Transactional email is a fundamental part of the customer experience and is increasing in importance in our app and cloud-based economy. It now plays a critical role in acquiring and retaining customers. To understand how organizations are utilizing this important communications channel SparkPost surveyed more than 1,800 organizations to gain insight into their use of transactional email. From overall strategy to specific tactics – such as sending patterns, deliverability, technologies used and people involved – the results are both eye-opening and instructive.

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Today’s Panelists
Atri Chatterjee
Founder and President of CerebralAction, Inc.
Atri Chatterjee is Founder and President of CerebralAction Inc. (c12n), a research
consultancy that helps companies with their marketing strategy and execution.
Before starting c12n, Atri spent almost 30 years in technology development and
marketing, successfully leading four companies, two private and two public, as chief
marketing officer (CMO). These include Zscaler (cloud security), Act-On Software
(marketing automation), Secure Computing (enterprise security) and McAfee.com
(consumer security). He was also on the founding team and the first head of
marketing for Responsys (email service provider).
Brent Sleeper
Senior Manager of Product and Content Marketing, SparkPost
Brent Sleeper works with the product and marketing teams at SparkPost. He helps
SparkPost customers and other product development teams use transactional email
and notifications to build successful, growing applications and websites. He has 20
years of experience working with fast-growing technology providers develop
marketing strategies that support a great customer experience. Brent is a graduate
of Carleton College.
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Agenda
• Transactional email overview and
common use cases
• Opportunities and challenges
businesses face with transactional email
• Key findings from the transactional
benchmark report
• Best practices on the strategy and
implementation of transactional email
• Q&A
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About the Report
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• Benchmarks and best practices
defining state of transactional email
in 2018
• Data from 1,859 SaaS, e-
commerce, and other businesses
• 8 key findings including goals,
patterns, responsibilities, and
challenges
• 5 core recommendations to help
any sender make the most of
transactional email
• Today, we’re sharing selected
highlights; download to learn
more!

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Defining Transactional Email
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• Transactional emails are automated messages sent in response to a specific
user action or other event.
Activation
Email
Event Alerts Password
Resets
Reports/
Dashboards
Activity
Notifications
Welcome/
Onboarding
Two-Factor
Authentication
User Invites
and Sharing

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Take-Aways
Operational functions remain a
core use case for transactional
emails.
Application-generated messages
accomplish other goals as well,
particularly related to user lifecycle.
FINDING 2
Business Goals
2 Transactional emails are workhorses
for modern apps and services. They
reflect diverse use cases and serve
multiple business goals.
Transactional email business purpose

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Take-Aways
Overwhelming majority see
transactional email as important
throughout the user lifecycle.
• Conversion: 72%
• Engagement: 82%
• Retention: 80%
FINDING 3
User Lifecycle
3 Transactional email is essential
throughout the user lifecycle, but it is
especially valued for engaging and
retaining existing customers.
Types of transactional email sent

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Take-Aways
38.5% of all senders received
delivery complaints from their
customers.
36.3% of midsize and enterprise
businesses report deliverability
complaints.
3 of the 4 industries that send the
most email exceed the average rate
of deliverability complaints.
FINDING 6
Deliverability Challenges
6 Lost or undelivered messages are
common. This deliverability challenge
risks undermining the business impact
of transactional emails.
Deliverability complaints in select industries

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Take-Aways
Many businesses have left
responsibility for crafting
transactional email to tech teams.
Adoption of basic technical
practices is far from universal.
Delivery problems often are the
result of using the wrong email
infrastructure.
MORE FINDINGS
Implementation Challenges
+ Despite business value, too many
senders struggle with implementation
and optimization.

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Implications and Questions
• What role does transactional email
serve in our business?
• Are we leveraging transactional
email for maximum value?
• Are we implementing transactional
email the right way?
• How are we measuring
performance and impact?
• What should I be asking my
technical team? My business
team?
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Recommendations for Senders
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Put customer engagement at the center of email strategy.
Treat transactional email as a core product feature.
Focus on quality, not quantity.
Business owners must oversee transactional email.
Reconsider email infrastructure used to send transactional messages.

12. Download Webcast Replay
Learn more:
Transactional Benchmark Report: sparkpo.st/txreport
SparkPost GDPR Center: sparkpost.com/gdpr/
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13. Thank You!
Want to Learn More About SparkPost?
Contact Us
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