Messages are considered "transactional" when they are based on a transaction between two parties. Transactional messages can be used to:

• acknowledge an action, such as remitting payment for a purchase or registering for an event.
• convey delivery/shipping details or tracking information.
• remind customers of upcoming deadlines and events.
• send an invoice or payment receipt to a customer.

Higher Logic Thrive Marketing Professional (Thrive Marketing Professional) includes a Transactional module that makes it easier to manage your transactional messages by keeping them distinct of the other messages that you create and send.

No "Unsubscribe" option requirement

One important distinction between transactional message and other messages (e.g., marketing messages) is that transactional messages are not required to have an Unsubscribe option for the recipients.

Based on the type of information that is being transmitted in the message, it is assumed that the recipients have voluntarily opted to receive messages that are related to their transaction.

Transactional message templates

As with the standard messages in your Thrive Marketing Professional account, you should create a template (or templates, depending on your needs) for your transactional messages. You have two options for transactional-message templates:

• a text-only template and
• an attachment template.

Text-only templates

These templates are similar to the standard message templates in your account with the difference being that there are no content areas in which you add stories. Transactional-message templates are much simpler by design because their intent is to convey, typically, very specific "transaction" information to the recipients.

To learn about creating and managing these templates, see Transactional Messages - Templates.

Attachment templates

Transactional messages can also have a PDF attachment that contains information about the transaction, such as an invoice or a receipt. These attachments can be downloaded by the recipient and more easily shared with others (e.g., colleagues, accounts department, managers) who might require them.

NOTE: PDF is the only file type that is supported by attachment templates.

The template tells the system which content to include in the attachment and how the content should be formatted.

The attachment is populated, uniquely for each message recipient, with data that is retrieved from either a recipient data file or a SQL view.

To learn about creating and managing these templates, see Transactional Messages - Attachment Template.

Transactional message reporting

Every time you send a transactional message, its metrics are recorded in the Mailing Activity Report (MAR). Each MAR is specific to one mailing.

See Transactional Message Reporting for more information.