NOTE: This article is for customers with the New Admin Experience interface (vertical left-navigation bar).



If your interface is different, view the "classic" version of this article.

Transactional Messages are email messages that are the direct result of a business transaction, such as a receipt or a shipment status update. Due to their nature -- and the implied agreed-upon communications between the two parties -- transactional messages are exempt from international regulations that require recipients be given the ability to unsubscribe from unwanted messages.

NOTE: Transactional Templates is an optional feature that is not enabled by default. To have it enabled in your account, create a case.

Accessing Templates

To access your templates:

1. Access the Admin interface.
2. Navigate to Messages > Assets > Templates.

TIP: On list pages, click a column header to sort on that column. Click the columns count below the list to add and remove columns in the current view.

TIP: Check the Transactional column to easily see which of your templates are configured for transactional messages.

Create a Transactional Template

ACCESSIBILITY: Any time you're designing webpage or email-based content, it's more important than ever to keep modern accessibility principles in mind. Because this article touches on content design, we recommend referring to Best Practices - Accessibility and its associated resources.

This section describes how to create a transactional template that your organization can use to send transactional messages.

1. On the Manage Templates page, click Create New.
2. In the dialog:

• Give the template a Name (required),
• Complete the Description field (recommended),
• Check the box to lock the themes (optional), and
• Check the Transactional Template box to make this a transactional template.

3. Click Create.
4. Work through the Zones and Design tabs of the Designer to build the look and layout of the template.
5. Save your design.
6. Return to the Manage Templates page and confirm that your new template is listed; be sure to check the Transactional column.

TIP: Publish the template so that it's available in your account.

Notes

Messages that are created based on a transactional template will not have an Unsubscribe link in the footer.

It can be helpful to have descriptive text in the footer of transactional templates about why the message does not have/require an Unsubscribe link. This could prevent recipients marking the message as spam.

Transactional messages can be included in any Message Category.

Change Template properties

You can switch unused templates (Messages column value is 0) between being transactional and non-transactional.

NOTE: You can change the transactional property of a template as long as it has not been used for a message that has been sent. Once a message has been sent, the template that it's based on becomes "locked" as that type of template.

1. On the Manage Templates page, select a template, and click Properties.
2. In the dialog, check or uncheck the Transactional Template box to change the property of the template.

3. Click Save.
4. Review the template listing to ensure the change was applied.

Use a Transactional Template

When selecting a template for a message, your transactional templates are not stored with your account's custom templates under Your Templates. Instead, they are in their own area: Transactional.

NOTE: You can limit who in your account has access to transactional templates. Learn how to set Template Permissions.

Transactional Messages

You don't, technically, create transactional messages. Rather, you set templates as transactional, and then any messages that are built on any one of those templates inherit that transactional property from the template.

When sending a transactional message, you’ll be prompted to check a box indicating your acknowledgement of the content being transactional.

Transactional messages will be sent to recipients who are:

• Unsubscribed from the Message Category
• Unsubscribed from all
• Auto suppressed due to inactivity

Transactional messages will not be sent to recipients with other unsubscribe and suppression types.

Related articles

Higher Logic provides the following articles as part of our commitment to international data-protection and rights-of-privacy regulations.

• Canada: Canada's Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL) and Canada's Anti-Spam Legislation
• European Union: GDPR Resources and EU Data Protection
• United States: CAN-SPAM and Anti-Spam Requirements