Learn the difference between transactional and marketing emails, and why Auctria emails should only be used for transactional messages.
Auctria emails are intended for Transactional Emails rather than Marketing Emails. Auctria has many pre-configured System Emails for use with your event. For an overview of their uses, see System Emails Summary.
Avoid Marketing Emails in Auctria
Sending marketing-style emails through Auctria can lead to spam reports, which can cause email providers to block Auctria emails for everyone using that provider. Use a third-party email service for marketing emails instead. See Marketing Email Alternatives.
The Differences
These are the general definitions of each type of email, and how they apply to Auctria.
| Marketing Emails | Transactional Emails | |
|---|---|---|
| Purpose | "Advertise" an event. | Provide information the participant is expecting. |
| Recipients | Groups of contacts, often prospective participants. Sent as a "one-to-many" generic message. | Individuals. Sent as a "one-to-one" message, not to a large list of recipients. |
| Expected by the recipient? | Often not. | Yes, and most often the participant started the communication themselves. |
| Examples | An announcement promoting your upcoming event. | Bid notifications, statements, receipts, and other emails with content specific to the participant. |
Why It Matters
This is a tricky area, so organizations need to use their best judgement and treat the definitions above as a guideline.
The problem is that more marketing-focused emails attract much higher spam reporting rates, and email providers are very aggressive about handling them. Just 1 or 2 spam reports could result in all Auctria emails to that email provider being dropped for a period of time. That affects bid notifications, statements, receipts, and more for real participants who share the same provider. For example, Comcast is particularly aggressive about this.
Using the Auctria email system for marketing-focused emails could affect your event, and it could also affect other events running on Auctria. Once an email provider has seen too many spam reports (which is also mostly subjective on their part), there is little Auctria can do to change how they respond.
When Is It Okay to Email?
- Generally fine: emailing people who are expecting a message from Auctria, or who are used to being part of your email audience (for example, they signed up for emails from you).
- Best avoided: sending multiple emails to a broader audience.
Marketing Email Alternatives
If you want to "advertise" your event by email, it's generally best to use your own curated mailing list with a third-party email service. These services often specialize in sending bulk marketing-focused emails. In many cases, your potential participants already accept emails from your list, so they're more likely to accept and read the email about your upcoming event.
You can add a link to your auction website in the external marketing email. Potential participants can follow the link to register at the auction website, which creates a transactional connection. You can then continue to communicate about the auction event through Auctria.
Precautions
Let your participants know they will receive emails from the sender no-reply@auctria.com. The reply to address is the one you set under your Contact Details.
Ask Participants to Add a Safe Sender
Suggest that participants add no-reply@auctria.com to the "safe senders" list in their email client to help make sure they receive emails from your event.