10 transactional email best practices with examples

When it comes to high-volume email sending, brands typically rely on two major types: marketing and transactional.

Can you guess which gets more engagement?

Transactional emails – those triggered messages tied to customer actions – get up to 8x more opens and clicks than promotional emails. And when it comes to ROI, they generate 6x more revenue. That spells real opportunity.

Walk through 10 transactional email best practices below to improve your deliverability, reinforce brand consistency, and make every message count. Real-world examples included.

What are transactional emails?

A transactional email is an automated message triggered by a customer’s interaction with your brand. Unlike batch-and-blast emails sent to a list, transactional emails are 1:1 and event-driven. And because they serve a functional need – often time-sensitive – they tend to have extremely high open rates.

Common types include:

• Order confirmations
• Shipping and delivery notifications
• Password reset instructions
• Subscription renewals or cancellations
• Payment receipts or invoices
• Account verification or security alerts

While they might not carry the creative flair of a marketing campaign, transactional messages play a key role in CX, retention, and trust.

How are transactional emails different from marketing emails?

Purpose and legal classification are what set transactional and marketing emails apart.

If you add too much promotional content to a transactional email, it may be reclassified as marketing and become subject to stricter regulatory scrutiny. That can impact your deliverability, sender reputation, and compliance risk.

If the email can’t function without the promotional message, it’s still transactional. If it can, it’s best to tread carefully.

Read on to learn 10 best practices for preventing your transactional emails from getting blocklisted, filtered into spam, or ignored.

1. Avoid using “no-reply” email addresses

Using “no-reply@yourdomain.com” might seem like a convenient way to filter out unwanted contact. But it’s considered bad practice from both a user experience and deliverability standpoint.

Why? Because:

• Many inbox providers (like Gmail and Outlook) flag “no-reply” emails as impersonal and may send them to spam
• Customers who need help may feel frustrated if they can’t reply or ask a question
• It prevents you from collecting valuable customer feedback or support signals

Instead, use a monitored sender address (e.g. “support@yourdomain.com”) or include a clear callout with contact options.

Example: In this no-reply order confirmation from Crocs, the brand at least links out to help resources. But they miss an opportunity to create a more seamless support loop.

2. Craft clear, relevant subject lines and preheaders

Your subject line and preheader are your transactional email’s first impression.

Best practices:

• Keep subject lines under 60 characters
• Pair it with a 70-100 character preheader to provide context
• Make the action or update crystal clear: “Your password has been reset” or “Your refund is on its way”
• Use dynamic content where possible to personalize your message: “Hi [first name], your favorite [product name] is back in stock”

Example: Garmin’s subject line below (“Thanks for registering your Forerunner 45”) is instantly understandable, and the preview text nicely cues up next steps, reinforcing the email’s relevance.

3. Authenticate your email domain (SPF, DKIM, DMARC)

Email authentication protocols are non-negotiable for maintaining deliverability and preventing spoofing – especially when sending transactional messages from your domain.

Here’s a quick technical primer:

• SPF (Sender Policy Framework): Specifies which mail servers are allowed to send on your behalf.
• DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail): Cryptographically signs outgoing messages to prove the content hasn’t been altered.
• DMARC (Domain-based Message, Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance): Adds reporting and enforcement to SPF and DKIM, giving ISPs instructions on what to do if authentication fails.

Why it matters: Without proper authentication, inbox providers are more likely to send your messages to spam – or reject them entirely.

Pro tip: Publish a DMARC policy with a reporting address to monitor domain abuse and SPF/DKIM misconfigurations.

4. Boost engagement using social media links

Transactional emails can serve double-duty – providing valuable information and subtly nudging customers to engage further. Adding social media icons in your footer gives users a chance to explore your brand on other channels without veering into promotional territory.

Best practices:

• Use small, universally recognizable icons
• Place them in the footer or bottom third of your layout
• Avoid large CTAs or overt marketing language in transactional content

Example: Depop places social links in their email footer, creating a light-touch omnichannel bridge and facilitating further connection with the brand.

5. Use separate domains and IPs for marketing and transactional sends

Deliverability 101: Mixing marketing and transactional email on the same IP address or sending domain is a gamble.

If your promotional sends trigger spam complaints, bounces, or low engagement, it can tank your sender reputation. If you send transactional emails from the same address, that can affect their performance, too – even if those emails are perfectly clean.

Best practices:

• Use a dedicated subdomain for system-generated messages
• Route marketing and transactional sends through different IPs (shared or dedicated, depending on your volume)
• Monitor performance separately using tools like Google Postmaster Tools or your ESP’s reporting dashboards

Example: Amazon knows a thing or two about transactional emails. Operating on such a large scale means they need to use multiple IP addresses to maintain seamless email processes across all business functions. They use “account-update” for this password reset email and “store-news” for certain promotional content – keeping each function compartmentalized and optimized.

6. Include a plain text version of every email

Enhancing accessibility by including a plain text version of your email is crucial to catering to a diverse audience. Some email clients, security tools, or accessibility apps only support or prioritize plain text. By excluding it, you risk cutting off part of your audience or triggering deliverability flags.

Technical tips:

• Ensure your plain text version closely mirrors your HTML content
• Avoid stuffing it with tracking links or hidden characters
• Many ESPs will auto-generate a plain text fallback – but it’s worth manually reviewing for formatting and clarity

Example: The food-saving app Too Good To Go offers both clean HTML and readable plain text versions of their transactional emails for accessibility across devices and user preferences.

7. Use a recognizable sender name and BIMI branding

We all skim inboxes. If your sender name is ambiguous or seems suspicious, it’s an automatic red flag.

Fix it with:

• A friendly but clear “From” name: “Acme Customer Support” instead of just “Acme”
• A recognizable sender address (no “xyz123@mailer.yourdomain.com”)
• BIMI (Brand Indicators for Message Identification) lets you attach your brand logo to authenticated emails in inboxes that support it (like Gmail and Yahoo). This emerging standard boosts trust and brand recall.

Example: This refund confirmation email from ASOS ticks all the boxes. The “From” email (orders@asos.com) states the purpose upfront, there’s no ambiguity about who the sender is, and any subject line containing the word “refund” is bound to bring a smile to your face.

8. Make your templates responsive and dark-mode friendly

It’s estimated that 50-60% of email opens come from mobile devices. When sending millions of transactional emails, you want to make sure they look good on every device and screen size – from smartphones to large-screen desktops.

Responsive email design best practices:

• Use fluid layouts with flexible widths and percentage-based sizing
• Set max-width limits for readability
• Don’t rely on hover states or desktop-only interactions
• Optimize images for fast load times and high DPI screens
• Support dark mode with transparent PNGs and dark-compatible fonts/colors
• Use an email preview tool to simulate your message across dozens of clients and screen sizes.

Example: Look how this transactional email from Revolut is perfectly sized on a mobile device. The font is legible, there’s no need to scroll to see a call to action, and the design factors in dark mode.

Here’s the same email displayed on a laptop screen. The graphic adjusts to fit the wider screen, and more whitespace surrounds the email copy. Beautiful! 🤌

9. Reflect your brand’s tone and design – even in system-generated emails

Just because transactional emails are functional doesn’t mean they have to be sterile. They should still “feel” like your brand in voice, tone, and visual identity. 

Certain types of transactional emails, such as a password reset, probably don’t leave much room for creativity. But others – like an order update or subscription confirmation – are perfect opportunities to convey and showcase your brand personality while still communicating the relevant details of your message.

Example: This trial-ending email speaks to Revolut’s target audience through its unique voice and fun, conversational tone. More importantly, they use the opportunity to build trust and show customers they care about their experience by using language like “we’re not one of those companies that hopes you don’t notice your trial expire so we can cash in.”

10. Make your email footer work harder

The footer of a transactional email is often overlooked. But it’s valuable real estate that can serve both compliance and convenience.

What to include:

• Contact information and support links
• Privacy policy and terms of service
• Social media icons
• Unsubscribe link (for hybrid transactional/marketing emails or optional updates)
• “Add us to your safe senders” link to improve inbox placement

Example: Cult Beauty transforms their email footer into a mini resource hub, making it easy for customers to get help, update preferences, or re-engage with content.

Transactional email as part of your cross-channel engagement strategy

Transactional emails are often treated as background noise – set-it-and-forget messages that quietly do their job unless something breaks. But they deserve more attention. These messages land at critical moments in the customer experience, and they carry weight: a confirmation, an update, a sense that everything’s working as it should with your brand.

Email is often the go-to channel for these transactional updates, but it’s not the only one your customers use (or expect). Whether it’s a shipping alert, password reset, or account notification, people want that information to show up wherever they are, whether that’s their inbox, their phone lock screen, or inside your mobile app.

That’s where MessageGears comes in.

As the only customer engagement platform built directly on your data warehouse, MessageGears gives you live access to your full dataset – no syncing, no staging, no outdated copies. That means when a customer takes an action, you can instantly trigger a transactional email, push notification, SMS, or in-app message, all based on the most current information available.

​​And because everything runs off your existing data architecture, you’re not managing parallel systems or struggling to keep things in sync. You’re using the same real-time data to deliver consistent messages across every touchpoint.

With MessageGears, transactional emails become part of a larger, coordinated system – not just one-off confirmations, but timely, trusted messages that keep your customers informed and your brand experience consistent.

Want to see how it works in practice? Learn how enterprise brands are using MessageGears to level up their transactional messaging.