Gone are the days when you had to manually write and send hundreds of emails. Modern transactional email platforms and services are available to help you automate the entire process.
The primary goal of a transactional email platform is to help you handle transactional emails quickly and easily, typically through automation.
There are several other benefits and aspects of transactional email marketing that you should know about. So, keep reading to learn all about the basics of transactional email platforms and how to choose the right transactional email service.
Part 1:Transactional Email Service? How does it work?
A transactional email service is a way of automating transactional emails to bring scalability to your brand and business. Some common examples of transactional emails are welcome emails, forgotten password guides, order confirmations, and receipts.
Following are two examples of a transactional email:
By relying on the services of a suitable transactional email platform, you can automate all such emails and ensure your clients and customers are getting the right emails at the right time.
Working on a Transactional Email Service
There is a large variety of transactional email platforms on the internet and they have their working models and strategies.
Generally, a transactional email service works by connecting through an Application Programming Interface (API) or Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP). Other than sending emails, an efficient transactional email service also helps you analyze and track the performance of your emails which play an integral role in marketing.
Role of Transactional Email Marketing
While transactional emails are quite different from the traditional emails used for marketing purposes, they are still an important part of marketing campaigns.
Transactional email marketing involves emails that are already agreed upon by the recipient. They are meant to inform the user about the confirmation of an action taken by them, such as changing passwords.
Transactional email services that send relevant and regular emails play an integral role in building trust and transparency with your audience. Moreover, it boosts customer engagement and allows businesses to go beyond traditional marketing emails or simple notifications.
Part 2: Importance Of Choosing the Right Transactional Email Service
Choosing the right transactional email platform can be a make-or-break in the effectiveness of your transactional email marketing campaign. It is necessary to rely on a well-established transactional email service that is capable of delivering a high volume of emails to the right recipient.
If you choose a platform that does not offer a good deliverability rate and speed, there is a high chance you will miss out on a good engagement level in your transactional email marketing campaigns.
It is also important to use suitable transactional email formats available in professional services to build trust and credibility. A good transactional email service also allows you to personalize your emails to ensure real-time email delivery and improve the overall brand recognition of your business.
How to Select the Right Transactional Email Platform?
If you are in search of a reliable transactional email platform, you should look for the following top 7 features:
- User-Friendliness: The entire process of connecting and setting up a transactional email service should be quick and easy.
- Easy Integration: Multiple integration options come in handy when you plan to use a transactional email service with multiple brands and platforms.
- High Deliverability Rates: Since the goal of transactional emails is to provide some sort of confirmation to users, they must be delivered quickly and correctly to the inboxes.
- Stability: The transactional email platform of your choice must have a stable infrastructure behind it to support a high number of transactional emails sent quickly and regularly.
- Pricing: Subscribing to a transactional email service can be a significant investment, so ensure it offers competitive pricing, along with a free trial.
- Analytics: A reliable transactional email marketing platform will provide you with complete details and analytics reports related to the performance of your emails.
- Scalability: It is an important feature of any software and you should choose a transactional email platform capable of meeting your growing demands.
Part 3:10 Best Transactional Email Service Providers
Considering the criteria discussed in the previous section, we’ve selected the top 10 best transactional email service providers currently available on the internet.
Let’s dive deep into the features and functionalities of these leading transactional email platforms.
1.EngageLab
EngageLab is a highly efficient customer engagement platform that offers a wide range of messaging features, including transactional email services. These services are meant to enhance customer engagement and conversion through quick and high delivery rates.
Learn More:Unlocking Email Deliverability: Strategies for Success
EngageLab is an email service provider that offers a comprehensive suite of email marketing solutions designed to enhance email deliverability. Moreover, the tool has real-time analytics and feedback features to optimize transactional email marketing strategies quickly.
The user-friendly interface of EngageLab ensures you can integrate with its transactional email service API within a few minutes. Some of the other key features of EngageLab include high security, privacy, and high-speed email delivery rates.
Pros
- Quick and easy integration, so anyone can use EngageLab.
- Comprehensive data analytics reports to measure the success of transactional emails.
- 24/7 customer supportrage delivery time of 3 seconds.
- Capability of sending a huge number of emails globally with an average delivery time of 3 seconds.
Cons
- Some technical knowledge is required to use features like the blacklist filtering mechanism.
- Small businesses have to allocate a certain budget towards subscribing to the service.
2. Mailchimp Transactional
Mailchimp is one of the most popular names in the email marketing industry. It now has a separate paid add-on called Mailchimp Transactional.
As the name suggests, it is specifically meant to deal with transactional emails. You can use it to send transactional emails directly from Mailchimp. It has comprehensive API documentation, so both beginners and technical experts can use this platform.
However, since it is a part of a much larger email management tool, it is recommended that you choose Mailchimp Transactional only if you are already using Mailchimp. Otherwise, you might find the tool to be quite complicated.
Pros
- Mailchimp Transactional is an all-in-one email management service.
- The tool has a comprehensive analytics section to measure the performance of your emails and get relevant reports.
- Mailchimp Transactional has a high deliverability rate and speed.
Cons
- Mailchimp has a very expensive cost when you consider the total marketing subscription and transactional add-on.
- Mailchimp Transactional has limited customization options, especially when it comes to transactional emails.
3. SendGrid
SendGrid started as a simple email API, but it has not evolved into a full-fledged email management tool and transactional email services. It allows you to deliver transactional emails to a large email list quickly and as per the scheduled time.
SendGrid has a free plan that allows you to send 100 transactional emails free of cost per day. So, if you have a large number of users you want to cater to, you’ll have to buy one of SendGrid’s paid plans that allows you to send up to 50,000 emails at the cost of $19.95 per month.
Pros
- SendGrid offers good email deliverability speed and rate, especially if you have subscribed to its paid plan.
- SendGrid is a well-known name for the transactional email services provider, and it keeps improving from time to time.
Cons
- SendGrid’s plans are quite expensive for people who want to send a large number of emails.
- Some users have reported deliverability issues with SendGrid’s APIs.
- The paid plans of SendGrid are highly limited as you cannot get any plan lower than 50,000 emails or a free plan for more than 100 emails.
4. Amazon Simple Email Service (SES)
Amazon Simple Email Service (SES) has recently gained popularity as a transactional email service provider. It is a part of the broad Web Services solutions. User-friendliness, quick-to-use, and lightweight are the key features of this popular transactional email platform.
A huge benefit of Amazon SES is that it is very affordable with 1000 outbound emails costing only $0.10. However, it also has very limited features which means you can only use it for sending basic transactional emails without any tracking and analytics.
Pros
- Amazon is a well-known name across the globe, and it can reach millions of people.
- Amazon SES is highly affordable, especially if you are satisfied with its basic functionalities.
Cons
- Amazon SES does not offer any live support, so you only have docs and guides on the internet to learn about the tool.
- It does not offer any deliverability insights and analytics.
- You should have the technical knowledge and skills to set up complex transactional email campaigns.
5. Mailgun
Mailgun is popular among technical individuals to set up a transactional email campaign. With a flexible API, Mailgun practically offers integration with all systems and applications. The free trial of Mailgun allows you to send 5,000 free emails per month while the paid plans cost $35, $90, and custom pricing for enterprise packages.
Pros
- Email validation options.
- A large collection of third-party integrations for customization options.
- High deliverability rates.
Cons
- Extremely slow support system.
- Lack of logging and searching options.
- Users have complained about email delivery speed issues.
6. SMTP
The team behind SMTP is quite lucky and smart to have gotten this domain name. It makes the company look like the primary authority on the SMTP email standard. While the company promises excellent deliverability, it does not have a free trial plan, so you cannot evaluate it.
Pros
- The platform uses modern security protocols and SSL encryption to ensure maximum privacy.
- SMTP has a user-friendly interface with powerful analytical tools.
Cons
- SMTP is quite expensive for small businesses, with its Starter Plan costing $80 for 100,000 emails.
- It lacks transactional email templates and automation tools.
- SMTP's customer support is slow and often inconsistent.
7. Zepto
Zepto is a tool from Zoho that is known for its wide-ranging CRM. Zepto is specifically meant to handle transactional emails. Its Pro plan costs $2.50 for 10,000 emails. ZeptoMail also has a large collection of email templates you can use to craft transactional emails.
Pros
- Zepto has affordable plans, and you can subscribe to fulfill your transactional email requirements.
- It has a simple and easy-to-navigate interface.
Cons
- Zepto has an approval process that takes time, so you cannot get quick access to it.
- Zepto has limited integration options.
8. Brevo
Brevo, which was previously known as Sendinblue, has a large variety of email marketing features. Automation tools, transactional email campaigns, ads, and analytics are the main features of Brevo.
Pros
- Brevo is a complete email management software, along with a CRM.
- The platform has a free plan that offers 9,000 free transactional emails.
Cons
- Brevo does not have a flexible pricing model.
- Brevo’s deliverability rate is average, so many transactional emails can fail in the process.
9. Elastic Email
Elastic Email is a complete email marketing solution and handling transactional emails is a significant part of this platform. It has a variety of email templates. If you want to send 100 emails per day, you can use the free plan of Elastic Email.
Pros
- Elastic email has affordable pricing plans.
- Live customer support.
Cons
- Elastic Email has a poor deliverability system, with many of its emails going into spam.
- There are many additional features of Elastic Email that make its interface quite complicated.
10. Mailjet
Mailjet was primarily a newsletter software provider, but it now covers transactional emails as part of its wide-ranging features. The platform has a drag-and-drop email editor that allows you to customize your transactional emails.
Pros
- Mailjet has an impressive free plan that supports 6,000 emails per month.
- It has a high and reliable deliverability rate.
Cons
- Mailjet transactional email service is quite complicated to set up.
Part 4: Details of the Best Transactional Email Services
Let’s tabulate the differences between the top 10 transactional email services so you can choose the best platform to fulfill your transactional email marketing requirements:
Conclusion
Considering the various features, benefits, and examples of transactional email platforms discussed throughout this article, it is evident that a transactional email service can take your business to the next level. It increases engagement and helps you make a reputable name in the market.
Suppose you want to check out the best transactional email platform. In that case, you should consider signing up on EngageLab for a free trial and use its varying features to fulfill your transactional email requirements. Ultimately, a reputable and effective tool like EngageLab can help you automate transactional emails as much as possible and help you focus on other core activities.
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