What is an Email Marketing Audit?
Email marketing continues to be one of the most effective channels for digital marketing, with a high return on investment (ROI) compared to other mediums, such as social media advertising and search engine marketing. But simply sending out emails isn’t enough; to ensure your campaigns are as successful as they can be, regular email marketing audits are necessary.
An email marketing audit is the process of reviewing all aspects of your email marketing strategy to identify strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities for improvement. It is a comprehensive evaluation of your entire email marketing funnel, from your subscriber list to the content of your emails, their deliverability, and their results.
Why Conduct an Email Marketing Audit?
Email marketing is a dynamic practice, with subscriber engagement, content preferences, and deliverability factors constantly evolving. Failing to monitor and optimize your strategy consistently can result in underwhelming performance metrics. Here are some key reasons why conducting an email marketing audit is essential:
- Improves deliverability: Keeping track of email deliverability ensures your emails actually reach your subscribers' inboxes.
- Higher engagement rates: Auditing can help identify content that resonates with your audience, thus driving higher open rates and click-throughs.
- Optimizes list quality: Regular list cleaning and segmenting help maintain an engaged and targeted audience.
- Increases ROI: Fine-tuning your approach ensures that your email campaigns remain effective and produce a higher return on investment.
- Regulatory compliance: An audit ensures you're adhering to regulations like GDPR and CAN-SPAM.
Now that we understand the importance, let’s break down the steps involved in conducting an email marketing audit.
Steps to Conduct an Email Marketing Audit
There are several components involved in an email marketing audit. Here's a step-by-step guide to performing an effective one.
1. Analyze Your Subscriber List
Start your audit by taking a close look at your subscriber list. A high-quality email list comprises engaged recipients who are interested in your content. Consider the following metrics during your list audit:
- List growth rate: How quickly is your list expanding? Are more people subscribing than unsubscribing?
- Bounce rate: Are emails getting returned due to incorrect addresses?
- Unsubscribe rate: Are a lot of recipients opting out of your list? High unsubscribe rates could indicate that your content isn’t resonating with your audience.
- Spam complaints: Are any subscribers reporting your emails as spam?
To maintain list health, consider using double opt-in processes, regularly removing inactive subscribers, and performing segmentation for more targeted campaigns.
2. Review Email Design and Content
Next, you must review the quality and effectiveness of your email design and content. This includes ensuring that both are mobile-friendly and deliver the value your audience expects. Here are some things to consider:
- Mobile optimization: More than half of all emails are opened on mobile devices. Ensure your emails are responsive and look good on all screen sizes.
- Subject lines: Are your subject lines engaging enough to encourage opens? Tools like Omnisend’s Subject Line Best Practices may help.
- Content relevance: Is the content within your emails valuable to your audience? This includes ensuring personalization, delivering promises made when they subscribed, and adding value.
- Visual hierarchy: Consider how easy it is to navigate and digest your emails’ content. Use headings, bullet points, and images to break up large blocks of text.
- Call-to-action (CTA): Are your CTAs clear and compelling? Poor CTAs can mislead or confuse your readers.
At this stage, it’s also useful to perform A/B testing. Try different versions of your emails to determine what resonates better with your audience.
3. Examine Email Deliverability
Email deliverability refers to the likelihood of your emails reaching your subscribers' inboxes rather than ending up in spam folders or being blocked entirely. Factors such as low engagement rates and poor sender reputation can negatively impact email deliverability. Here are some key steps in this part of the audit:
- Sender reputation: Are you following best practices to maintain or improve your domain's reputation? Tools like Sender Score can provide insights into your domain's performance.
- Spam testing: Use spam-testing tools to check if your emails have elements that may trigger spam filters.
- Authentication: Ensure that you are using authentication methods like DKIM, SPF, and DMARC to improve email deliverability and credibility.
- Email frequency: Are you sending too many or too few emails? The right frequency helps maintain an engaged list while fewer unsubscribes are seen.
4. Audit Your Metrics and KPIs
While it’s essential to check the surface-level outcomes (e.g. open rates, click-through rates), it’s even more important to measure the long-term KPIs of your email efforts. Here's a quick guide on which metrics to keep an eye on:
| Metric | What to Review |
|---|---|
| Open rate | Percentage of recipients who open your email. This is heavily influenced by your subject lines and sender reputation. |
| Click-through rate (CTR) | Percentage of recipients who clicked on a link within your email. Track this to measure how well your call-to-actions (CTAs) are performing. |
| Conversion rate | The percentage of recipients who completed a desired action (e.g. making a purchase or signing up). This metric reflects the real business impact of your email campaigns. |
| Bounce rate | The percentage of emails that couldn’t be delivered. High bounce rates may indicate a poor list quality or technical issues. |
| Spam complaints | The number of subscribers who mark your emails as spam. High numbers of complaints indicate issues with content or sending practices. |
Comparing these metrics to both internal benchmarks and industry standards is essential to refining your strategy. If you aren't hitting your targets, go back and review each element of your email campaigns individually.
5. Assess Compliance with Legal Protocols
Compliance is an often-overlooked, but critical part of the audit, especially in the face of data privacy regulations. Breaching guidelines comes with legal and financial risks. Make sure to review the following:
- GDPR: Are you collecting user data in a compliant manner? Do you have the user's explicit consent to email them?
- CAN-SPAM: Are you providing an easy-to-find unsubscribe link and physical address in your emails? For more information, visit this guide from the Federal Trade Commission.
- Data storage: How well are you managing, securing, and storing subscriber data?
With the increasing number of regulations tied to digital communication, staying compliant is essential to maintaining your subscribers' trust and protecting your company from legal repercussions.
6. Review Automation Processes
If you’re using automation workflows such as welcome emails, cart abandonment emails, or post-purchase follow-ups, they should also be included in your audit process. Automation can only drive efficiency and performance when it’s well optimized. Here's what to consider:
- Personalization: Are your automated processes tailored to various segments of your audience?
- Triggers: Review the timing and content of your automated emails. Are they being sent at the right moments to your subscribers?
- Effectiveness: Are these automated workflows still generating the desired results (e.g., conversions or re-engagement)?
Conclusion: Regular Audits are Essential for Success
Conducting a comprehensive email marketing audit might feel like an intimidating process, but the insights gained are invaluable. An audit provides you with a clear understanding of what's working and what isn't, allowing you to refine and optimize your email marketing strategies continually.
By following the audit process outlined above, you can identify areas for improvement, ensure a high standard of email compliance, increase your engagement rates, and improve the overall impact of your email campaigns.
So, if you haven’t reviewed your email marketing strategy lately, now might just be the perfect time to start. Remember, the evolving nature of digital marketing requires constant monitoring and adjustment!
