The best way to Conduct an E mail Advertising and marketing Audit

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 current campaigns and database is a great approach to start. These audit numbers can assist you determine a baseline for enchancment, in addition to bragging rights.

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

For this audit, I shall 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 utterly non-obligatory, however at bigger organizations, it’s typically a good suggestion to compile an inventory of your whole sending platforms. Yearly, be aware of any modifications on this record. For instance, at some corporations, emails are deployed from the advertising automation platform in addition to instruments like Outreach, Salesforce, and Gainsight. I maintain a easy record of those sending programs, in addition to system house owners and sending domains.

E mail advertising database 

I are inclined 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 and marketing Automation Platform (MAP) or E mail Service Supplier (ESP), you may 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 reserve it for comparisons later. 

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

1. The whole variety of contacts: That is what number of distinctive electronic mail addresses you might have in your MAP or ESP.
2. The whole variety of marketable contacts: Outline marketable because it pertains to your organization and enterprise. For instance, contact data which can be unsubscribed,  lacking “job title” or “nation” information values might not be instantly marketable (it is a B2B instance).
3. The variety of marketable contacts that you simply’ve emailed within the final 12, 6, and three months: This offers you a superb indication if you happen to’re lacking out on mailing massive cohorts of your database, and it permits you to create a technique for reaching them.
4. The variety of marketable contacts which can be inactive (or you may flip it to view lively contacts) within the final 12, 6, and three months:  As soon as once more, you’ll must work inside your corporation guidelines to ascertain a definition for “inactive.” Typically it means contacts haven’t been opening or clicking emails, filling out types, visiting the web site, and so forth. Why measure inactive contacts? As a result of it’s good apply to suppress inactive contacts out of your electronic mail advertising campaigns.
5. Database development: The variety of new contacts added within the 12 months. 
6. Database attrition: The variety of contacts which have unsubscribed or onerous bounced. You may as well embrace one other cell in your spreadsheet with the variety of contacts who turned inactive. 
7. The whole variety of emails despatched: As an alternative of taking a look at contacts, for this metric, we wish to know what number of whole emails had 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

Should you solely use a small variety of lists (or segments), use this time to assume by whether or not creating further segments is required. Or, if you happen to assume it’s a worthwhile thought to check, you can begin planning for these assessments. Should you make use of dozens (and even a whole lot) of segments in your electronic mail advertising, now is an efficient time to ask these questions:

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

E mail advertising campaigns

Should you’re an electronic mail advertising staff of 1, you would possibly already observe which campaigns you despatched for the 12 months and the way they carried out.

Nevertheless, if you happen to’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 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 maintain observe 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 record
• Topic line 
• A/B take a look at (if relevant)
• Variety of emails despatched
• Onerous bounce charge
• Gentle bounce charge
• Distinctive open charge
• Distinctive click-through charge
• Click on-to-open ratio
• Unsubscribe charge
• Conversion charge (non-obligatory, this metric won’t be available)

That is principally 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 value of marketing campaign information, you may 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. You could not want to incorporate a deployment date, however you might 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 neglect about your electronic mail template(s)! Throughout this annual electronic mail advertising audit, make a remark of your current 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 realized 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 brand or imagery that it’s essential to 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 current electronic mail manufacturing course of and see the place you can also make enhancements. Want concepts? Try this text titled The best way to Enhance Your E mail Creation Course of, by yours actually. 

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 together with your staff. 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 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 information to create your electronic mail advertising technique for 2021. What campaigns will be repeated with a number of tweaks? What automated campaigns are performing greatest however might probably do higher? 

Obtain an E mail Advertising and marketing Motion Plan

After auditing final 12 months’s electronic mail campaigns, you should utilize 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 marketing and the Subsequent Regular, that includes insights from Senior E mail Advertising and marketing Supervisor, Betsy Grondy.

Creator: Nout Boctor-Smith

Nout (rhymes with fruit) is an electronic mail marketer who has been concerned within the digital advertising house for 13+ years and makes a speciality of B2B emails and development advertising. She by no means takes herself significantly and is commonly described as a goofball. You possibly can normally discover her chatting on the #emailgeeks Slack neighborhood, obsessing over style, petting cats, and consuming scrumptious meals. Go to 9 Lives Digital to search out out extra about what Nout can do on your firm. Join with Nout on LinkedIn.

Creator: Nout Boctor-Smith

Nout (rhymes with fruit) is an electronic mail marketer who has been concerned within the digital advertising house for 13+ years and makes a speciality of B2B emails and development advertising. She by no means takes herself significantly and is commonly described as a goofball. You possibly can normally discover her chatting on the #emailgeeks Slack neighborhood, obsessing over style, petting cats, and consuming scrumptious meals. Go to 9 Lives Digital to search out out extra about what Nout can do on your firm. Join with Nout on LinkedIn.