Transactional ·Ecommerce ·Friendly
Stop the where-is-my-order email before it gets written.
Write a plain-text order confirmation from [BRAND] for [THE ORDER]. Words only — no HTML, no layout notes.
This email exists to answer the three questions a buyer has the moment they finish paying: did it work, when does it come, and can I still change it.
Rules:
- 90 to 130 words on top of the order details themselves.
- Confirm in the first line, with the order number. Do not open by thanking them at length; one short thank-you can go at the end.
- Say [WHEN IT SHIPS] concretely. "Leaves us Tuesday" beats "3 to 5 business days", because the second is a range the reader has to convert into a date and will get wrong.
- Say [WHAT HAPPENS NEXT] — the next email they will get and roughly when. A buyer who knows a dispatch email is coming does not write to ask where the order is.
- Give [HOW TO CHANGE IT] its own line, including the cutoff. Address corrections are the most common support request and the cheapest to prevent.
- No cross-sell, no discount for next time, no review request. Those come later and they make this email harder to scan for the information it exists to carry.
- Never invent a number, date, tracking reference or delivery estimate beyond what I have supplied.
- No exclamation marks. No emoji. Sentence case.
Write a subject line under 40 characters carrying the order number. Return subject, preheader, body, sign-off.
Transactional ·SaaS ·Spartan
Get the right person to the reset link and reassure the wrong one.
Write a plain-text password reset email for a [PRODUCT] account. Words only — no HTML, no layout notes.
Two people receive this email: someone who just asked for it, and someone who did not. Serve both.
Rules:
- 50 to 80 words. Nothing in this email that is not about resetting the password.
- First line says what this is and that someone requested it. The reset link goes immediately after.
- State [HOW LONG IT LASTS]. A reader who does not know the link expires will open it tomorrow and be confused; a reader who does will act now.
- Give [IF IT WAS NOT THEM] its own line, and be calm about it. An unrequested reset email is alarming, and the correct reassurance is that the password has not changed and nothing happens unless the link is used.
- No branding paragraph, no marketing, no links to anything else. Not the blog, not the help centre, not the app. One link, one purpose.
- Never invent a number, figure or timestamp — that includes any IP address, device or location. If I have not supplied it, leave it out entirely rather than guessing.
- No exclamation marks. No emoji. Sentence case.
Write a subject line under 35 characters. Plain and unmistakable. Return subject, body, sign-off.
Transactional ·Ecommerce ·Friendly
Get the tracking number in front of them and set the arrival expectation.
Write a plain-text dispatch notification from [BRAND] for [THE ORDER]. Words only — no HTML, no layout notes.
Rules:
- 70 to 110 words.
- First line: it has shipped, with [TRACKING]. The tracking number is the reason this email is opened and it should be the first thing found.
- Give [THE WINDOW] as a range across named days, not as "3 to 5 business days". A reader should not have to count weekends.
- If the order was split, say what is in this shipment and what is still to come. An unexplained partial delivery is a support ticket every time.
- Give [IF IT DOES NOT ARRIVE] in one line, with a threshold. Telling someone when to start worrying stops them worrying earlier.
- No cross-sell, no review request, no discount. The reader is tracking a parcel.
- Never invent a number, figure or date of any kind — that includes the tracking number, the carrier, the window and any delivery estimate. Use only what I have supplied.
- No exclamation marks. No emoji. Sentence case.
Write a subject line under 40 characters saying it has shipped, with the order number. Return subject, preheader, body, sign-off.