Quarterly Check-Up

Each quarter you should conduct a deep-dive introspection on your email program – a hard look at what is working, what needs to be improved and then focus on next steps to strengthen your program going forward. This is a review that should take place among the email marketing team, then presented to your management and (if applicable) incorporate a review with your direct marketing team.

The goal of this exercise is to seek continuous improvement and look to extend the support that the email marketing group can provide to the rest of the organization. A typical agenda should include:
1) Review of campaigns and statistics
a) Brief on reporting numbers for the quarter
b) Look at opens, clicks and conversions for current quarter (how do they compare to the previous quarter, for the same quarter prior year)
2) Net subscribes
a) Number of new people opted-in
b) Number of people who have unsubscribed
3) Deliverability statistics
4) Unsubscribe audit results
5) Email ROI
6) Quarterly email champion
7) Observations, ideas, suggestions and challenges

The Results
Create charts to illustrate trends – enhance the raw numbers with additional measures, like which subject lines were top performers and why. Evaluate why some campaigns gained a higher click through than others. Determine which campaign resulted in more visits to the landing pages and what happened once the user arrived there. Monitor net subscribes, the number should be a positive (if not, dig-down to see what’s happening.)

Evaluate processes, what were the main deliverability issues you’ve faced, plug existing holes and ensure you are adhering to white-listing standards. Audit processes, make sure unsubscribes are being honored (via phone, fax, mail-in, email and/ or the single click.)

Assign an ROI for your campaigns, compute by removing your total cost to email from the margin for your sales. If you are using this to cut down on costs for direct mailing – write down the amount saved and the impact made (opens and clicks).

Assign a quarterly email champion – pick someone from the store, or call center or another department, thank them and highlight how they helped.

Finally, always gather ideas from your team – present your challenges and seek their help, debut draft communiqués and/ or upcoming streams to them to get them onboard along with their feedback.