Whether or not it’s a brand new 12 months, a brand new fiscal 12 months, otherwise you’re beginning a brand new job, doing an electronic mail advertising audit of your present campaigns and database is a brilliant approach to start. These audit numbers can assist you determine a baseline for enchancment, in addition to bragging rights.
You may start an audit in many various methods. On this article, I’ll present you the way I’d conduct an electronic mail advertising audit, however after all, you’re welcome to select and select to make this work higher for you.
For this audit, I will probably be specializing in the next:
- E mail sending programs
- E mail advertising database
- Segmentations and lists
- E mail advertising campaigns
- E mail templates
- E mail processes
E mail sending programs
That is fully optionally available, however at bigger organizations, it’s typically a good suggestion to compile a listing of your entire sending platforms. Yearly, be aware of 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 programs, in addition to system homeowners and sending domains.
E mail advertising database
I are inclined to deal with my advertising automation database for this train, but when your organization makes use of an information lake to pipe knowledge 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 knowledge so I can each share it and reserve it for comparisons later.
It’s a good suggestion to take a yearly (and even quarterly) audit of those seven elements:
- The whole variety of contacts: That is what number of distinctive electronic mail addresses you could have in your MAP or ESP.
- The whole variety of marketable contacts: Outline marketable because it pertains to your organization and enterprise. For instance, contact data which might be unsubscribed, lacking “job title” or “nation” knowledge values will not be instantly marketable (this can be a B2B instance).
- The variety of marketable contacts that you just’ve emailed within the final 12, 6, and three months: This provides you an excellent indication should you’re lacking out on mailing massive cohorts of your database, and it lets you create a method for reaching them.
- The variety of marketable contacts which might be inactive (or you possibly can flip it to view energetic contacts) within the final 12, 6, and three months: As soon as once more, you’ll must work inside your small business 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 many others. Why measure inactive contacts? As a result of it’s good apply to suppress inactive contacts out of your electronic mail advertising campaigns.
- Database development: The variety of new contacts added within the 12 months.
- Database attrition: The variety of contacts which have unsubscribed or exhausting bounced. You too can embody one other cell in your spreadsheet with the variety of contacts who grew to become inactive.
- The whole variety of emails despatched: As a substitute of contacts, for this metric, we wish to know what number of complete emails have been despatched for the 12 months, quarter, or month.
Right here’s an instance of how I arrange this a part of an electronic mail advertising audit spreadsheet:
Segmentations and lists
If you happen to solely use a small variety of lists (or segments), use this time to suppose by whether or not creating further segments is required. Or, should you suppose it’s a worthwhile concept to check, you can begin planning for these assessments. If you happen to make use of dozens (and even a whole bunch) of segments in your electronic mail advertising, now is an effective time to ask these questions:
- What are the segments you’re utilizing in your advertising? If you happen to use too many to depend, what are the predominant segments you’re utilizing?
- How is every section performing? How are your predominant 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
If you happen to’re an electronic mail advertising staff of 1, you would possibly already monitor which campaigns you despatched for the 12 months and the way they carried out.
Nonetheless, should you’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 be aware of what business-as-usual (BAU) campaigns have been despatched, who they have been despatched to, and the way they carried out. If the campaigns have been a part of an A/B check, I preserve monitor of these outcomes, in addition to the winner (if there was one).
In your spreadsheet, make a column for:
- E mail marketing campaign identify
- Date deployed (or dates)
- Section or goal checklist
- Topic line
- A/B check (if relevant)
- Variety of emails despatched
- Exhausting bounce charge
- Mushy bounce charge
- Distinctive open charge
- Distinctive click-through charge
- Click on-to-open ratio
- Unsubscribe charge
- Conversion charge (optionally available, this metric may not be available)
That is mainly simply an electronic mail advertising marketing campaign report for the entire 12 months. Please add or take away columns to suit the wants of your electronic mail advertising audit! With an entire 12 months’s price of marketing campaign knowledge, you possibly can see what efforts have been extra profitable than others.
Do the identical for automated electronic mail campaigns. Be aware which campaigns are operating, and the way they carried out. It’s possible you’ll not want to incorporate a deployment date, however you can pull the remainder of the metrics.
E mail templates
So that you’ve taken a have a look at your electronic mail campaigns and your database, however you don’t wish to overlook about your electronic mail template(s)! Throughout this annual electronic mail advertising audit, make a remark of your present templates.
Ask your stakeholders and your self:
- Do you want further electronic mail templates or modules (sections inside your electronic mail templates)?
- Have you ever obtained any suggestions or discovered any new findings in earlier A/B assessments?
- Have your electronic mail templates been examined within the final 12 months? 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 emblem or imagery that that you must replace?
- Does your footer want a brand new copyright 12 months? That is the time of 12 months to make these enhancements, together with making your templates accessible and darkish mode pleasant.
E mail course of
A brand new 12 months is a chance to audit your present electronic mail manufacturing course of and see the place you may make enhancements. Want concepts? Take a look at this text titled How you can Enhance Your E mail Creation Course of, by yours really.
Now that you just’ve compiled all this nice data collectively in your superior spreadsheet, it’s time to share the e-mail advertising audit together with your staff. Additionally, if you wish to go the additional mile, create a presentation or slide deck add bits of your knowledge and learnings to it. Share it together with your supervisor and staff to point out them what electronic mail advertising has been as much as within the final 12 months! Additionally, use this knowledge to create your electronic mail advertising technique for 2021. What campaigns may be repeated with a couple of tweaks? What automated campaigns are performing finest however may doubtlessly do higher?
Obtain an E mail Advertising Motion Plan
After auditing final 12 months’s electronic mail campaigns, you should use that data to tell your 2021 electronic 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.
