannelmerchant.com/webchannel/email/transactional_email_02202007/xx “A View From the Inbox – Actionable Information From the Annual Consumer Email Attitude and Usage Study” – Merkle, Inc. www.merkleinc.com page 3