How to Run an Audit of Your Email Marketing
Chances are you came here because you feel like your email marketing is all over the place at the moment. Nothing is really working and you don’t know where to start to try and fix it.
An audit of your email marketing strategy is the perfect next step! A regular audit can help you take a step back, take a breath, and really look at what’s working (and what’s not) so your emails can finally start doing what they are meant to do—build connections and inspire action.
Running email marketing audits don’t have to be complicated or overwhelming.
In fact, take a second right now to put a date and time (2 hours tops) in your calendar. Boom. It’s in the calendar that means it’s official. I recommend going to a cafe, ordering a matcha, and diving in. Like a little date with yourself :))
Let’s break the steps of how to audit your email marketing.
1. Plan Your Email Audit
Okay so before you get into the numbers and all that fun stuff, take a moment to get clear on exactly what you want to look at. This is going to make the process soooo much easier (trust me)!
Alright so some things that you should focus on:
Define your focus areas: Maybe it’s your workflows, email design, list segmentation, CTAs, or something else. Choose the parts of your email marketing that you actually want to understand better.
Choose your guiding goal: What are you hoping to learn from this audit? Are you trying to boost engagement? Clean up your list? Get clarity on what your audience responds to most? Having a clear goal keeps you from getting lost in data.
Set up your tracking: I love a simple spreadsheet for this. Create a place where you can jot down performance metrics, patterns, or anything else that stands out as you go.
This is the groundwork that makes the rest of the process feel way less chaotic and more aligned.
2. Conduct Your Email Marketing Audit
Alright this the time where we lock in. Get that Spotify playlist going and your matcha ready.
Check the data that matters to your goal. Open rates, click-throughs, unsubscribes, conversions—depending on your goal, what you’re looking at might shift.
Take notes as you go. Don’t rely on memory here. Jot down trends, outliers, and questions that come up.
Celebrate what’s working. It’s easy to focus on fixing things, but there’s power in knowing why something performed well. Look at your high-performing emails and figure out what made them shine—was it the subject line? The timing? The offer?
We aren’t just looking for problems. We want to see what is working so that we can mirror that with future emails. This is your chance to really take a look at your email marketing strategy and really peel back all the layers.
3. Evaluate the Data
Now it’s time to connect the dots. We’re going to take all that data and notes from the audit and we are going to find patterns and what ares really need some loving.
Spot the areas that need love. Maybe your click rates are low because your CTAs are buried or unclear. Maybe your open rates are dipping because your subject lines aren’t doing what they are meant to. Maybe your email design needs some love. Make a note of these for the next step!
Look at the bigger picture. It’s rarely just one thing. It might be a mix of design, deliverability, tone, or cadence. This is your moment to really see what’s happening behind the scenes.
This is my favorite part. Where the pieces start to come together and a plan starts to emerge. Take this step to really use that data and find what is truly working for your email strategy, what your audience doesn’t love, and areas you might have been missing.
This step could bring in new ideas too! You might have not noticed a workflow could work better if done another way, or you may have found room to build a new one and reach your audience in a diffrent way.
4. Implement a New Email Strategy
Whooo! You did the audit, now it’s time to start putting all that effort to work.
Create a realistic action list. Don’t overwhelm yourself with a crazy to-do list. Start small and prioritize what you want to focus on first. You want to really keep this list tangible and attainable.
Test and tweak. Email marketing isn’t a one-and-done kind of thing. Try new subject lines, adjust send times, segment smarter, and keep paying attention to the results.
Once you do an audit, email marketing is going to start feeling more doable and sustainable for you. You’ll find a rhythm and flow that is guided by strategy and goals.
Final Thoughts
When you run your email marketing audit, the goal is not to try and fix everything all at once. It’s about creating more intentional, aligned, and strategic email systems that support your bigger goals.
When you approach your email marketing audit this way, email stops feeling like another thing you have to keep up with.
If this feels overwhelming or you simply don’t have the time, I can run the audit for you. I offer a one-time audit of your email marketing that takes the second guessing out of your email marketing and leaves you with an actionable strategy. Book your audit here.