Sendamatic describes itself as a transactional email service provider. What exactly is transactional email anyway?

Ignoring personal and internal company email, we can roughly group messages into two categories - Transactional / relational, and Commercial / marketing.

Transactional and relationship messages

The US CAN-SPAM act has a definition of a transactional or relationship message:

In general, the term "transactional or relationship message" means an electronic mail message the primary purpose of which is

  • to facilitate, complete, or confirm a commercial transaction that the recipient has previously agreed to enter into with the sender;
  • to provide warranty information, product recall information, or safety or security information with respect to a commercial product or service used or purchased by the recipient;
  • to provide:
    • notification concerning a change in the terms or features of;
    • notification of a change in the recipient’s standing or status with respect to; or
    • at regular periodic intervals, account balance information or other type of account statement with respect to, a subscription, membership, account, loan, or comparable ongoing commercial relationship involving the ongoing purchase or use by the recipient of products or services offered by the sender;
  • to provide information directly related to an employment relationship or related benefit plan in which the recipient is currently involved, participating, or enrolled; or
  • to deliver goods or services, including product updates or upgrades, that the recipient is entitled to receive under the terms of a transaction that the recipient has previously agreed to enter into with the sender

Source: www.govinfo.gov

Essentially, these are functional emails that recipients have explicitly consented to and expect to receive - either because they’ve taken a specific action (like placing an order or requesting a password reset), or because they’re part of an ongoing service or agreement (such as notifications for mentions or comments on a social platform).

Commercial and marketing messages

These emails are designed primarily to promote products, services, or offers and drive actions such as purchases, sign-ups, or engagement. These could be newsletters showcasing new features or company updates, discount offers and seasonal promotions, product announcements and event invitations, or campaign emails aimed at re-engaging inactive customers.

Regulations generally apply when sending this type of email to individuals, for example the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR) prohibits the sending of electronic mail marketing to individuals unless they have specifically consented or are existing customers.

B2B outreach and cold email

While technically commercial, cold email deserves its own discussion because it sits in a gray area between legitimate business development and what many consider spamming.

It's generally legal to send unsolicited emails to corporate addresses without prior consent, provided the message is relevant to their work role, although GDPR obligations still apply. It’s the email equivalent of a cold call. It's important to note that, in the UK at least, you cannot send marketing emails to sole traders or partnerships without prior consent, as they are treated like individual consumers under PECR.

Unfortunately, this space is often abused by spammers who scrape the web for contact details and blast messages at scale. As a result, many companies and email providers now treat cold outreach as spam and actively block it.

Cold emailing, as it’s practiced today, is spam — for inboxes, businesses, and the internet. It’s a thriving industry, but one raising concerns in the email community.

Source: Spamhaus