Within the scope of brand-customer interactions, the journey from transactional to relational messaging unfolds as a strategic endeavor to deepen engagement and foster brand loyalty. Transactional communication, long recognized for its high open rate and essential confirmation function, presents a unique opportunity for companies to infuse a touch of marketing into their messaging.
Beyond their primary purpose, these messages may serve as a gateway to encourage further customer action and reinforce positive brand associations. By skillfully integrating marketing elements into transactional communication, organizations can elevate the customer experience, nurturing long-lasting relationships and driving repeat business.
Two birds with one stone
Brands and their customers have now been well familiar with transactional messaging. The latter simply take it as a given and a confirmation Email or SMS not arriving within seconds of placing an order is a legitimate cause for concern. Despite usually not being very exciting in terms of the content within, these messages have high open rates reaching 80-85%, which means recipients are still willing to look at what’s inside.
This creates an exceptional opportunity for brands to capitalize on the attention they’re able to capture and spice up the transactional with a pinch of marketing.
Let the transactional keep on working for you
The reason for going beyond purely transactional in the first place is that it’s an opportunity to build on a successful event, seize the momentum to deepen customer engagement. A customer bought with you so they must be happy about what you had to offer. Why not strike the iron while it’s hot and encourage more action?
Your transactional message, apart from its main purpose, can also serve to:
- Encourage a social media follow
- Introduce an ongoing loyalty program
- Ask for feedback or review
- Include discount for a future purchase
The key is to keep it classy. Proper wording and visual presentation will make sure the customer doesn’t mind a gentle upsell, even though that’s not what they expected with the message. A refined approach ensures a seamless transition from transactional up to relational, enhancing customer satisfaction and brand affinity.
Room for reinforcement
Shopping has a strong emotional component to it. Before a customer makes a purchase, they’ve most likely already made a subconscious decision that’s been lingering at the back of their head.
This emotional aspect starts way early with powerful branding. This means that a transactional message carrying elements of marketing offers additional opportunity to reinforce the positive association a customer has already developed with your brand.
A non-pushy reminder of the values that might’ve triggered the original purchase included in the transactional message will contribute to increased loyalty and encourage repeat business.
At the end of the day, the biggest, most successful brands are winning customers’ hearts through marketing messaging, and not just excellent products. Leverage the occasions to increase the exposure to yours and generate more conversion in the long run.
All in with API
Proper setup of a transactional messaging workflow is best achieved through an integration via Application Programming Interface. Using a RESTful API in your communication will allow you to automate the entire sending process, facilitate the exchange of data between various systems, and do all of this in a highly scalable manner.
RESTful API offers high messaging throughput and ensures security of communication, which is especially important for businesses with large customer bases, handling lots of sensitive information.
