Three Considerations for Writing a Shipping Notice

Jesse Richardson reports:

"As a business, there are two major types of email: commercial emails, which include marketing and company communications, and transactional emails. Transactional emails are based on specific actions (or inaction) taken by the customer, and are less of a 'bulk' type of email, and more of an official notice.
One of the most common transactional emails customers will experience in a subscription business is the shipping notice or tracking email. This is an automatic email, generated when the shipment for their box is initiated. (Think of any time you’ve ordered a product online. You likely received an email with a link to track your shipment.) When organizing shipping for your subscription, you’ll need to think about the notice you send...At the heart of a shipping notice (or transactional email of any type for that matter) is the correct information for the specific customer. It’s crucial to provide accurate information in the shipping notice, and by doing so, you can catch errors earlier and prevent questions from customers...The tracking email should be simple, and shouldn’t provide distractions with an overuse of color or graphics. It could be a plain-text email, meaning only the text and hyperlinks are used. At the same time, remember to stay personable. Say hello and show your personality, [but] just do it in a concise way...Lastly, if you’re including a call to action in the email, keep it simple. While this email isn’t meant to be a marketing-driven communication, you can try to inspire something unique – perhaps encouraging sharing, leaving a comment on a social network, or posting a picture. A quick way to direct them to your social networks can be to include graphics as links in the footer of the email...While you should keep the above in mind when crafting your shipping notice, don’t be afraid to test and adjust your style as needed. There may be unique ways to deliver this information without compromising clarity. As always, test, track, and confer with your team about how the changes have affected the customer experience."