Social media may be getting the lion’s share of the current media attention but when it comes to implementing a successful ecommerce marketing strategy there is still no substitute for email.

According to the Direct Marketing Association, email marketing returns over $40 for each dollar invested which makes it not only the most lucrative form of online marketing but the most profitable marketing means of all, on or off the web.

In order to take full advantage of the benefits of email marketing to increase customer engagement and boost sales, you need to master these three critical strategies:

Periodical Emails

The email newsletter is the most popular application of this strategy with messages containing the latest news and information regarding your ecommerce business’ most attractive, relevant, and pressing offerings encapsulated into a coherent Call To Action.

Many ecommerce email marketers have found that leveraging their newsletters to communicate specific information with regards to exceptionally special offers is a powerful strategy.

Newsletter subscribers historically respond well to new product releases, overstock blowouts, and special discounts such as percentage off coupons or BOGOs.

Maintaining the periodicity of email newsletters is critical as the frequency established in your original subscription agreement with the customer must be religiously maintained of you will find yourself in violation of the US Federal CAN-SPAM Act.

Drip Campaigns

Also known as prospect or lead nurturing, this is a process whereby a preset series of emails are automatically sent to your prospect at predetermined times after the customer has completed an action.

For example, if a subscriber downloads your Guide To Winter Fashions, a drip message can be issued a few days after the download asking if they require further information, requesting any feedback, and offering an incentive such as a percentage-off coupon to complete a sale from that catalog.

This process can be repeated at reasonable intervals with the incentives escalating in order to compel the purchase. You can send a solicitation to download your Guide To Spring Fashions when that season comes around.

Not all drip campaigns are reminders and ticklers after an action since a reverse drip can lead towards an event such as a holiday or the date of a specific sale or event. As the date draws nearer the drip campaign can accelerate and build urgency in the prospect.

Transactional Emails

Some ecommerce email marketers are under the mistaken assumption that transactional emails are only for confirming orders when nothing could be further from the truth.

Sending a customer an email to inform them that they have abandoned their cart while presenting a motivational incentive to return and complete the transaction has been implemented with great success by thousands of ecommerce companies.

Any series of customer behaviors can be targeted with effective and relevant messaging. You may want to use a behavior-based message when a customer is viewing two comparable products which offers a comparison chart.

You can also provide email messaging containing valuable information keyed to the customer’s location, their previous purchases, the category they’re browsing, and literally everything else you can think of which will have an impact on the decision to make the purchase.

There are various transactional email best practices which can help increase your response rates:

• Clearly specify the company name in the From line of the email.
• Cross sell and up sell with discretion as you don’t want your transactional message to get lost in hard sell hype.
• Have the link you want followed listed prominently and above the fold.
• Personalize the message but not to the point where it seems like mailmerge gone wild.
• Provide images in an HTML format to reinforce your branding and showcase other offers that might be of interest.
• Send the transactional email within seconds of the targeted activity being performed by the customer.

The age when ecommerce businesses would purchase vast lists of mostly outdated and hard-bouncing email addresses and engage in widespread spamming is long gone.

Utilizing email marketing as a delicate tool rather than a seven pound sledgehammer has been proven to provide the greatest bottom line results in ecommerce promotional campaigns.