From a user's perspective there are two types of emails: the ones that you know you will need to get, and the ones that you don’t even expect, but fill up your inbox. If you are a founder building a digital product, though, there is only one type: “incredibly valuable that I want all of my users to open." When building a digital product, you will need to think about emails in order to bring the best experience to your users. We have outlined the differences between transactional and marketing emails, and what platforms you can use for each.

Transactional emails are the essential emails that you need to send to your users in order to make your product usable, or to make their experience more pleasant. Users are not allowed to opt out of those emails. Moreover, you cannot easily edit or change the trigger of those emails without a developer. Once coded in, you will most likely need a development team to make changes beyond minor copy edits.

● Reset password email: without sending one, users wouldn’t be able to reset their password

● Order confirmation email: this email is user-specific. If you send the exact same email to someone else, it wouldn’t make sense

● Complete your profile email: letting users know what actions will make their experience better

Marketing emails on the other hand are promotional emails, and oftentimes the type of emails that users don’t look forward to. They are not associated with a particular action and are not user-specific. This means that the exact same email, with no changes in the copy, can be sent to anyone and it would still make sense. Unlike transactional emails, you are required to give users the option to opt out of them.

● New product release: informational email about a new product you released and where to buy it

● Top 10 tips for XYZ: educational material that your users will find helpful

The email provider you use depends on your needs, budget and preferences for ease of use. At Hyperspace Ventures, we are fans of Sendgrid for transactional emails - while their platform is a bit hard to use compared to others, their pricing is unbeatable for scaling startups. Some other alternatives include AWS SES, Postmark, Mailchimp and Mailgun.

When it comes to marketing emails, we usually recommend a platform that you can easily use. Unlike transactional emails, marketing emails don’t require a developer to get sent - and oftentimes you (or your marketing team) will be designing and sending those emails. Many of our clients choose to go with Mailchimp due to their easy-to-use platform, but Sendgrid, Hubspot, Constant Contact, Omnisend and Drip are great alternatives as well.

Most email provider platforms have plans for both marketing and transactional email integrations, which are sold separately. This means that you can use one platform for marketing, and another one for transactional emails.