Confirmation email
What is a confirmation email?
A confirmation email is a transactional email sent to a customer or lead in response to a specific action they have taken. Companies commonly use these emails to provide information to their users, and users expect them to arrive. They are wanted messages, so if they are delayed, the people waiting for them can get frustrated.
Some of the most common actions that involve confirmation emails are: signing up for newsletters, purchase confirmations, travel bookings, shipping notifications, ticket purchases, appointment confirmations, etc.
Confirmation emails are a very useful way to build trust with the people who receive them, so it is very important to give them the attention they deserve and take care of their content and design.
How to write an effective confirmation email
Since confirmation emails are vital to the smooth running of many businesses, it is important to know the elements that we at Mailrelay consider essential, as well as some others you should keep in mind depending on how you use them:
- Easily identifiable sender. The recipient must be able to recognize your sender without any doubt, so it should use your company’s domain and your company’s name.
- Clear and concise subject line. Inboxes receive emails all the time, so choose a direct, simple subject line that encourages people to open the message. This will depend on the type of confirmation email.
- Prepare personalized content. Since you will have some information about the email recipient (usually their name), add it to the email to increase the sense of authenticity and improve engagement.
- Really important information. Using the confirmation email for self-promotion is not a good idea, since the lead has already shown interest in your business. Instead, add information that is useful to the recipient, such as why they are receiving the email and how they can stop receiving your emails.
- They should respect your brand’s visual identity. Their design should make recipients unmistakably associate the confirmation email with your brand, so that it builds their trust.
- Offer additional contact options. Include the different contact options you offer the lead so they can get more information (phone numbers, physical stores, etc.) and place this information where it is clearly visible in the confirmation email.
- Add a CTA. It is essential to add a call to action so the lead can take another action that matters to you. After all, they are just one click away from it.
- It should guide the reader to the next steps. There is nothing worse than not knowing what to expect, so answer any vital questions that they may have after reading the confirmation email and, if necessary, explain the next steps they will have to follow.
Additional considerations
If it is an order confirmation email, in addition to the points above, consider adding the product name, order number, payment/billing information, warranties, delivery dates (for physical products) and, in general, anything that “reassures the buyer”.
For a newsletter subscription confirmation email, keep it very short and make the confirmation link easy to spot: its main purpose is not to inform, but to get the recipient to confirm their subscription.
For event or travel confirmation emails, add all the relevant details about the booking that the recipient needs to know, such as: location, time, date, whether any additional action is required, restrictions for attending the event, booking number, etc. And above all, give them an easy way to add it to their calendar.