Transactional email is your non-marketing email, for example password resets or order confirmations.
You can make transactional email templates in EasyEditor in the same way that you design your marketing emails, and send them by using SMTP or the API.
By creating your transactional email templates in EasyEditor, you get all the design benefits that go with it, which includes choosing from our free templates, uploading your own template, and using all of the EasyEditor features.
For example, if your brand colours or design change, you can instantly update your transactional email to the latest version. You can also add placeholders to personalise your transactional emails.
Before you start
Things you need to know:
Don't include marketing content in transactional emails
Since transactional emails don't contain an unsubscribe link, you don't want to upset your customers and subscribers with marketing content they didn't ask for. Your sending reputation is at serious risk if you send marketing content in a transactional email.
Learn more in Understand your sender reputation.
You can't use emojis in the subject line of transactional emails.
Create transactional email templates as a triggered campaign
Transactional email templates must be created in EasyEditor as triggered campaigns. Triggered campaigns can then be sent to individual contacts by the methods mentioned above.
Learn how in Create a triggered campaign.
Design a transactional email template in EasyEditor
Transactional email templates can support some building blocks and link types, but not others. it's important to be aware of what your transactional email campaigns do and don’t support.
Supported features
You can use these features in your transactional email template:
✔️ Link clicks | To find reporting for link clicks and other metrics for triggered campaigns that are sent as transactional emails go to the Channel menu and select Analytics > Channel analytics > Dashboards: Transactional email. |
✔️ Personalisation | You can add personalisation to your transactional email template using transactional email placeholders, for example, @FIRSTNAME@.
Although the placeholders look the same, don’t confuse this with EasyEditor personalisation; this uses contact data fields and isn't related. |
Unsupported features
You can’t use these features in your transactional email template; the transactional email won’t send if it includes any of the following:
Building blocks | Links |
❌ RSS feeds
❌ Sharing
❌ Social links
❌ Dynamic content
❌ External dynamic content
❌ Liquid markup blocks | ❌ Forward to a friend
❌ View in browser
❌ Double opt-in
❌ Unsubscribe* |
If you try to send a triggered campaign as a transactional email that contains one of these unsupported features you see the error ERROR_CAMPAIGN_CONTAINS_UNSUPPORTED_BLOCKS.
Remember that you need to check the plain text version of your triggered campaign for any unsupported features too.
Include a mandatory unsubscribe link
Unsubscribe links aren’t supported in transactional email templates, however, your template must have one to save the template in EasyEditor. The unsubscribe link is automatically removed when it’s sent by SMTP or the API.
Keep your unsubscribe link by itself
All content is deleted if you add it to an unsubscribe link container because the container contents are removed when the send happens. Therefore you should keep your unsubscribe link separate from the rest of your content.
Your transactional email is created as a triggered campaign. This means it can be reused later for non-transactional email purposes, for example, in a program. The campaign must include an unsubscribe link if this happens.
Send transactional email templates
You must create your transactional email as a triggered campaign in EasyEditor to send transactional email campaigns. The transactional email is sent by using SMTP or our API; these both use the triggered campaign ID to send the content.
Sends using SMTP: the triggered campaign ID is included in the SMTP headers.
Sends using the API: the triggered campaign ID is included in the parameters for:
Personalisation
Personalisation can be included in a transactional email by using placeholders in your template, and including the values in your code.
Placeholders are used in the email content, for example, Hi @FIRSTNAME@. Then, when SMTP or the API is used to send the triggered campaign, personalisation key-value pairs must be included in your code.
Example:
"PersonalisationValues": [{ Name: "FIRSTNAME" , Value: "John" }, { Name: "LASTNAME" , Value: "Smith" }]
The value for the matching placeholder name is pulled into the campaign as it is sent.
Personalisation in the reply-to address
If you have included a personalisation marker, for example, @ACCOUNTMANAGER@, in the custom reply-to address for the custom from address (CFA) you’re using to send your transactional email, you must include the key-value pair for this marker in the PersonalisationValues array.
If you don’t, the reply-to address can’t be correctly populated, and any replies are only forwarded to the Unknown mail forward for the CFA, if set.