Overview
Understanding the difference between transactional and marketing emails is essential for maintaining compliance and ensuring proper email deliverability. Groundhogg allows you to send both types of emails, but how they’re handled—and how recipients experience them—differs in important ways.
What Are Marketing Emails?
Marketing emails are designed to promote your business. They may include:
- Newsletters
- Promotions and discounts
- Product announcements
- Nurture sequences and flows
- Broadcasts to segments or lists
These emails require consent under laws like GDPR and CASL. Groundhogg respects a contact’s marketing preferences, and anyone who is marked as Unsubscribed or Complained will automatically be excluded from receiving them.
What Are Transactional Emails?
Transactional emails are sent in response to a specific user action or event. They are not promotional, and in most jurisdictions, do not require prior consent. These emails include:
- Password reset emails
- Order confirmations and receipts
- Appointment reminders
- Account creation notifications
- Form submission confirmations
Even if a user has unsubscribed from marketing emails, they are still eligible to receive transactional emails that are directly related to their activity.
How to Mark an Email as Transactional
By default, all emails in Groundhogg start as marketing emails. To mark an email as transactional…
- Go to Groundhogg » Emails and edit the email you want to use.
- In the sidebar settings, change the Message Type to Transactional
- Save your changes.
Once updated, the email will bypass unsubscribe filters and send to all contacts, regardless of subscription status.
Different SMTP Services for Marketing & Transactional Emails
In Groundhogg you can use different email SMTP service providers for marketing and transactional emails. Go to Groundhogg » Settings » Email to see which services you have installed and configured. You may have to install another SMTP integration to use more than one service.
Best Practices
Be clear and consistent
Only mark emails as transactional if they are strictly informational and tied to an expected action.
Don’t sneak in promotions
Adding marketing content to a transactional email may violate compliance laws. If you want to promote something, use a separate marketing email.
Log key events
Use the activity timeline to verify that transactional emails are being sent as expected. You can see every email sent to a contact, whether marketing or transactional.
FAQs
Q: Can I send a welcome email as transactional?
A: Only if it’s confirming account creation or access. If it contains promotional content or invites the user to take additional actions, it should be classified as marketing.
Q: What happens if I send a marketing email as transactional?
A: This can lead to legal and deliverability issues. Some SMTP providers may flag or block misuse of transactional email flags.
Q: Will unsubscribed contacts receive transactional emails?
A: Yes, if the email is correctly marked as transactional, it will bypass unsubscribe status.
Q: Can I send both types in the same flow?
A: Yes. Just make sure each email is appropriately flagged based on its purpose.
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