Transactional mailings are mailings that are based on a business relationship between two entities; these mailings are considered "business as usual." They range from bills to receipts to any other transaction-based communication. However, while transactional mailings are typically considered outside the realm of typical email marketing communications, Higher Logic Thrive Marketing Professional (Thrive Marketing Professional) has you covered when you need to manage your transactional mailings through the Transactional Module.

In Thrive Marketing Professional, transactional mailings are very similar to other mailings in that you'll use things like a template and , a target group. A transactional mailing, however, can also have a PDF attachment that contains information about the transaction at hand (such as an invoice). In fact, transactional mailings do not even have to contain standard Thrive Marketing Professional mailing content such as stories, they can simply consist of the template and attached PDF.

The Transactional Module allows for greater efficiency when you are able to couple your transactional mailings with your regular mailings — especially if you are using an integrated database.

Templates

When working with a transactional mailing, there are two types of templates you'll need to consider. The first is the standard mailing template that is used for most Thrive Marketing Professional mailings, and the second is a unique transactional template called an attachment template.

Attachment Template

The attachment template tells Thrive Marketing Professional how the attachment should look. The data placed in that template is merged from your recipient data file or SQL view and then placed into the template for each mailing recipient.

NOTE: Transactional mailings only accept personalization codes associated with the recipient data file or SQL View. They cannot accept other personalization fields.

Recipient Data File - The data that is merged into the attachment or transactional mailing can be pulled from a separate recipient data file that is uploaded when the transactional mailing is created. For example, if an invoice requires seven pieces of data: first name, last name, organization, amount due, due date, quantity of order, and date of order — all seven pieces of data for each transactional mailing must be a part of the uploaded recipient data file. See Recipient Data Files.

SQL View - You can use a SQL View from an iMIS integrated database to bring data into a transactional mailing. The database must contain the required data and they must be added to the SQL View so that they can be brought into the transactional mailing. See iMIS SQL Views.

Learn more about Recipient Data File and iMIS SQL View formats and importing rules in iMIS Transactional Mailings Formats.

Only iMIS SQL Views can be set as recurring transactional mailings.

• If a recurring mailing is sent immediately (Send Now), Thrive Marketing Professional overrides the "recurring" setting and the mailing is no longer sent on a recurring schedule.
• If a recurring mailing is set to On Hold, no additional mailings are sent.