Pixieset includes different ways to communicate with your clients. Some emails help clients access a gallery, review a contract, or pay an invoice, while others are designed to promote your business, share updates, or encourage future bookings.
Keeping service-related communication separate from promotional content helps ensure important client emails remain focused and relevant. This article will cover the two primary email types and why it is important to keep your communications aligned with email best practices.
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Transactional vs marketing emails
The most important distinctions between transactional and marketing-style emails are their primary purpose and how they are prompted (or triggered).
| Email type | Purpose | How they are prompted/triggered | Pixieset feature |
|---|---|---|---|
| Transactional (one-to-one) | Helps an individual client access, review, complete, or confirm a specific action | By a specific action related to a service or client workflow | Gallery sharing, invoices, contracts, booking confirmations, or expiry reminders |
| Marketing-style (one-to-many) | Promotes an offer, update, sale, or business opportunity to multiple clients | By explicit consent from the client to receive business news and promotions | Email campaigns, such as for print sales, mini sessions, newsletters, seasonal promotions, review requests |
Transactional emails include:
- A gallery share email that helps your client access their gallery.
- An invoice email that instructs your client review and pay an invoice.
- A contract email that reminds your client to review and sign a contract.
Marketing emails include:
- An email promoting a print sale in your client galleries.
- An email announcing limited time services like mini sessions.
- An email sharing general business updates or seasonal hours.
Why keep them separate?
From a delivery standpoint, combining or using transactional and marketing emails interchangeably risks your emails being filtered or placed in your client’s spam inbox. Depending on their primary purpose, your emails may also be subject to anti-spam laws such as the U.S. CAN-SPAM Act. Non-compliance with these laws can result in monetary penalties.
Because of this, it is important to keep your transactional emails and marketing emails separate, and true to their primary purpose:
- Transactional emails are for service-related communications. For example, keep your collection share emails focused on delivering the gallery to the client, rather informing them about an upcoming sale.
- Marketing emails are for promotional communications. For example, your email campaign can alert clients that explicitly consented to news and promotions that you have upcoming mini sessions.
Tip: For more guidance, see Best practices for sending transactional emails in Pixieset.