Transactional messaging allows you to send order-related, non-marketing texts through Postscript to a unique category of subscriber: a transactional-only subscriber.
By sending transactional messages to non-marketing subscribers, you can:
- Give your customers a one-to-one relationship with your brand via SMS.
- Get ahead of order-related inquiries using the responses tab and sentiment tags, your shop's help desk, or Slack to respond directly and promptly to transactional-only subscribers.
- Reduce order-related inquiries by proactively providing customers with timely order updates.
In this article, we'll compare marketing and transactional subscribers, guide you through the message approval process, and take a look at transactional analytics.
Comparing Marketing and Transactional Subscribers
Because marketing subscribers have consented to receive marketing or promotional messaging from your brand, you can send your marketing subscribers promotional automations using transactional triggers (e.g. Order in Transit, Attempted Delivery, Order Created, etc.).
On the other hand, when transactional subscribers opt-in by placing an order, they agree to receive only order-related, non-marketing text messages from your brand.
Because these subscribers do not agree to receive marketing messaging, the content and tone of transactional text messages are different than the marketing messaging your brand might be used to sending.
View the information below to get a better understanding of the differences and similarities between transactional and marketing subscribers and how you can communicate with both types of subscribers.
If a transactional-only subscriber opts in via a regular marketing process (e.g. keyword or checkout), Postscript will upgrade them from a transactional-only subscriber to a marketing subscriber so they can begin receiving both your promotional and transactional messages.
If a subscriber opts out of your SMS marketing, they can still opt into transactional-only SMS when they enter their shipping phone number at checkout the next time they place an order. They are able to opt-out of transactional messaging at any time by replying STOP.
To see if a specific subscriber is transactional, you can check their subscriber profile by entering their phone number using the search icon in the upper left corner of the navigation bar.
If someone is a transactional-only subscriber, this will also be denoted on any responses you receive from them within the responses tab.
Automation Flows Approval Process
There are three steps to the approval process for automation flows: selecting a transactional trigger, requesting approval, and receiving approval.
When you select an automation trigger that is transactional in nature (this includes Fulfillment Created, Order Created, Order Delivered, Order Fulfilled, or Order in Transit), you will see a Mark as a transactional message checkbox. When you check the checkbox, you will experience a popup notifying you that this action cannot be undone and that your message cannot contain any promotional language.
To ensure the automation message meets compliance requirements, the approval process is required each time an automation flow is marked as transactional. When you save, schedule, or activate the flow, it will move to an Approval Pending status.
Once the flow is approved by the Postscript team, the flow will be moved to an Activated status.
Legacy Automation Approval Process
With legacy automations, the approval process is required each time a transactional automation is created or edited to ensure the automation message meets compliance requirements. We recommend crafting your message in one to two edits to make the approval process more efficient for your brand.
There are three steps to the approval process. Selecting a Transactional Template, Requesting Approval, and Receiving Approval. This process is shown in the GIF above. You can also learn more about each step using the tabs below.
You can choose a Transactional Message template from our Automations Library. Each template includes one of the following triggers: Attempted Delivery, Order Created, Order Delivered, Order in Transit, or Order Out For Delivery.
Once your template is selected from the Automations Library, you will need to submit the automation for review to our Compliance team.
Pre-approved, unmodified templates located within our Automations Library are approved quicker than custom messages or templated messages that have been modified. Any modifications to the templated message can cause delays in the approval process.
Sending non-compliant messages to transactional-only subscribers can put your SMS program at risk.
Our process has guardrails in place to make sure your brand can utilize transactional messaging to its fullest potential while upholding compliance standards. To do so, we mark each transactional automation as Transactional within Automation Properties, review each transactional automation to ensure there is no marketing language, and then approve the automation once we confirm compliance.
This process ensures that transactional-only subscribers are receiving only order-related, non-marketing messages from your shop. Postscript will only send order-related, non-marketing messages to transactional-only subscribers if the automation has the Transactional - Approved stamp of approval under Automation Properties.
After selecting your transactional template, your shop can submit an automation for review to the Postscript Compliance Team from the Automation Properties page by selecting the dropdown below Transactional and selecting Yes - Requested.
If Postscript has not approved a trigger as transactional, then you will not see the transactional dropdown on the Automation Properties page.
Once our Compliance Team approves the automation, it is marked as Transactional Yes - Approved under Automation Properties. Following the approval, transactional-only and marketing subscribers who trigger the automation will begin receiving the automation.
Pre-approved and unmodified templated messages located within our Automations Library are approved quicker than custom messages or modified templated messages. Any modifications to the templated message can cause delays in the approval process.
If after you select your template, you modify the message and it is denied, your Customer Success Manager will notify you and work with you on crafting a compliant message. The automation's Transactional Message Approval status will remain Requested under Automation Properties.
Transactional settings can be disabled at any time, at which point delivery to transactional-only subscribers will end and delivery to marketing subscribers will continue.
Transactional Analytics
If you would like to see how many of your subscribers are transactional, you can navigate to Subscriber Analytics on the left navigation bar (nested under Analytics) within the Postscript app. Transactional Subscribers will show under the opt-in source Checkout.
It is important to note that at this time, the subscriber count on the left-side navigation panel reflects promotional subscribers only.
Additional Resources
- Interested in setting up transactional messaging, but not on the professional or enterprise plan? Get started here with Malomo.
- Alternatively, if you are already integrated with AfterShip, you can get started with transactional messaging here.
- Ready to get started with Postscript's native transactional messaging? Here's how you can begin setting up.
Get Support
Have questions? Please feel free to reach out to our wonderful Support team at support@postscript.io or via live chat. You can also submit a support request here!
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