How one can Conduct an E mail Advertising Audit

Whether or not it’s a brand new yr, a brand new fiscal yr, otherwise you’re beginning a brand new job, doing an e mail advertising audit of your present campaigns and database is a brilliant solution to start. These audit numbers might help you determine a baseline for enchancment, in addition to bragging rights.

You possibly can start an audit in many alternative methods. On this article, I’ll present you the way I might conduct an e mail advertising audit, however after all, you’re welcome to choose and select to make this work higher for you.

For this audit, I will likely be specializing in the next:

• E mail sending methods
• E mail advertising database
• Segmentations and lists
• E mail advertising campaigns
• E mail templates
• E mail processes 

E mail sending methods

That is utterly elective, however at bigger organizations, it’s typically a good suggestion to compile an inventory of all your sending platforms. Yearly, pay attention to any modifications on this checklist. For instance, at some corporations, emails are deployed from the advertising automation platform in addition to instruments like Outreach, Salesforce, and Gainsight. I preserve a easy checklist of those sending methods, in addition to system homeowners and sending domains.

E mail advertising database 

I are likely to concentrate on my advertising automation database for this train, but when your organization makes use of an information lake to pipe information into your Advertising Automation Platform (MAP) or E mail Service Supplier (ESP), you possibly can look there too. I start the e-mail advertising audit with a spreadsheet or Google sheet with all my information so I can each share it and put it aside for comparisons later. 

It’s a good suggestion to take a yearly (and even quarterly) audit of those seven elements:

1. The full variety of contacts: That is what number of distinctive e mail addresses you could have in your MAP or ESP.
2. The full variety of marketable contacts: Outline marketable because it pertains to your organization and enterprise. For instance, contact data which are unsubscribed,  lacking “job title” or “nation” information values is probably not instantly marketable (this can be a B2B instance).
3. The variety of marketable contacts that you simply’ve emailed within the final 12, 6, and three months: This provides you a great indication for those who’re lacking out on mailing giant cohorts of your database, and it permits you to create a technique for reaching them.
4. The variety of marketable contacts which are inactive (or you possibly can flip it to view lively contacts) within the final 12, 6, and three months:  As soon as once more, you’ll have to work inside what you are promoting guidelines to determine a definition for “inactive.” Usually it means contacts haven’t been opening or clicking emails, filling out varieties, visiting the web site, and so forth. Why measure inactive contacts? As a result of it’s good observe to suppress inactive contacts out of your e mail advertising campaigns.
5. Database development: The variety of new contacts added within the yr. 
6. Database attrition: The variety of contacts which have unsubscribed or onerous bounced. You too can embrace one other cell in your spreadsheet with the variety of contacts who turned inactive. 
7. The full variety of emails despatched: As a substitute of contacts, for this metric, we wish to know what number of complete emails had been despatched for the yr, quarter, or month. 

Right here’s an instance of how I arrange this a part of an e mail advertising audit spreadsheet:

Segmentations and lists

Should you solely use a small variety of lists (or segments), use this time to suppose by way of whether or not creating extra segments is required. Or, for those who suppose it’s a worthwhile concept to check, you can begin planning for these checks. Should you make use of dozens (and even tons of) of segments in your e mail advertising, now is an effective time to ask these questions:

• What are the segments you’re utilizing in your advertising? Should you use too many to depend, what are the primary segments you’re utilizing?
• How is every section performing? How are your primary segments performing?
• What enhancements are you able to make to your segmentation?
• Do you could have the necessity for a brand new section or segments? For instance, your organization began advertising to a brand new persona. Do you could have an identical section created?

E mail advertising campaigns

Should you’re an e mail advertising workforce of 1, you may already observe which campaigns you despatched for the yr and the way they carried out.

Nevertheless, for those who’re half of a bigger firm the place a number of groups are sending emails out of the identical MAP, it’s a good suggestion to pay attention to what business-as-usual (BAU) campaigns had been despatched, who they had been despatched to, and the way they carried out. If the campaigns had been a part of an A/B take a look at, I preserve observe of these outcomes, in addition to the winner (if there was one). 

In your spreadsheet, make a column for:

• E mail marketing campaign title
• Date deployed (or dates)
• Phase or goal checklist
• Topic line 
• A/B take a look at (if relevant)
• Variety of emails despatched
• Arduous bounce price
• Delicate bounce price
• Distinctive open price
• Distinctive click-through price
• Click on-to-open ratio
• Unsubscribe price
• Conversion price (elective, this metric won’t be available)

That is mainly simply an e mail advertising marketing campaign report for the entire yr. Please add or take away columns to suit the wants of your e mail advertising audit! With an entire yr’s price of marketing campaign information, you possibly can see what efforts have been extra profitable than others.

Do the identical for automated e mail campaigns. Word which campaigns are operating, and the way they carried out. It’s possible you’ll not want to incorporate a deployment date, however you could possibly pull the remainder of the metrics.  

E mail templates

So that you’ve taken a have a look at your e mail campaigns and your database, however you don’t wish to neglect about your e mail template(s)! Throughout this annual e mail advertising audit, make an observation of your present templates.

Ask your stakeholders and your self: 

• Do you want extra e mail templates or modules (sections inside your e mail templates)? 
• Have you ever acquired any suggestions or discovered any new findings in earlier A/B checks? 
• Have your e mail templates been examined within the final yr? If not, it’s an ideal alternative to make use of E mail on Acid to check compatibility and repair, replace. 
• Does your organization have a brand new brand or imagery that it’s essential replace? 
• Does your footer want a brand new copyright yr? That is the time of yr to make these enhancements, together with making your templates accessible and darkish mode pleasant.

E mail course of

A brand new yr is a chance to audit your present e mail manufacturing course of and see the place you can also make enhancements. Want concepts? Take a look at this text titled How one can Enhance Your E mail Creation Course of, by yours really. 

Now that you simply’ve compiled all this nice data collectively in your superior spreadsheet, it’s time to share the e-mail advertising audit along with your workforce. Additionally, if you wish to go the additional mile, create a presentation or slide deck add bits of your information and learnings to it. Share it along with your supervisor and workforce to indicate them what e mail advertising has been as much as within the final yr! Additionally, use this information to create your e mail advertising technique for 2021. What campaigns could be repeated with a couple of tweaks? What automated campaigns are performing greatest however may doubtlessly do higher? 

Obtain an E mail Advertising Motion Plan

After auditing final yr’s e mail campaigns, you should utilize that data to tell your 2021 e mail advertising technique.

If the modifications that got here with 2020 left you scratching your head, try the particular report, E mail Advertising and the Subsequent Regular, that includes insights from Senior E mail Advertising Supervisor, Betsy Grondy.

Writer: Nout Boctor-Smith

Nout (rhymes with fruit) is an e mail marketer who has been concerned within the digital advertising area for 13+ years and focuses on B2B emails and development advertising. She by no means takes herself critically and is usually described as a goofball. You possibly can often discover her chatting on the #emailgeeks Slack group, obsessing over trend, petting cats, and consuming scrumptious meals. Go to 9 Lives Digital to seek out out extra about what Nout can do in your firm. Join with Nout on LinkedIn.

Writer: Nout Boctor-Smith

Nout (rhymes with fruit) is an e mail marketer who has been concerned within the digital advertising area for 13+ years and focuses on B2B emails and development advertising. She by no means takes herself critically and is usually described as a goofball. You possibly can often discover her chatting on the #emailgeeks Slack group, obsessing over trend, petting cats, and consuming scrumptious meals. Go to 9 Lives Digital to seek out out extra about what Nout can do in your firm. Join with Nout on LinkedIn.