Email Marketing
Email Marketing Audit – 74 Point Checklist for eCommerce Stores
November 13, 2024
Nearly every eCommerce email marketing checklist runs email campaigns through a ton of checkpoints, such as:
👉 “Are there short subject lines”
👉 “Does the email avoid typos”
👉 “Has the spelling been checked”
👉 “Is the sending time optimized”, and more
However, the real question is: Do you really need to test every aspect before sending a campaign? This is what our two-part eCommerce email marketing checklist answers over 70+ checkpoints – here’s a preview:
Pre-Send eCommerce Email Marketing Checklist
▶ Performance & Analytics Checklist
Post-Send eCommerce Email Marketing Checklist
⚠ This is a base to get you started. Fine-tune it to incorporate your brand tone and your learnings.
Ready to dive in?
Pre-Send eCommerce Email Marketing Checklist
🕒 Before sending out an email campaign
(ℹ) A list of points to check before sending an email marketing campaign
▶ List Checklist
Why: To get the ‘who you are sending to’ right, and ensure your emails get sent to subscribers who are most likely to convert – as well as avoid spamming.
✅ Non-engaging subscribers removed?
The goal is to create a filter to ensure your email campaigns only send to subscribers who will most likely engage – increasing your open rate + conversions.
TIP – Set the period to a minimum of 6 months – and target non-openers and subscribers who have opened your emails but didn’t click through.
✅ Sending to the correct segment?
Once non-performers are removed, it’s always a great idea to classify your list based on whether the subscriber is new to your brand or a repeat buyer.
TIP – Also create segments on estimated value, purchase frequency, behaviors, and duration of being a subscriber.
Also read: eCommerce Behavioral Segmentation Examples For 2024
✅ Avoiding duplication?
Try creating segments and sub-segments to not only avoid duplication but also create broad as well as targeted segments – here’s an example:
👉 Segment 1 (All Purchasers): Opened + clicked in last 6 months AND Made a purchase
👉 Segment 1a (High-Value Purchasers): Opened + clicked in last 6 months AND Made a purchase AND Average Order Value >= $100
👉 Segment 1b (Mid-Value Purchasers): Opened + clicked in last 6 months AND Made a purchase AND Average Order Value <$99
TIP – Target broader segments with bulk campaigns, while more targeted segments deserve more personalized messaging.
✅ Limit set on the no. of emails an individual can receive in a window of time?
This ensures that any subscriber who is already in a flow doesn’t get an irrelevant email.
TIP – Set the period to 1 week or less – remember, it all depends on how often you send emails and how your workflows are set up.
Also read: How to Use Targeted Email Marketing to Drive More Sales (eCommerce)
▶ Workflow Checklist
Why: To get your automation on track and ensure your drip email campaigns are effective – or that you don't interrupt any retargeting/active drip email campaigns.
✅ When are flows triggered?
The goal is to make sure conversion triggers aren’t left unattended while moving subscribers down a funnel. All you need to do is check if your flows trigger when a subscriber:
👉 Signs up
👉 Abandons cart
👉 Makes their first purchase
👉 Makes a second purchase
👉 Leaves after browsing a product
👉 Reduces engaging with emails
👉 Goes dormant after purchasing
TIP – Try to trigger personalized flows, like sending an email when a high-value subscriber abandons cart – or starts viewing high-value products.
Also read: 13 Triggered Email Examples That Actually Drive Conversions
✅ What is the gap between each email?
The goal is to ensure your emails aren’t sent out too early or late to make a subscriber suspicious or anxious. All you need to do is check how soon an email is sent after a trigger condition is met.
TIP – Make sure you keep fallbacks when there is no discernible behavior – for example if a subscriber doesn’t engage with your cart abandonment campaign in a stipulated time, trigger a ‘your cart will expire’ email.
✅ Is the exit action configured?
You can always set another flow to launch when one flow ends. This ensures that subscribers aren’t forgotten when they exit your flow – even if the goal of the workflow is not met.
TIP – Exit actions can be any small action, based on the need – like assigning a lead score, or a tag based on products engaged with, or launching into separate workflows to end a flow. For example, subscribers who didn't avail of the welcome discount can be launched into a ‘lead nurturing’ flow.
✅ When do emails skip sending?
The goal here is to make sure your emails don’t send till ideal sending conditions are met – here are a few examples of when you should skip or delay emails:
👉 Trigger happens between 1 AM and 4 AM
👉 Trigger occurs close to a holiday
👉 Products in the email don’t have adequate stock
TIP – Consider setting up a different flow if a trigger isn’t met – for example, you can always launch separate campaigns when a particular product is low in stock.
▶ Bulk Email Checklist
Why: To get the manual campaigns sorted.
✅ Skipping subscribers who’ve just received an email?
Check if your flows are sending to broad segments but excluding those receiving your existing workflows – or who have exited one in the last week. This ensures you avoid potential spam by sending emails that may be irrelevant to those in a flow.
TIP – Create a separate segment that auto populates by adding subscribers who have exited a workflow over a period – but it’s always best to manually review and create sub-segments before sending bulk emails to that segment.
Also read: How do I send bulk emails without spamming
✅ Is the email content aligned with the landing page?
Check if the email copy and visuals are similar to the landing page, where users will land on – this helps create recall as well as trust.
TIP – Check if dynamic landing pages like cart and checkout links populate with the correct product. The goal of your landing pages is to make users feel like they are picking up from where they left off.
Also read: Boost eComm landing page conversions: 12 scientific strategies
✅ What goals are you targeting?
This checkpoint is to ensure you target all the major possible goals of bulk emails (since users don’t set off manual bulk campaigns) – here are a few examples:
👉 Connect with subscribers → Newsletters
👉 Connect and get sales → Event announcements/livestream emails
👉 Clear stock → Sitewide sale events
TIP – Use bulk emails to collect user data – like figuring out what offers/products a subscriber is interested in.
✅ Is the send time configured by a subscriber’s time zone?
The goal is to reach the inbox when subscribers are most likely to open emails. All you need to do is ensure emails are sent out by a subscriber’s time zone. For example, if you target 9 AM on a Thursday, it should reach the subscriber at 9 AM (in their local time zone).
TIP – Peak engagement times are different for each product, use case, and demographic – which is why it's always a great idea to A/B test optimal send times.
Also read: 50+ eCommerce Email Marketing Statistics for 2024
▶ Sender Checklist
Why: To get ‘who you’re sending as’ right – and build a rapport with subscribers, maintain deliverability as well as improve metrics.
✅ Names included in sender identity?
The goal here is to be instantly recognizable, so users know who the email is coming from. All you have to do is use a recognizable and trustworthy sender name to build rapport with recipients like “Jim@DunderMifflin.”
TIP – Consider using sender names based on roles/positions – like “Founder@Brand” or “Chief Doggo from Brand.”
✅ Separate reply to addresses provided? Do subscribers know about it?
This email marketing tactic increases the interactivity of your emails, letting subscribers know that you are one reply away. All you have to do is include a line in your footer so subscribers can always reply to the email – like “Got smoke? Hit reply ;)”
TIP – Make sure your sending address and reply to addresses are different by default in your email header – this helps you segregate replies from a sea of delivery reports, ensuring you don’t miss a message.
✅ Preview text in use?
Check if you have added pre-header or preview text (allowing you to add a bit of extra information alongside your subject line) – doing this helps increase your click-through rate. All you have to do is add a bit of text above your email header HTML tags – the rules here are similar to subject lines:
👉 Maximum of 40 to 50 characters
👉 Incorporate personalization (optional)
👉 Has zero emojis (or one emoji max)
👉 Tie to the subject line or describe what the email is about (more on this later)
TIP – Always limit your pre-header text to 30 characters – as email clients often append preview text.
✅ How is personalization maintained?
Assign tags to contacts as they interact with your site. This will allow you to deliver more personalized content like offers, recommendations, and reviews in sync with the buyer demographic. For example, you can send Korean skincare product recommendations and reviews to people who have viewed the Asian skincare category on your site.
TIP – Always configure merge tags as fallbacks when your email copy or any dynamic content breaks (often occurs when there’s data missing) – here's a common example, “Hi /*fname/, your cart is waiting.”
Also read: 20 email personalization templates (examples from great brands)
✅ Sending from the correct email address?
The goal is to check if you are sending from an email address that subscribers and email clients recognize.
TIP – Instead of using a separate domain name to send emails, consider using dedicated subdomain emails like “jordan@support.convertcart.com.” This reduces the chances of your domain being hit when you start sending emails.
▶ Design Checklist
Why: To get the visuals of your email templates right, in terms of ease of use and making sure your email copy has a solid backbone to carry the effect.
✅ Responsive across multiple screens?
Check if your email displays correctly across multiple devices, apps, screen sizes, and operating systems. However, you should take extra care if your:
❌ Email width is more than 500 px
❌ Sections switch content/stay hidden with CSS media queries
TIP – Limit your main content width between 400 to 200 px – this helps avoid any inconsistency that can crop up when sections switch across email clients.
Also read: eCommerce Email Mobile Optimization: 35 Guidelines For Store Owners
✅ Dark mode available?
The goal here is fairly simple – all you need to do is check if any text or logos disappear in dark mode UI on desktop and mobile devices.
TIP – Avoid using pure black and pure white in your email design – as most clients end up switching these colors to adjust for dark mode. Instead, use brand colors as backgrounds for your email – this will help maintain color consistency by a lot.
Also read: 14 Brilliant Ways To Nail Dark Mode Email In eCommerce (w/ Examples)
✅ Is alt text available?
Make sure the alt text just doesn’t include a keyword for SEO – instead, check if your alt text actually describes what the image contains, so screen readers can accurately describe the email.
TIP – Try to design your alt text with padding and colors – doing this can create a solid fallback, in case images don’t load.
✅ Is the header optimized?
The goal here is to make subscribers scroll down by making the header look visually appealing – here are a few ideas that you should always have:
👉 ‘View email in browser’ link
👉 A logo
👉 Section height less than 5% of the email
👉 (Optional) Category links in the header – like “New” and “back in stock”
TIP – Use a notification bar style element in your email to include your most important offer – or you can also use your preheader/preview text.
Also read: 12 Amazing Ideas For Your Notification Bars (& Some Great Examples)
✅ Is the UVP present in the first fold?
Check if your email gets the most important information out in the first fold – it can be through the headline, image, sub-headline, or the CTA button.
TIP – Always aim to keep your email's length below 2 folds – anything beyond that is not likely to get read.
Also read: Above the Fold: 12 ideas for better conversions (+ amazing examples)
✅ Plain text version included?
This ensures your email renders the same message even if a particular client doesn’t support HTML.
TIP – Plain text versions are especially useful for smartwatch users who check emails on their watches.
✅ Are email templates visually aligned to your goals?
The goal here is to check if your templates match the vibe of the goal you’re trying to achieve. For example, the length of your first and last cart abandonment email template may be completely different – as one may be built from a template, while the other may look like a 1:1 email.
TIP – Always aim for visual hierarchy – focus on hooking users with images first and then text.
Also read: 30 Amazing eCommerce Email Templates (from 6 industries)
✅ Using dynamic elements in your emails?
Dynamic elements change from user to user to create a more personalized experience. Check if you are using these essential dynamic elements in your emails:
👉 Loyalty program rewards status on the header
👉 Showing where a subscriber signed up in the email footer
👉 Displaying product recommendations on replenishment, upsell, or cross-sell emails
TIP – If you recommend products dynamically, make sure you use a separate feed with transparent product backgrounds.
Also read: 40 Discount Email Templates (& Examples) for eCommerce Stores
✅ Design fallbacks included?
This ensures that there are fallback icons and text for cases when any content or images fail to load.
TIP – Set basic images to load, when dynamic content doesn't display properly (usually occurs when there's not enough data to fulfill dynamic recommendations).
Also read: eCommerce Email Design: 25 Beautiful Examples (& Why They Drive Sales)
▶ Copy Checklist
Why: Get the ‘words’ right – To ensure your email copy converts and maintains a level of personalization.
✅ Clearly worded CTA buttons used?
Check if the subscriber knows exactly what is expected of them from the call to action button – here are some examples:
👉 Get your X% off
👉 Get grooving at X%
👉 Ready to crumble
👉 Swap 2X points
TIP – Be specific but avoid making CTA’s so long that they warp on responsive mode.
✅ Is the subject line and preheader copy relatable?
Ask yourself: “Does it pose a problem that will induce clicks?”
TIP – Ask an open-ended question, or use wordplay on a movie quote – like “Pasta La Vista, baby 🤏” or “Heard you needed a break from stress”
✅ Is the grammar from the 21st century?
Your goal isn't wowing people with flowery writing from the Victorian era. Check if your email copy is free of spelling errors or hard-to-read sentences.
TIP – Maintain grammar – but use some wilful mistakes in subject lines to draw attention – like spelling mistakes and missing punctuation – here’s an example: “Wear is the summer gone”
✅ How do you tell people who you are?
The goal is to increase trust as well as ensure that there is always some proof and information about who you are as a brand – check if you have included:
👉 Address
👉 Contact information
👉 Social media account links
TIP – Another great way to build trust is by including brand benefits, such as ‘Free Shipping’, and ‘Free Returns/Exchanges’, in a section above your footer.
✅ Is the content skimmable?
Check if the font formatting aids in quick scanning of the email. Brevity is key – using short sentences, highlighting important parts of the text, and using easy words are all great ways to aid skimming.
TIP – Check that font sizes of headings, subheadings, and body are proportional to each other – this will ensure visual hierarchy and make the email scannable.
✅ Storytelling implemented?
Check if the email copy continues the theme set in the subject line – for example, your copy can be about:
👉 Establishing solutions to problems set in the subject
👉 How your brand approaches and solves problems
👉 Metrics about your brand’s success in solving a problem
👉 Showing an ideal customer’s journey with your brand
TIP – Use copy formats like AIDA/PAS/‘before-after bridge’/more to back up your brand storytelling – your goal is to establish the ‘why you should care’ aspect among your subscribers.
Also read: eCommerce Email Copywriting: 20 Game-Changing Tips
✅ Social proof added?
The goal here is to establish expertise. Check if you have added recommendations from influencers, employees, or even your own likings.
TIP – Add some copy to let users know the benefits of following you on your socials – along with photos of your customers – this shows that your brand is trusted.
▶ Spam Checklist
Why: To get yourself into the inbox – as well as avoid the promotions tab.
✅ Trigger words avoided?
Check if you're avoiding any words or phrases that are commonly associated with spam, such as "free," "urgent," or "money-back guarantee."
TIP – Use natural language and avoid excessive use of exclamation points.
✅ Broken links present?
Test all links in your email to ensure they are working correctly. This helps reduce spam and contributes to better UX.
TIP – Set all links to open on new tabs – this will allow users to continue reading your email while accessing the linked content.
✅ Unsubscribe and privacy policy links added?
This is a compulsory compliance, without which your emails will invariably be marked as spam. Make sure there is a clear and easy-to-find unsubscribe link in your email’s footer, along with a short blurb about your privacy policy which contains information about why the subscriber is receiving emails from you.
TIP – Also add an option to update preferences along with your unsubscribe link.
Also read: 5 Things That Harm eCommerce Domain Reputation (+ 10 Ways To Recover It)
▶ A/B Test Checklist
Why: To set your email campaigns up for the best possible performance.
✅ Is your list large enough?
A larger sample size will reduce the margin of error. Before you run any A/B tests on emails ensure you have a large enough sample size to obtain statistically significant results.
TIP – Always send your emails to 20% of your list before sending them out to everyone. However, if your list consists of less than 2000 people, your A/B test won’t be very conclusive.
Also read: 14 A/B Testing Ideas For eCommerce Emails
✅ Pre-header content tested?
Test different preheader and subject line copy variations to see which one drives higher open rates. It's worth noting that a compelling preheader can entice recipients to open your email.
TIP – Test if subject lines perform better when adding an offer or a subscriber’s name.
✅ Sender name tested?
Test different sender names to see which one improves engagement. Check the impact of using human names compared to role names like “Sam@Convertcart” vs “HeadHoncho@Convertcart.”
TIP – A personalized or branded sender name can increase open rates.
✅ Send test emails to your family
The goal here is to get someone who may have near-zero interest to audit your email copy. Check how they interact with your content, and if they have any suggestions for improvements.
TIP – As a best practice, don't let your testers know they will receive an email, check when they open and if they open.
▶ Performance & Analytics Checklist
Why: To understand how subscribers interact with your email – and ensure that tracking efforts actually connect to your marketing efforts.
✅ UTM tags present in all links?
By all links, we mean all links present within your emails. This is to find out how your users move through your website.
TIP – Make sure your landing page is able to pass UTM data across multiple pages on your website accurately.
✅ Have you tested email to see if actions trigger?
Test if your event listeners or pixels can track subscriber actions that aren’t trackable by UTM parameters – like tracking button clicks that aren’t the ‘add to cart’ button.
TIP – Use actions like “clicked on read more” as triggers to add tags to your contact and move them to more suited workflows – for this example, the ideal workflow would be an upsell flow for that particular product.
✅ Email file size and loading time?
The goal here is to test how fast the email loads under different network speeds on different devices (throttling). All you have to keep in mind is that the email size should not go over 100kb at all costs.
TIP – If you can’t keep the email size down, consider reducing animations, and complicated CSS that may take time to render on email clients.
✅ Legal Compliance declared?
The goal here is to show your email complies with email-sending regulations like CAN-SPAM as well as local consumer protection laws like CCPA, GDPR, etc.
TIP – Make sure you include some text about how your subscribers were added and why they are receiving emails.
Post-Send eCommerce Email Marketing Checklist
🕒 Quarterly/Monthly
(ℹ) An email audit checklist to show what elements of your email marketing efforts need to be audited.
▶ ESP Checklist
Why: To ensure your email service provider can support as well as connect to your omnichannel marketing efforts. All while maintaining long-term list hygiene and improving your domain reputation.
✅ Store and advertising connected?
Check if you are tracking email subscribers cross-channel on ad platforms like Meta and Google ads.
TIP – Always make sure your remarketing stops once a conversion event occurs.
✅ Are preferences updated regularly?
TIP – Provide options to collect gender data, age, and location to further improve your rapport with the sender.
✅ Graymail suppression avoided?
The goal here is to ensure emails don't keep being sent to addresses that don't open emails. Or else, email clients start treating you as a low-value sender.
TIP – Automatically filter out any non-mainstream email IDs from your main list – like “@xyz.com” or “@aol.com”
Also read: Email Security Best Practices For eCommerce Stores (For 2024)
✅ Email identity configured?
Check if your marketing emails are sent from a dedicated domain and pass security as well as identify parameters like:
👉 DKIM
👉 ARC
👉 SPF
👉 BIMI (logo check)
TIP – Periodically use MX checker tools to keep track of your spam score and your domain reputation.
▶ List Growth Checklist
Why: To ensure your list-building efforts drive quality sign-ups.
✅ How are your subscribers signing up?
Check if you have implemented lead collections at high-traffic points on your site like:
👉 Footer newsletter signup forms
👉 Offer popup on exit intent
👉 Auto signup after an order is completed
👉 After completing a quiz on your site
👉 After engaging with your live chat
TIP – Grow your subscribers across your socials by leaving a sign-up link in your link-in-bio.
Also read: 28 No-BS Ways To Get More Email Subscribers in eCommerce
✅ Do you run referrals?
The goal is to ensure that your list keeps growing with referrals from active subscribers and brand loyalists.
TIP – Send separate referral and loyalty flows based on a subscriber’s status – target purchasers and high engagers (but make sure the copy is different for each subscriber type).
Also read: eCommerce Referral Email: 10 Examples That Really Work
✅ Testing form placement?
Other than checking where subscribers sign up from, it’s equally important to check if the offer will perform, to make your list grow. Here’s how you do it:
👉 Create lead-magnet offers like ‘giveaways’, ‘discounts on a browsed product’, ‘get free product’, ‘loyalty rewards’, ‘tiered discounts’, ‘get free shipping’, etc.
👉 Test these offers first within your email list – see how many subscribers opt in
👉 Keep A/B testing – measure dismissals, opt-ins – and make sure each offer runs for a considerable while
TIP – Repurpose your best performing ad-creatives into sign-up forms to get quick results.
▶ List Sanitization Checklist
Why: To ensure you're capturing the best possible leads, revenue plus some growth.
✅ Does the form capture key user details like intent, location, etc?
The goal here is to gather as much information about subscribers as possible – like:
👉 Shopping for which kind of products
👉 What page did they first visit before the signup
👉 What was the IP from which they signed up
TIP – Add tags or identifiers to a subscriber contact to easily trigger flows or end flows when a tag is present (like not sending a generic welcome campaign to subscribers who have just made a purchase).
Also read: Sign-Up Forms: 15 high-converting examples & what makes them great
✅ Is double opt-in activated?
Check if all lists make subscribers confirm their email addresses by clicking a link in their inbox. Landing this process will ensure your emails are consistently delivered while getting yourself marked as a priority sender.
TIP – When subscribers sign up, let subscribers know to check their spam box – and compulsorily make sure to highlight this in your email copy: “Add this email as a contact, or else you will miss out on offers.”
✅ Any form of contact deduplication done?
The same user can sign up across different lists, which is why it's important to avoid launching a subscriber into parallel flows while maintaining clear reporting.
TIP – Always try to lead all signup forms to dump data into one list – if needed, assign tags to your subscriber contacts to record the location of sign-up.
✅ Hard bounces removed?
Hard bounces are emails that don't get sent due to invalid addresses, email blockers, etc. Either way, a great way to avoid this is to validate addresses before sending any email.
TIP – Segment your list into two main parts – one segment should contain mainstream email IDs like gmail.com, yahoo.com, me.com, etc. The other segment should contain questionable email addresses (among which only active engagers should receive emails).
Also read: 13 Proven Ways to Reduce Email Unsubscribe Rate (eCommerce)
▶ Strategy Checklist
Why: To check if you’re leaving out any form of goals uncovered for your email marketing, like:
✅ Targeting stock levels?
Check if you have set up trigger out-of-stock or back-in-stock announcement emails automatically when a product goes out of stock or is restocked.
TIP – Target your entire list and send back-in-stock emails for products that frequently go out of stock – as these are your best sellers.
✅ Announcing brand events?
Check if you send emails manually for brand events that require sign-ups like:
👉 Pre-orders
👉 Product launch events
👉 Co-hosted events
👉 Sitewide sales or clearance events
TIP – Once subscribers sign up from your bulk event emails, stop all promotional emails for those subscribers. This ensures your sending capacity doesn't suddenly shoot up.
Also read: 10 product launch email examples that drove massive sales (+ templates)
✅ Targeting different forms of seasonality?
Check if you target last-minute as well as long-term purchases before any holidays.
TIP – Set up different workflows with holiday-specific templates for user actions that occur a few days before (or after) a particular holiday. Here’s an example: a Christmas-themed cart abandonment drip that is set to trigger on any cart abandonment that occurs 5 days before the 25th.
Also read: Best-Performing Holiday Email Templates for eCommerce (+ Brand Examples)
✅ Sending newsletters?
Check if your newsletters engage subscribers – here are a few ideas to try out:
👉 Latest content updates from your side (new products, locations, reviews, etc.)
👉 Subscriber preferences with tailored content (like recipes related to products they browsed)
👉 Summary of subscriber engagement + some offers for gamification (displaying a ‘you loved these styles last month's)
TIP – If you collect user location, you can also send subscribers targeted newsletters with tips more suited to them – for example, if you are a food brand with one subscriber from Arizona and one from Vancouver, you should send ‘meat preservation hacks for 104° heat’ to the one in Arizona – while the other person can receive something like ‘how to keep your meat fresh till 2026.’
Also read: eCommerce Newsletter: 20 Ways To Stand Out And Actually Drive Sales
✅ Awakening dormant purchasers?
The goal is to gather feedback and induce repeat purchases by launching separate flows for purchasers who:
👉 Stopped opening emails after 1 month of purchasing
👉 Open emails but haven’t purchased for 6 months (or more)
👉 Did not leave a review after purchasing your product
TIP – Make sure winback emails stop sending once subscribers actually start re-engaging – or start displaying signs of non-engagement.
Also read: 11 High-Converting Win Back Email Examples (+ Templates)
✅ How do you handle inactive subscribers?
The goal is to reduce sending volume to subscribers who don't engage with your emails to a great extent.
TIP – Identify low engagement head-on and gradually reduce your sending rate – for example, once you identify, provide an option to update preferences – if there's still inactivity, cut off all emails, and send only one email per month.
Also read: Re-engagement Email Examples That (Actually) Win Back Subscribers
✅ What kind of confirmations do you send?
Confirmations are all about alleviating subscriber anxiety. Send confirmation emails for scenarios like:
👉 order confirmations
👉 account registrations
👉 password resets
👉 event registrations
TIP – Make sure your dynamic email templates look visually similar to your other emails. Here's some inspiration 👇
Also read: 25 easy-to-copy confirmation email templates (+ best practices & FAQs)
✅ How are transactional emails set up?
👉 Product recommendation emails, targeting different offers
👉 To ensure anniversary emails auto-trigger
👉 Loyalty/Anniversary emails (like anniversary/birthday emails)
TIP – Auto-trigger thank-you emails after a subscriber completes a 1:1 interaction with your brand. The goal here is to measure how satisfied your customer is.
Also read: Turn boring transactional emails into cash cows: 10 proven ideas
✅ How do you handle abandonment?
Abandonment flows are the most common flows, but one of the easiest ones to get wrong. Make sure there are at least 3 emails in any abandonment flow.
TIP – Classify your cart abandonment flows into two main categories – checkout, and payment abandonment. Checkout abandonment triggers when a subscriber isn’t satisfied with your shipping or has low trust – meanwhile, payment abandonment is a sure-shot sign of low trust.
Also read: 40 Abandoned Cart Email Examples that Actually Win Back Lost Customers
✅ How do you handle post-purchase?
The goal here is to ensure that your post-purchase email campaigns continue till you send an email asking for feedback from a purchaser. Always divide your post-purchase email campaigns into three flows:
👉 the first flow triggers immediately after the purchase – and ends with an order confirmation
👉 the second part of the flow triggers and ends with a shipping confirmation
👉 The third and final part of the flow triggers when a subscriber receives a delivery confirmation and ends with a review email
TIP – Remember to set up a replenishment flow for repeat purchasers, as well.
Also read:17 Unconventional Post-Purchase Emails (+ How to copy them)
▶ Email Campaign Checklist
Why: To ensure your efforts actually cover all types of campaigns that your eComm brand deserves – while maintaining creative flexibility + performance.
✅ Separate campaigns by location and type of form?
The goal here is to maintain consistency – for example, if you offer a 10% discount on signing up, make sure your welcome email actually maintains that same language.
TIP – If you use multiple lead gen popups, assign a unique tag to each pop-up, so you can launch unique workflows with matching offers for each pop-up.
Also read: Top 20 lead nurturing emails in eCommerce
✅ Email marketing calendar maintained?
Create a detailed email marketing calendar to plan your campaigns throughout the year (including your manual and automated campaigns). Your goal is to plan for:
👉 How often do you plan to send promotional emails – ensure that your total percentage of promotions doesn’t go beyond 30%
👉 How many emails do you plan to send in total – for example, most eCommerce brands launch about 30 to 40 campaigns in a year
TIP – Always look for skipped contacts and potential overlaps in segments – the goal is to avoid sudden increases and drops in sending volume.
Also read: eCommerce Marketing Calendar 2024 (& Tips on How to Promote)
✅ Custom pop-ups triggered by campaigns?
The goal here is to identify and engage email subscribers with relevant offers when they arrive on your site. For example, providing an option to continue learning about a product a subscriber browsed previously.
TIP – Always set a custom logic in your event listeners to identify email subscribers and switch off welcome forms – this can reduce duplication to a great extent.
Also read: Exit-Intent Pop-Ups: overcoming common mistakes + 20 brilliant examples
✅ Do your campaigns suffer from micro-segmentation?
Micro-segmentation happens when the email flow logic targets very few subscribers. Here’s why this is a problem: those who should have been targeted get left out.
TIP – Pause your campaigns when a flow is about to send to less than 50 subscribers.
Also read: How often should eCommerce stores send marketing emails?
▶ Performance Checklist
Why: To ensure you know what metrics are ideal and plan your actions accordingly.
✅ Are you hitting email marketing benchmarks?
Here the goal is to find out, where subscribers stop engaging with your emails – and if your numbers are at par with eCommerce email marketing benchmarks:
a) 98% email delivery rate as well as deliverability?
Delivery rate is about making sure your emails actually send to valid email addresses, while deliverability is about reaching the inbox. This means making sure your list actually has:
👉 verified email addresses (so emails don’t bounce)
👉 a stellar sender score (so emails don’t reach the spam box)
Need more ideas to improve your delivery rate? Also read: 13 Solid Ways To Improve Marketing Email Delivery Rate (eCommerce)
b) 2 to 5% conversion rate?
Conversion rates vary from industry to industry, but the bare minimum should be at least 2%. If it’s below that, consider checking:
👉 which segments of subscribers you are sending to
👉 how long it takes to checkout from your landing page
Want more proven ideas – check these 17 solid ideas to improve email marketing conversion rate (+ some examples).
c) 17 to 28% open rate?
The goal is to check if at least one-third of your list opens your emails. If it’s below this benchmark, try these ideas:
👉 segment your list into 3 groups of people who: ‘regular openers’, ‘inconsistent openers’, and ‘non-openers’
👉 resend emails with a different subject line within one day to ‘regular openers’ segment
👉 reduce your sending volume to ‘inconsistent openers’ and send ‘non-openers’ to your re-engagement flow
Keep reading: What is a Good Open Rate for eCommerce Emails?
d) 2% CTR?
Click-through rate is all about how many people opened and then went on to open links present in the email. The best part is: this metric is a great measure to ensure that the content in your emails is actually relevant.
Need some solid ideas? Here are 25 ways to grow your email click through rate quickly (eCommerce)
e) Greater than 20% CTOR (Clicks > Opens)?
This metric tells you that your subscribers actually come back and re-read your emails. So, how do you do that? Make your email content irresistible – here are some ideas 👇
Read: How To Improve Email Marketing "Click-to-Open" Rate in eCommerce
f) Less than 0.5% unsubscribe rate?
Unsubscribes are natural – discount chasers leave once they get what they want – some leave because they don’t feel appreciated. The quickest way to keep your unsubscribe rate down is to treat your email list like a community. Run contests and make sure subscribers know about it (even if it means running some retargeting ads to show them your email rewards program).
Keep reading: 13 Proven Ways to Reduce Email Unsubscribe Rate (eCommerce)
✅ Is your remarketing effective?
Check if subscribers convert better after receiving emails – and find out where subscribers stop engaging.
TIP – Make sure you have reporting dashboards set up with custom metrics that keep track of all UTM parameters and referring websites that pass before a conversion occurs.
Also read: Brilliant eCommerce Retargeting (and Remarketing) Examples
✅ Revenue tracked?
Metrics like open rate, and clickthrough rate are indicators of performance – but the actual buck is always in the revenue. The goal is to check:
👉 If the conversion data matches the revenue generated
👉 What percentage of total revenue does email marketing drive
👉 Which campaigns and flows generate the most revenue
TIP – Check which type of campaigns send the least amount of emails yet bring in a healthy amount of revenue.
Also read: The Right Way to Calculate Email Marketing ROI in eCommerce
▶ Testing Checklist
Why: To make sure you can apply what you learn from your mistakes and update your decisions.
✅ Lead scoring done?
The goal is to rank subscribers on the basis of how they interact with your brand – simply put, categorize subscribers on the basis of value and potential worth.
TIP – Rank subscribers who complete form fields first and then people who signed up through offers.
✅ Are you applying your learnings?
👉 Create a case study out of best-performing campaigns – learn why those campaigns took off, how long it took for them to become performing
👉 Keep a lookout for campaigns where performance has gone down – check if you have failed to follow up or have sent too many follow-ups
👉 Maintain a sheet out of historical metrics and performances – this is to aid in future goal-setting
👉 Let things run for some time if you run tests – or else your data may not be significant enough
👉 Have you observed duplication in reporting – for example, if the conversion numbers and the revenue don’t match, you may be double-reporting conversions
👉 Check if your email campaigns are growing – compare how much your list has grown vs the number of unsubscribes
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