What is a transactional email?
A transactional email is a one-to-one, event-triggered message sent to a user after they take a specific action. These are not promotional or batch emails they’re timely, personal, and often expected.
Common examples include:
Sign-up confirmation emails
Password reset links
Order and shipping updates
Payment receipts and invoices
OTPs and account alerts
Because of their utility and timeliness, transactional emails typically see higher open and engagement rates than marketing emails, making them a crucial touchpoint to track and optimize.
To understand how your transactional emails are performing, you need to look beyond delivery and follow the full user journey — from trigger to interaction. Here’s a step-by-step breakdown of what to track:
1. Emails sent
This shows the number of emails triggered and dispatched from your system. A sudden drop in sent emails could indicate an issue with how events are configured.
2. Emails delivered
Delivery rate tells you how many of those sent emails actually reached the user's inbox. Poor delivery could mean problems with sender authentication, domain setup, or user data quality.
3. Emails opened (AMP vs HTML)
Open rate indicates how many recipients viewed your email. Mailmodo lets you track this separately for AMP and HTML versions, helping you assess which format is more engaging.
Low open rates may signal issues with your subject line, sender name, or inbox placement.
4. Emails clicked
Click rate shows how many users clicked on any link or button within your email, such as confirming an email address, viewing an invoice, or tracking an order..
If you're using AMP-based emails with interactive elements — such as forms, polls, or feedback widgets — you can track how many users completed an action directly within the email.
This goes beyond a click and reflects true intent and engagement. It’s especially useful for things like:
Onboarding surveys
Preference updates
Post-purchase feedback
6. Trends over time
Tracking how these metrics evolve over time helps you benchmark performance and spot underperforming campaigns.
Are your password reset emails consistently underperforming? Is engagement improving after template updates? These insights guide optimization efforts.
In Mailmodo, you can track transactional email performance under a campaign, go to trigger Emails. Within this section, three main tabs provide comprehensive insights:
Transactional campaign dashboard
This is the primary dashboard that offers a high-level summary of how each transactional campaign performs.. You can view:
Overview of scheduled, sent, delivered, opened, clicked, submissions, bounces, unsubscribes, and blocked emails
Engagement trends over time
Top email clients used by recipients
Link performance
Submissions tab
For AMP emails with interactive elements, the Submissions tab shows how many users completed embedded actions — like submitting a form or survey.
You can also track:
Click Map
Mailmodo’s Click Map shows a visual breakdown of where users are clicking within your email. Within the analytics, you will get:
Overview of link performance for HTML and AMP emails across all devices
Unique clicks on web links
Detailed link performance
Final thoughts
Transactional emails aren’t just operational messages — they’re high-value interactions with engaged users. When measured properly, they become powerful levers to improve conversions, user trust, and lifetime value.
With Mailmodo, you can track every part of the journey — from send to submission — using intuitive dashboards built specifically for triggered and transactional campaigns.
If you're ready to unlock the full potential of your transactional emails, Mailmodo gives you the data and tools to do it.
