How transactional emails work

Sending transactional emails is useful when you want to provide your customer with important information about their account activity, a specific transaction, or any other requested information. 

What is a transactional email?

A transactional email is essentially an email notification that is related to the recipient’s account activity, a commercial transaction, or any requested information from your website or business. It contains important information that is functional and relevant to its recipient only. 

In MailerSend, API integration is used to send emails. Usually, a developer sets up a backend system that sends coded templates to recipients that trigger a specific action. 

It is not permission-based, meaning that a user’s permission is not needed to send them an email when they perform an action.

The differences between transactional emails and marketing emails

While they are both emails that can be sent to users and customers, transactional emails and marketing emails have their own specific functions.

Transactional emails are sent individually as notifications that provide functional information that is relevant to the recipient only. Because of this, they usually have a higher open rate.

It is not necessary to get the recipient’s permission to send transactional emails as they are triggered by specific actions that the recipient executes. 

Examples of transactional emails include:

• Password reset

• Subscription confirmation

• Order summaries

• Billing notices

• Account creation

You can send transactional emails with MailerSend.

Marketing emails, on the other hand, are usually sent in bulk at a specific time. They contain promotional information that applies to all or a specific number of recipients. Because of this, their open rate is usually lower.

Examples of marketing emails include:

• Newsletters

• Welcome series

• Promotional offers

• Event invitations

• Announcements

It is required to get the recipient’s permission to send them marketing emails, as well as to include an Unsubscribe link on the footer of each email so the recipient can opt-out whenever they want. 

To learn more, read this article on transactional vs. marketing emails.

You can send marketing emails with MailerLite.

MailerSend’s GDPR compliance

To cover GDPR requirements, we have created our Data Processing Agreement. We encourage all of our customers to review it and agree with its terms.

You can read our Privacy Policy for more information on the subject.

Need more info?

Please feel free to contact us at support@mailersend.com and a member of our support team will gladly assist you.