Email templates: Marketing vs. Transactional
When choosing between marketing and transactional email templates, you must consider both your personalisation needs and unsubscribe features.
Here's an explanation of these email template options:
Marketing templates
Marketing email templates:
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Are ideal for emails focusing on individual personalisation such as first name, surname, or location, etc. These are called Contact Properties.
See Personalisation.
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Include a mandatory unsubscribe link in the footer, which you can replace with a link to your preference centre
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Are primarily used for promotional activities with simple personalisation using the individual contact properties, like a newsletter or birthday campaign
Transactional templates
Transactional email templates:
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Are suited for emails requiring more than basic personalisation, incorporating transactional data variables like last purchase or holiday destination.
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Have an optional unsubscribe link.
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Are typically used for contractual activities
Sub accounts
To manage these templates, Apteco offers two account types:
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Promotional – Allows opt-outs and supports both marketing and transactional templates
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Contractual – Only allows transactional email templates. This prevents recipients from unsubscribing because Apteco automatically adds an unsubscribe link to marketing templates, which is not appropriate for contractual emails
Important: When a customer unsubscribes from one email, they unsubscribe from receiving all emails from your sub account. This is why you need two Apteco email sub accounts - one Promotional and one Contractual. See Creating your Apteco email channel.
Choosing your template type
Before creating your template, ask yourself:
Does your email template:
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Need personalisation, such as first/last name?
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Require referencing data attributes like purchased products or loyalty credits?
If your answer is 'yes' to the first question:
Marketing templates are suitable, offering personalised contact properties.
If 'yes' to both questions:
Transactional templates are more appropriate, enabling a mix of contact properties and data attributes.
Note: While both template types can include unsubscribe mechanisms, marketing templates automatically contain one, while transactional templates require manual addition to the email footer.