What Is a Confirmation Email?
You may ask yourself what types of confirmation emails are out there, but think of confirmation emails you've received. Whether you read an email that welcomed you to a subscriber list or got shipping information for a recent purchase, you've been sent more confirmation emails than you realize
Unsurprisingly, 85% of users claim that less than half of the emails they get are useful. A confirmation email is one way to strengthen the relationship between your business and the consumer. Luckily, a confirmation email is most definitely useful and expected by everyone making an order, subscription, or registration.
Who knew this email necessity was also a great marketing strategy?
We'll go over the confirmation emails for all types of customers or leads your business needs. Especially if you are to have a subscription list, service, or product clients sign up for and receive. We'll also give you examples of each. Let's get started!
Jump to...
- What Is a Confirmation Email?
- Different Types of Confirmation Email Messages
- The Order of Sending Confirmation Emails
- What to Look for in a Confirmation Email Template
- Confirmation Email Examples
- How to Send Confirmation Emails Efficiently
- What's Next?
Confirmation Emails for Clients or Customers
Before looking at each of the four main types of confirmation emails, every company must consider the customers they already have and the leads they hope to convert into customers.
Let's review some things to include when you know you're sending a confirmation message to a current customer.
- Your customer is probably already subscribed to your list. This means they don't need any type of welcome message.
- You can make all messages, even confirmation emails, personal. Customers like seeing their name in email messages.
- The subject line should be more direct and to the point.
Customers who are familiar with your company are well-acquainted with the types of marketing message you send from time to time, so they don't need a confirmation email that also includes information about your business. They likely also remember how your confirmation should appear, so it's best to not stray from the simplicity or style of template you've used in the past.
Confirmation Emails for Leads
Now let's make sure you understand the direction your confirmation emails should take when addressing leads. Leads are not as familiar with your business. They may have received a welcome email that describes what your business is and what your brand message is.
Your confirmation emails should still acknowledge that the receiver is a potential customer. The type of message you send leads within your confirmation emails should:
- have the main subject be an enticing marketing pitch to register for a service or buy a product
- give the option to have your new audience member give feedback on your business or website
- direct your new lead to your website
- give the subscriber a great proposition value.
Essentially, you will be giving more than just a confirmation to the subscriber that they completed registration. Confirmation emails don't always mean your leads will automatically become customers because they signed up to receive messages. Remember, there's no better time to convert a lead than when they first sign up.
Different Types of Confirmation Email Messages
There are four primary types of confirmation emails. Some of these confirmation email messages can be considered part of a welcome email. And a few of the messages sent in the confirmation emails can be combined in any creative way you like.
Let's start with going over what you need to build a subscription confirmation email.
Subscription Confirmation: Build Trust with Your Customer
A subscription confirmation email may be part of a welcome message as well as a call-to-action for the receiver.
1) Treat Like a Welcome Email: Include a CTA Button
If subscribing to your newsletter or any company updates for the first time, you will want to welcome your new lead. If applicable, you will want to include an option for them to confirm their email address. This will ensure your contact list won't have any hard-bounces.
If you need to have the subscriber to confirm they want to receive emails, you'll want to give a call-to-action (CTA) button where they can confirm their subscription. Don't forget to mention that if the contact received the message by mistake, they can ignore the email.
2) Thank Subscriber for Signing Up
Along with thanking the lead for signing up, don't forget to give the lead a rundown of what types of emails they can expect to receive. You may be able to give them their account login as well.
3) Tell a Little about Your Business
Give your new lead a reason to stick with your brand to see what you can offer. You can talk about information such as your brand's message or what products sell out quickly.
Suggesting what to buy to a lead towards the end of your email shows you are not pushy but also gives you a chance to make the new subscriber a loyal customer.
4) Give Business Contact Info
This potential customer may need your contact information if they have questions about how to redeem a particular deal or make changes to their account.
Booking Confirmation Email
Booking information can be for various industries that are not reserved just for the travel industry. Let's go over the different types of reservation booking pieces you'll need to add in this type of confirmation email.
1) Treat Like a "Thank You" Message
Always thank the customer or client for booking a reservation. They are not so much a subscriber or lead as they are a customer at this point.
2) Give Info as You Would For Order Confirmation Emails
Usually a reservation includes a date, time, and place. When booking anything travel related or restaurant related, make sure your email builder can automatically put this information for the customer to view in their email.
The following types of bookings will need to have one or more details listed:
- Flights
- Restaurant reservations
- Hotels
- Car rentals
- Tours or events
3) Include Business Details
Give the customer options to change the appointment or booking. Oftentimes, customers have questions about their bookings, so include links to reservation changes, cancellations, or booking details other than date, time, and place.
Order Confirmation Email
An order confirmation email should have the following items listed within the body of the email.
1) Order Number
A unique order number gives the consumer a reference number for their purchase in case they need to return it or have questions about it.
2) Give Summary of Customer Contact Info
You will need to list their email or phone number so the user knows this is the correct contact information in case of any discrepancies or questions about the order.
3) Confirm Shipping Address
One of the most important things to add to the body of the email is the shipping address where the purchase will be delivered.
4) Give Details of the Order
Details of the purchase can contain individual items (and images!) as well as the date the purchase was made.
5) Give Breakdown of the Cost
Did your customer use a coupon code? They will want to make sure they are paying the correct price for each item as well as see that whatever discount they had was applied.
6) Confirm the Payment Method
Did they pay via PayPal or with a Discover credit card? When showing this in the body of the email, ensure that the full credit card number is not listed, only the four last digits.
7) Give Details of Shipping Method and Estimated Arrival
You can give a link to the shipping in a separate email or place a button that takes users to a page where they can track their order.
8) Give Your Business Contact Info
Wherever you put your business information, such as a customer service email or phone number, make sure it is not hard to find for the user.
Registration Confirmation Email
1) Add Similar Info as the Order Confirmation Email
You will want to confirm in the email the time and date the registration was made just as you would with a purchase order confirmation email.
2) Add Similar Info as a Welcome Email
Always welcome the customer and thank them for registering if they are new to your platform or business.
3) Give Details of the Registration Benefits
Registration confirmation emails are one of a kind because they focus on an event. This means there could be a series of events that you may want users to sign up for.
List what the webinar or event will be about and how it gives value to the user. It's like sneaking in a marketing message. They are then likely to come back to register for future events.
4) Give Helpline or Business Contact Info
One of the last things you should add to the body of the email is a link to your customer service or contact phone number, if applicable. Users appreciate someone to call if they have issues with their registration.
The Order of Sending Confirmation Emails
This all depends on the type of confirmation emails you are sending. They can fall into one of the two categories above, but they can also expand into subcategories.
All in all, sending a series of confirmation emails can do four (if not more) things for your business. So, what are the email messages and when should you send them?
1) Always Send a Welcome Message
The first thing you do when you see a new contact engage with your brand? Welcome them to your business "family" while also showing them what value your business can be to them.
In some cases with a current contact, your welcome email will be more of a thank you email. This can be optional for those customers who have ordered products.
2) Next, Send an Order Details Email
As mentioned before, this could be your first email delivery to a customer if they are not a new contact. You've already done the conversion part, so it's time to simply thank them for their order request!
Give details of their order to confirm that your business did indeed get all the correct purchase information from the customer, such as payment method and products in the order.
3) Shipping Information, If Applicable
This third email may be one of two if you wish to send a shipping confirmation as well as a delivery confirmation for certain orders.
Many companies will send different emails with very different subject lines to distinguish between the date when a product ships out to the customer and when the product is delivered.
Your shipping information should include the tracking number. You can have this information on your website and share that link to the buyer or simply include the link of the shipping method. Whether it's UPS, USPS, etc.
4) Optional Product Review or Survey Email
Have you ever received an email asking you to review your latest purchase? This may get to your inbox a week or so after receiving the product.
Businesses will request users give feedback on their order to not only help them improve a product but to also place on their website for marketing purposes. This is something to add to your confirmation email series, but it is optional.
What to Look for in a Confirmation Email Template
Let's see what one needs in an email builder if they are going to be sending confirmation emails or a receipt type of email.
1) Payment Widget Option
Does your email template automatically show the customer their payment method once it is received for purchasing or booking a service or product?
2) Add Images of Purchased Items
You have likely bought items online in the past, whether it was a downloadable software program or clothing from an online store. Did you get a confirmation email that the business received your order? And did you also see images of, for example, the clothes you ordered?
Adding images gives the customer further comfort in knowing that their order was received correctly. Make sure your email template can process and show the customer images of the products in their order.
3) Ability to Display Secure Info
This is important for order confirmation emails, but showing personal, sensitive information is good to show the customers. This info does not have to be shown completely in the email for security reasons. For example, you will not necessarily want to show the customer's entire credit card number. But you may want to show the type of payment and the last four digits of the card used that is on file.
Other info that you may want to securely show are:
- Shipping information
- Payment Method
- even the customer's name and email address
4) Track Shipment Button
If shipping a product from an order, your confirmation email template should have a button widget as a choice that you can connect to FedEx, UPS, USPS, or other shipping method.
Email templates may include this option in an automation email category. If they do not, make sure your email builder can automatically send shipping info when a products ships to a customer.
You can also want to send a confirmation email when the customer's package is delivered!
5) Links to FAQs Page or Other Webpage
Every company wants customers who are happy with their products, but it's more than likely that customers will have questions about something. Always include a link to your FAQs page or at least your website or contact page.
Confirmation Email Examples
We hope these examples of each type of confirmation email will inspire you to make creative adjustments to your templates.
Remember, users will make or confirm an appointment based on a good confirmation email, resulting in less no-shows.
1) Subscription Confirmation
Ad courtesy of Waze.
For someone who did a quick sign up, this subscription confirmation email has a short and sweet message. The call-to-action is also simple to find as the business wants to confirm the customer's email address.
2) Booking Confirmation
Courtesy of Blind Barber.
This is a great example from this barber shop because they include a link to have clients manage their appointment if needed.
3) Order Confirmation
Courtesy of tens.
See how clear this example makes it see what this customer ordered just from images? This customer will also get to see their order details.
Here we have an example of a shipping confirmation email that still includes the buyer's order info. Notice how easy it is for the customer to read and understand where to click to get their order's tracking information.
4) Registration Confirmation
Courtesy of Wishpond.
One thing to keep in mind for a registration confirmation email is that it is similar to a subscription email but with more details to give.
Registering for a webinar or event will garner more information to get to the recipient, such as date and time.
How to Send Confirmation Emails Efficiently
1) Create Opt-in Email Lists
An opt-in email list includes all of the contacts that have willingly given their email addresses. This will save you from having too many hard-bounces.
If you do come up any problems, our Messaging App can monitor your hard-bounces and give you data analysis on how your campaigns are doing.
2) Select/ Create Email Trigger
When creating your confirmation email, remember to add certain triggers that will signal to send a particular email based on a pre-defined event.
3) Build Conditions for Email Automations
You can learn more about confirmation email automation and scheduling these automations from our article How to Create an Automation.
You can't have triggers without a condition. Try to think of all the conditions your audience would make while engaging with your business.
For example, one contact may subscribe to a newsletter instead of opting in for emails. This is a condition that would trigger a newsletter email confirmation in particular.
4) Create the Email Workflow
Go through our examples of confirmation emails. Decide which email series you'd like to manage and send to a customer who purchases your products.
Would you like to send a delivery email to your customers who place an order or would you rather send just a shipping confirmation email? It's up to you!
What's Next?
If your confirmation email contains any of the top tools or elements in the examples, your marketing game just improved. Not just your sales or ability to keep those loyal customers.
Make sure when a customer makes a purchase or subscribes, they immediately get a confirmation email. Confirmation emails are the perfect way to strengthen a rapport with your clients.
Inboxes are littered with spam and useless emails every day. Our Messaging app can also help you target the right audience. Check out our high-converting templates today!
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