Email Marketing Audit — The Complete Guide

Elevated open charges, click-throughs, and gross sales: If you would like these outcomes, working an electronic mail advertising audit will help you get there. That’s why I’ve teamed up with six electronic mail advertising consultants that will help you create an audit of your individual.

Collectively, we cowl:

What is an email marketing audit?

The Benefits of Email Marketing Audits

The Anatomy of an Email Marketing Audit

How to Conduct an Email Marketing Audit

Tips for Conducting an Email Marketing Audit

What’s an electronic mail advertising audit?

An electronic mail advertising audit means checking in along with your electronic mail technique, campaigns, and general account well being. Like a general marketing audit, the principle purpose is to see what‘s working and what isn’t.

However you too can discover any untapped alternatives for enchancment.

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That mentioned, just some audits will cowl each component that‘s concerned with electronic mail advertising in its entirety. You would possibly run an audit to verify technical points like deliverability, workflow automation, and accessibility, for instance.

You may additionally audit a selected marketing campaign’s efficiency to see whether or not it is assembly its targets.

The Advantages of Electronic mail Advertising Audits

I interviewed six electronic mail advertising consultants to learn how an audit has helped them and their lists. Here is what they needed to say about why electronic mail advertising audits matter.

Higher Open Charges, Click on-Via Charges, and Gross sales

“I used to be tasked to enhance the open charges (OPR) and click-thru charges (CTR) of the emails my consumer was sending to their audience,” says Gabriel Gan, head of editorial for In Real Life Malaysia.

The e-mail listing Fan labored with had round 250,000 energetic customers.

“Utilizing electronic mail audit greatest practices, my crew and I had been in a position to pinpoint areas of enchancment and enhance our consumer’s OPR and CTR from 10-15% to 27-35%,” Gan continues.

Other than OPR and CTR, gross sales improved, too. Gan recollects “a rise of seven% in gross sales throughout Black Friday, in comparison with the earlier yr (100% to 107%).”

Discovering What Resonates With Your Viewers

“An electronic mail audit is sort of a well being verify. It is a chance to see what’s working and what is not,” says Senior Content material Strategist Lia Parisyan. One space an audit will help you perceive extra clearly is what resonates along with your viewers.

“At one firm, we needed to check if questions within the topic line transformed higher than statements,” explains Parisyan. “We examined out this remark and located some segments most popular numbers and questions in topic traces whereas others had been swayed much less by numbers and extra by ‘methods to’ statements in topic traces.”

Gan cites an analogous expertise concerning viewers resonance: “After I first began doing electronic mail advertising, the emails they [the company] had been sending out had a distinctly ‘direct promote’ strategy within the copy.”

Gan explains that historically, this strategy is one of the best ways to get prospects. However “it wasn’t nice at scaling to a world, cross-generational viewers (20s to 40s) with a variety of tastes and desires,” Gan says.

An audit helped Gan and the crew uncover this and create extra resonance.

Improved Engagement and Deliverability

“Electronic mail audits have been invaluable for our logistic firm’s electronic mail advertising,” says Onur Kutlubay, CEO at YouParcel. Kutlubay explains how audits “electronic mail lists, content material high quality, segmentation, and supply practices” have helped YouParcel consider its electronic mail advertising campaigns.

Kutlubay cites “a 20% enhance in open charges and a 15% rise in click-through charges” after refining electronic mail concentrating on and content material primarily based on the audit findings.

Parisyan additionally highlights that “an electronic mail audit will help you determine and resolve deliverability points.” Lengthy story brief?

Fixing these points makes positive your messages get to the correct inboxes, which might enhance deliverability and engagement general.

Seeing the Large Image and Refocusing Objectives

“It is really easy to lose monitor of [what’s working and what’s not] while you’re targeted on the small particulars of on a regular basis work — and let’s be sincere, electronic mail advertising requires numerous consideration to element,” says Anna Czechowska, electronic mail advertising specialist at Uscreen.

In response to Czechowska, an electronic mail audit exhibits you the issues of your campaigns and areas the place you may enhance whereas highlighting the wins.

“It’s possible you’ll be shocked what labored and what did not,” says Czechowska. Nonetheless, having the info out of your audit will enable you to “see the large image and refocus on the correct targets.”

Bettering Electronic mail Listing Well being

“Electronic mail audits are key to understanding the well being of our consumer’s accounts,” says Yair Barojas, advertising strategist at Mindgruve.

Barojas explains that electronic mail audits assist them to “decide the buildings, methodology, and implementation which can be at present in place.”

From there, they’ll discover any areas of alternative to enhance the general account and listing well being.

Barojas mentions “segmentation, listing growth, information mapping enhancements, monitoring implementations, and automation, to connectivity between methods” as areas they verify to search out these alternatives.

Prioritizing and Nurturing Relationships

“Electronic mail audits have been an enormous assist for Journey-Lingual,” says James Smith, founding father of Travel-Lingual. “They’re like a check-up in your electronic mail listing, guaranteeing you are sending out your top-notch content material to those that care about it.”

Smith additionally emphasizes the significance of specializing in high quality relatively than amount and that eradicating inactive members helps them do that. “Electronic mail audits have helped us minimize down on all of the junk and concentrate on the individuals who get pleasure from our journey content material,” closes Smith.

The Anatomy of an Electronic mail Advertising Audit

The particular elements of your electronic mail advertising audit all rely in your finish purpose. That mentioned, you might end up addressing all or among the following areas:

Efficiency Metrics

For any audit, it is smart to get a abstract of the place you‘re at proper now. That offers you a benchmark to see whether or not your follow-up actions primarily based on the audit do or don’t work.

Reporting on electronic mail efficiency metrics like open charges, click-through charges, conversion charges, and ROI provides you with a fundamental comparability. You possibly can then evaluate how your electronic mail campaigns carry out earlier than and after the audit.

Listing Well being Evaluation

You consider the standard and cleanliness of your electronic mail subscriber listing. Experiences normally embody listing dimension, high quality, segmentation, and any points associated to bounce charges and unsubscribes.

Content material and Design Evaluate

You analyze the e-mail copy and design for high quality, relevance, engagement, and consistency with the model. You will additionally need to double-check that emails are mobile-friendly, accessible, and responsive.

Should you lack design expertise or technical chops, HubSpot’s Drag and Drop Email Builder will help you create visually interesting emails.

Deliverability and Compliance Evaluation

You‘ll usually evaluation electronic mail deliverability points/challenges, spam complaints, and sender repute at least. You’ll additionally need to audit compliance with electronic mail advertising legal guidelines and rules.

Automation and Workflow Analysis

You‘ll need to analyze any automated electronic mail workflows in keeping with your segmentation technique. If automation isn’t in place, you may report on actions to take to enhance effectivity with automation.

You may as well discover alternatives to streamline the prevailing workflow.

Whether or not you audit one or all of those areas, you‘ll have to create suggestions and an motion plan. You possibly can then optimize what’s working in your electronic mail advertising technique and repair what is not.

[Video: How to Master Email Marketing (2023)]

The way to Conduct an Electronic mail Advertising Audit

I requested consultants Parisyan, Barojas, Czechowska, and Gan how they run electronic mail advertising audits. Collectively, we crafted this nine-step course of for working an electronic mail advertising audit.

You possibly can apply these steps to a complete electronic mail audit or a selected component you concentrate on.

I’ve additionally factored in recommendations on working audits in-house or as an exterior useful resource.

1. Outline your scope and set targets.

“Crucial factor is defining scope. What’s the function of the e-mail audit? Is it compliance? Safety? Bettering conversions?’ Parisyan says.

“It may be multiple factor, however the extra exact you might be along with your scope, the much less possible you’ll lose focus or draw the audit out,” says Parisyan.

At this stage, Parisyan recommends selecting essentially the most impactful electronic mail space to audit. “You are able to do smaller audits. Select one variable. Enhance, check, and deal with the subsequent variable as a substitute of boiling the ocean,” Parisyan explains.

From my expertise with content material audits, I counsel ensuring that your electronic mail advertising targets and aims complement the broader enterprise technique.

That method, you are focusing your exercise on areas that assist to realize the extra common firm targets.

I counsel requesting all the things it’s essential to get the job achieved sooner relatively than later, too. Should you get issues like permissions and documentation early, you may keep away from delays brought on by chasing these down.

That stands when you‘re in-house, however it’s important when you‘re an exterior useful resource since you’ll have fewer contact factors with decision-makers.

Skilled Tip

“If we can’t entry the consumer’s electronic mail system, we interview key stakeholders to know the way it works and the place they want enchancment and assist,” says Barojas.

Barojas, who works agency-side, additionally recommends getting examples of “emails and any workflow paperwork” at this stage.

2. Construct your audit crew.

“Subsequent, who’s going to be in your audit crew? Should you’re fixing for safety, Do it’s essential to contain authorized? Cybersecurity?” says Parisyan.

After you’ve got finalized your crew, Parisyan recommends assigning roles and tasks and utilizing undertaking administration instruments.

Skilled Tip:

PM instruments will help you intend the e-mail advertising audit timeline, assign duties, and oversee progress from begin to end. Both method, undertaking administration instruments are an effective way to keep away from having a number of spreadsheets in all places.

And as anybody in advertising is aware of, spreadsheets can get messy quick.

3. Select your audit instruments.

“There are many [tool] choices. It’s possible you’ll already be utilizing one,” says Parisyan. “Nonetheless, I wouldn‘t advocate switching instruments throughout an audit when you haven’t vetted them. I might take into account {that a} separate exercise.”

Parisyan additionally explains that third-party options are sometimes uncared for throughout audits. So, doc these, as they could have an effect on safety and compliance.

To remain aligned along with your core goal, Parisyan additionally recommends figuring out “the instruments you are utilizing, how, and to what function.”

Skilled Tip

Should you nonetheless have to get a instrument in place, take into account on the lookout for one with an electronic mail advertising audit template or guidelines inbuilt.

You possibly can additionally search for a instrument that helps you monitor your audit course of, though you should use a undertaking administration instrument for that, too.

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For context, I do not suppose all the things in content material advertising wants a template. Content material templates are how writing will get stale and predictable, for instance. Nonetheless, templates are mandatory on the subject of processes.

Having an in-house framework or agency SOP to observe will prevent time and enable you enhance with every audit iteration. It additionally provides you a visible information to observe as you’re employed by the nitty-gritty of your electronic mail advertising audit.

4. Information assortment and authorized evaluation.

“You will need to be sure that all the things you are gathering complies with privateness rules equivalent to GDPR and HIPAA (in healthcare),” warns Parisyan.

Whereas it‘s simple to miss this step, it’s crucial to be sure to’re in keeping with electronic mail advertising legal guidelines in particular areas and industries.

Skilled Tip

Other than GDPR (Europe), CAN-SPAM (United States) is one other regulation you might have to adjust to, relying in your listing. Should you‘re throughout the U.S., you must also adjust to state-by-state insurance policies.

Virginia’s Consumer Data Protection Act (VCDPA) is an instance of one among these.

5. Listing the areas you need to audit.

At this stage, you need to listing the areas most related to your purpose after which audit these. Should you’re doing a full audit, Barojas recommends masking the next areas:

• Account construction.
• Audiences.
• Campaigns and content material.
• System connectivity.
• Testing and optimizations.
• Monitoring.

You possibly can additionally concentrate on a smaller space, like rising your conversion fee for a selected electronic mail marketing campaign. The conversion motion could possibly be clicking the decision to motion button. The related audit areas could possibly be content material and design.

In that case, you’d need to audit the topic traces, design components, copy, and calls to motion at a minimal.

Skilled Tip

Gan mentions auditing electronic mail content material because it pertains to the broader buyer journey, which is: “Open electronic mail inbox > open electronic mail > scroll all the way down to the underside of the web page > click on the CTA button,” says Gan.

Gan maps out the extra particular buyer journey and touchpoints like this: “(start buyer journey) Electronic mail topic line > preview textual content > electronic mail header picture > headline > introductory textual content > product picture > product description > cta button (finish buyer journey).”

Gan explains that at every stage of this journey, the shopper may click on away, get distracted, or lose curiosity. So, to extend conversions, you must intention to “retain consideration all the way in which until they click on the CTA button.”

6. Assess impression utilizing electronic mail advertising metrics.

Now you recognize your targets and which areas you’d prefer to audit, it’s essential to assess them utilizing related email performance metrics. This provides you with a benchmark so that you a) know methods to transfer ahead and b) have pre and post-audit comparability information.

Some widespread electronic mail metrics embody click-through fee, open fee, bounce fee, and listing progress fee. However let‘s keep on with our instance purpose of getting extra listing members click on the decision to motion button on an electronic mail marketing campaign.

The metric in that occasion is conversion fee. Right here’s how one can measure it.

“To calculate the conversion fee, I divide the quantity of people that accomplished the specified motion by the variety of emails delivered and multiply the reply by 100,” says workers author for HubSpot’s advertising weblog Erica Santiago.

So the formulation would appear like this:

Skilled Tip

“To measure the conversion fee of your emails, you may have to combine your electronic mail platform and net analytics,” says Santiago. “You are able to do this by creating unique tracking URLs for your email links that determine the supply of the clicking as coming from a selected electronic mail marketing campaign.”

7. A/B testing and optimization.

“When doing all of your audit, step one is figuring out the areas which you need to look into. The second step is to check,” Gan says. Gan recommends following two essential guidelines on your A/B testing:

1. Set electronic mail A because the incumbent. Set electronic mail B because the contender.
2. Solely change one variable at a time.

“For instance, in electronic mail B, when testing open charges, solely tweak the topic line and never the preview,” says Gan.

That is as a result of “When you have multiple variable that has been modified from the outdated electronic mail, it is virtually unattainable to find out which new addition you made has contributed to the advance in OPR/CTR.”

Skilled Tip

Other than A/B testing campaigns, you may dive into the e-mail campaigns your self.

“I check emails on totally different gadgets and in numerous electronic mail shoppers. I attempt to actually get into subscribers’ footwear, e.g., by becoming a member of our electronic mail sequence,” says Czechowska.

She explains that this helps to get a first-hand perspective of the “precise expertise for our electronic mail viewers.”

8. Create an motion plan and get approval.

Now, it’s essential to put your entire electronic mail advertising audit findings into a transparent and logical motion plan. In my expertise of working audits, I like to recommend outlining an motion plan in sprints.

Should you do not do that, the info might be visually overwhelming, which makes it arduous to know the place to begin.

I might additionally say to frontload the actions that can have essentially the most impression in your targets. That may enhance stakeholder and crew buy-in.

Upon getting a transparent plan of motion, you might have to current it to stakeholders, decision-makers, and/or senior crew members to get approval.

Skilled Tip

“To get stakeholders to take motion in your suggestions, format your evaluation on your viewers,” says Parisyan.

For instance, executives are busy.

So, “A brief slide deck with crucial stats and findings may fit greatest. Or you may name a gathering to debate your findings and suggestions if that is what stakeholders choose.”

In brief, Parisyan recommends realizing your viewers in order that your suggestions get applied. That is as a result of doing the audit isn’t sufficient. Convincing stakeholders to take motion “calls for equal focus and championing.”

9. Implement an motion plan and analyze the outcomes.

When decision-makers have accepted your motion plan, it is time to implement the findings out of your electronic mail advertising audit. You possibly can then analyze the outcomes of your audit suggestions.

It’s best to take into account revisiting Gan’s A/B testing recommendation and guidelines right here — solely altering one variable without delay and persevering with to check and enhance in iterations.

However implementation and evaluation do not imply the work is over. You additionally need to create a system for ongoing monitoring and reporting to trace progress and make changes.

Skilled Tip

“As soon as modifications are signed off, march ahead, monitor what’s taking place, and hold documenting,” says Parisyan. “Having a file will allow you to conduct extra vigorous audits sooner or later and keep away from testing the identical speculation once more.”

Suggestions for Conducting an Electronic mail Advertising Audit

Need to run a profitable electronic mail advertising audit? Here is what the e-mail advertising consultants I interviewed counsel.

Break it down into manageable chunks.

“The variety of issues to evaluation could also be overwhelming at first, however breaking it down into smaller steps will assist,” says Czechowska.

Czechowska suggests first defining your targets that will help you break issues down. “It’s possible you’ll need to concentrate on some areas greater than others — e.g., deliverability or listing segmentation technique,” she explains.

Inside that, there could possibly be “a selected downside that requires your consideration, equivalent to excessive bounce fee or low engagement.”

Keep in mind, it’s not a solo job.

“Even when you’re at a small firm, contain others. Past constructing collaboration and tapping into different folks’s expertise, involving others helps you catch stuff you would possibly miss,” says Parisyan.

“When you have images in your emails or graphics, possibly seek the advice of your designer. See if they’ve any suggestions,” Parisyan continues.

You may as well join your gross sales and customer support groups to “see how the language tone and size of your content material compares with their messaging.”

Advertising Strategist Yair Barojas agrees.

“Lean on extra crew members who could have expertise with different areas it’s essential to encounter through the audit, equivalent to builders or analytics,” says Barojas.

Attempt an expectation check on your messaging.

“This isn’t as widespread, however you may strive an expectation check,” says Parisyan. The check entails exhibiting somebody an electronic mail headline and asking them what they suppose the e-mail can be about.

To get rid of affirmation bias, Parisyan means that you do not present members the e-mail copy. You possibly can then find out how folks actually really feel in regards to the headline with out them realizing what the e-mail copy is about.

Parisyan additionally recommends interviewing prospects “in ‘the inexperienced'” and to “take into consideration integrating them right into a beta testing marketing campaign” as one other strategy to check and tailor your messaging.

Account for variations in methods and campaigns.

“Every firm handles documentation and electronic mail technique otherwise, so do not shrink back from reaching out to the consumer with questions,” says Barojas. He additionally explains that each audit is exclusive, too.

So, “being versatile is as necessary as being well timed.”

Czechowska additionally references marketing campaign variations.

“Do not measure each electronic mail towards the identical requirements,” says Czechowska. “Take into consideration what you take into account a hit for every of your campaigns — it’s going to be totally different on your weekly e-newsletter, and e.g., an deserted cart sequence.”

Use quantitative information and qualitative suggestions.

“For an efficient electronic mail audit, my tip is to contemplate quantitative information (open and click-through charges) and qualitative suggestions (buyer responses),” says CEO Onur Kutlubay.

Via this “holistic strategy,” Kutlubay’s firm has been in a position to tailor emails “for higher engagement, resulting in elevated ROI and extra happy prospects.”

Kutlubay studies a rise in open charges and click-through charges, particularly. However that is not all.

“This mix of qualitative and quantitative enhancements generated a 25% progress in email-driven income, demonstrating that investing in electronic mail audits can result in substantial beneficial properties,” says Kutlubay.

Take away inactive subscribers.

Founder James Smith recommends taking a data-driven strategy to your technique, together with on the lookout for “any inactive members” of your electronic mail listing.

“First, eliminate the inactive folks in your listing. Then, tailor your content material to what your viewers likes,” says Smith.

Doing that can enable you concentrate on delivering high quality content material to the people who find themselves essentially the most engaged so you may nurture these relationships.

Kutlubay additionally focuses on listing well being throughout electronic mail audits. By way of the impression, Kutlubay’s bounce fee was diminished by 10% after a “cautious listing cleanup.”

A/B check typically.

“There is a notion that when you arrange your electronic mail listing and create a template on your emails, you may ‘set it and neglect it,'” says Head of Editorial Gabriel Gan.

“However now, with the facility of A/B testing, with only a few rounds of testing your headlines, visuals, copy, provide, name to motion, and so on., you will discover out what your viewers loves, do extra of it, and enhance your conversion charges twofold or threefold,” Gan says.

Gan recommends testing typically, noting down your findings, and bettering on every electronic mail iteration till you discover out what works and what does not.

Discover outside-of-the-box options.

“The traditional methodology is to ship your electronic mail on the busiest instances of the day (when individuals are more than likely to verify their emails),” says Gan. “But when that is what all people else is doing, your electronic mail will possible get misplaced within the shuffle, so it’s important to suppose when it comes to your buyer’s mindsets as effectively.”

Gan explains that for retail merchandise, “night time simply earlier than dinner or simply earlier than bedtime is probably going the correct time.” However for productiveness hacks or each day information, “updates are possible higher early within the day earlier than work.”

You possibly can apply this non-conventional considering in your audit suggestions.

Electronic mail Advertising Audit: Do Extra of What Works

Working an electronic mail advertising audit can present invaluable insights into your campaigns and electronic mail accounts on the whole.

You will have all the things essential to create a transparent motion plan aligning your electronic mail advertising exercise with broader enterprise targets.

Whether or not analyzing a selected space like listing well being or working a full audit, following a examined framework cuts out the guesswork. Begin doing extra of what‘s working and fewer of what isn’t with our expert-led electronic mail advertising audit course of.