Content
What is Transactional Email?
A one-to-one email triggered by a specific user action or account relationship, such as a password reset or receipt.
Transactional emails are sent in response to an individual's action or to facilitate an agreed-upon transaction, including password resets, order confirmations, shipping notifications, and security alerts. Because the recipient expects them, they typically see very high open and engagement rates. Under CAN-SPAM their primary purpose is classified as transactional or relationship content, which exempts them from some requirements that apply to commercial mail, though deceptive headers are still prohibited.
Why it matters for cold email
Cold-email senders should keep transactional traffic on a separate subdomain and IP so that the strong, expected engagement of transactional mail is never contaminated by the lower reputation of cold outreach, and vice versa. Mixing the two streams lets a cold campaign's spam complaints drag down deliverability of password resets and receipts that the business actually depends on.
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