All senior marketers will tell you, it is wise to review your email marketing periodically. Set time apart to really go through the current processes and email marketing messages. But where to start?
An email marketing audit can highlight the strengths and weaknesses in your email marketing campaigns. As a result you know what needs to be improved and how.
Going in-depth with an email marketing review
In my experience even seasoned marketers don’t go in-depth with an email marketing review regularly. They know they should audit their email program, but still don’t do it. Why?
1. A business case easy as 1,2,3
A review could be perfect tool to instantly mature your email marketing program. I know that a quality email marketing audit can easily outweigh the costs. Most of the time, an online marketing team is working with a budget. Then it is smart to make the business case, luckely that is quite simple.
A email marketing review isn’t that expensive and can directly pay out, through it’s identified quick wins the minute it is finished. The business case is often as easy as 1,2,3 if you measure profits coming from your marketing. The calculation of the additional email marketing ROI shouldn’t be a challenge. So be sure to reserve those resources early on in the year.
2. Getting an fresh look at the email marketing program
One of the hardest things might be to be in charge of strategy, creative direction, sending, reporting; all those things and on top of that do an email marketing review. Many email marketers are in a small team and caught up in their day to day business. They basically are the email program. That makes it hard to stay objective to review the program, not being able to look at it with fresh eyes.
3. Putting the email marketing review on the agenda
A good email marketing review takes time, although that might be just the perception, because a “review” or “email marketing audit” sounds quite hefty. In my experience that isn’t the case. You can get really far and get the first results in just a weeks time, but put it on the agenda. Otherwise it will take an external events (like extremely poor response or a nudge from the boss) to initiate the first improvenments. This often ends up being a review of only the pain points part of the email program and more ad hoc than needed.
4. Get management Horney
The call for a review can come directly from the trenches. The people that do the work will “feel” the need for improvement. There are many CEOs though that aren’t that digital savvy. And email marketing is bringing in great results already. If it ain’t broke, why try to fix it, right? So there is a need to get management buy-in for an email marketing review. A quick scan of the program can help. It can unveil small changes with big impact. As a first step, proving results works very well. And it can help on the path to a structural approach.
5. Using a structured approach
A review is meant to highlight the strengths and weaknesses in your email marketing campaigns. And especially the elements with high potential of improvement. But where to begin? Most marketers haven’t done these reviews themselves before. So the plan gets kind of improvised. Or the knowledge about email marketing simply is outside the company. That can cause the review to take more time than needed.
Ask for expertise and experience
One final word of advice. Sometimes the most important elements of the email marketing strategy are missed in the review. Or even worse, marketing based on the wrong assumptions. Even if your digital agency does the review, be sure to get a proven and structured approach to any review. And make sure they have the experience and knowledge that is needed.
Would you like to get better results from your email program? I can help you start with a thourough email marketing review. Look here for the details.
Keep improving!
