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Let's be real - no one gets excited about email marketing maintenance. It's about as thrilling as doing your taxes or organising your sock drawer. But here’s the thing: spending a little time now on your email strategy could save you hours – and bring in more sales – in the long run.

Why an Email Marketing Check-Up Matters

The number one challenge people face with email marketing is time. Most feel stretched thin and end up throwing spaghetti at the wall, sending emails just to tick the box. What if instead, you could:

• Be strategic: Choose the right emails to send rather than sending just for the sake of it.
• Optimise automations: Get better results from the systems you already have in place.
• Hit the inbox, not the spam folder: Ensure your emails are actually being seen.

This is about stopping wasted effort, focusing on what works, and setting yourself up for success well into the future.

I’ll walk you through:

1. Three must-do email marketing tasks to keep your strategy on point.
2. A bonus task to give your email marketing an extra edge.

These are perfect to tackle as part of your end-of-year planning – when many businesses naturally reflect on what’s working and what’s not.

Task 1: Check Your Email Marketing Numbers

First up, let's talk about your numbers. No, don't close the tab - this is actually important. Keeping track of your email marketing performance is critical to understanding what’s working and what isn’t.

What Numbers to Check

• Opens

  Opens provide an overall sense of how your emails are performing. While they’re not 100% accurate (thanks to factors like Apple’s privacy settings), they’re useful for spotting trends over time.

• Clicks

  Click-through rates show engagement. Are your readers interacting with your content? This is a key indicator of how well your emails resonate with your audience.

• Conversions (Sales)

  This is the most important metric. Conversions tell you if your emails are driving actual results, whether it’s sales, bookings, or sign-ups.

Why These Numbers Matter

These three metrics—opens, clicks, and conversions—help you assess the health of your email marketing strategy:

• Identify trends over time.
• Pinpoint which emails and campaigns are most effective.
• Understand where you might need to improve.

How to Access the Data

Most email marketing platforms will provide opens and clicks directly in their analytics. For conversions, you might need to dig deeper:

• Google Analytics: Set up goals or events to track user actions from your emails.
• E-commerce Platforms: These often have built-in tracking to automatically link sales to specific emails.
• Service-Based or Course Businesses: This can be trickier, but with tools or manual tracking, you can connect purchases to specific campaigns.

Pro Tip: Prepare for the Future

If you can’t access some of these numbers right now, take steps to fix that. Set up conversion tracking or analytics goals so you’ll have everything ready for next year.

For more in-depth guidance, check out Episode 46 of my podcast, Review These Every Quarter.

Task 2: Deliverability Deep-Dive

Why You Should Do a Deliverability Review Every Year

Here’s the deal: even your most brilliant emails won’t do a thing if they’re stuck in spam folders—or worse, never delivered. In 2024, deliverability has faced a shake-up with stricter filtering and tougher authentication rules from email providers. That’s why running regular deliverability checks isn’t just smart—it’s essential!

What Is Deliverability and Why Does It Matter?

Deliverability is how well your emails make it to the inbox. A sudden drop in open or click rates can be a sign that something is off. Email providers like Gmail and Yahoo assess deliverability based on a rolling 120-day window, meaning issues can pop up suddenly. Regular reviews are key to catching and resolving problems early.

Tools to Check Your Deliverability

Here are a few quick and easy tools to assess deliverability:

• MailReach:

  Run an email spam test by sending an email to a list of 32 email addresses from major providers (Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo, etc.). You’ll see whether your email lands in the inbox or spam for each provider.

• Mail-Tester:

  Send an email to their provided address. It checks block lists, red flags in your setup, and issues with DNS records.

• MX Toolbox:

  Another deliverability checker that identifies problems in your setup and offers recommendations for improvements.

How to Use These Tools

1. Prepare your Email:

Use a typical email you would normally send. You can either send it as a test or set up a small campaign (for tools like MailReach).

2. Run the Tests:

Each tool gives you a score and highlights any issues.

3. Review Results:

If the tests show problems, you’ll know where to focus.

Keep Your DNS Records Updated

Email providers are getting stricter with authentication requirements. Ensure your DNS records are set up correctly, including:

• SPF
• DKIM
• DMARC

If you haven’t updated these recently, check episode 99, Email Authentication (and other deliverability factors), for more details on the changes rolled out earlier this year.

Set Up Google Postmaster Tools

Google Postmaster Tools helps monitor your reputation with Gmail, track spam reports, and flag any deliverability issues. It’s a must-have for anyone serious about email marketing.

Want to dive deeper into this? Check out episode 15: Email Deliverability Demystified for a detailed guide to better deliverability.

Task 3: Clean Your List

Time for some tough love: if subscribers haven't opened your emails in 120 days, they're probably not your biggest fans. Yes, list cleaning feels scary. No, you shouldn't skip it.

Maintaining a clean email list isn’t just about organisation – it’s essential for keeping your emails out of spam folders and in the inboxes of people who actually want them. This process impacts your sender reputation, a key factor for email deliverability.

If you’ve never done a list clean-up or it’s been a while, now is the perfect time to review and refresh your list. Here’s a simple guide to help you get started.

What Is Sender Reputation?

When subscribers open, click, or engage with your emails, it sends positive signals to email providers like Gmail, Yahoo, or Hotmail. These signals help ensure your future emails land in their inbox.

On the flip side, if your emails consistently go unopened or ignored, your sender reputation drops. Think of it like unfollowing those Facebook friends who still post chain letters - sometimes you've got to cut the dead weight. And before you say "but what if they might buy something eventually?" - they're not seeing your offers anyway if they never open your emails.

Why Clean Your List?

A regular clean-up ensures you’re only emailing people who are genuinely interested in your content. Benefits include:

• Improved deliverability: Your emails are more likely to reach the inbox.
• Stronger engagement rates: You’ll see better open and click rates.
• Better performance metrics: Cleaner data gives you accurate insights into your campaigns.
• Peace of mind: It feels great knowing your list is filled with engaged, interested subscribers.

How to Clean Your Email List

1. Identify inactive subscribers:
   • Create a segment of subscribers who haven’t opened, clicked, or visited your website within a specific time frame (e.g., the past 90–120 days).
2. Decide what to do with them:
   • Option 1: Unsubscribe them outright.
   • Option 2: Send a “last chance” email to re-engage them. (This works best if you have Apple users with artificial opens due to Mail Privacy Protection.)
3. Address deliverability issues first:
   • If your sender reputation is struggling, focus on your most engaged subscribers. Only email these users for a while to boost your reputation.
4. Organise your list:
   • Review your tags and segments to ensure everything is clear and logical.
   • Group subscribers by relevant categories, such as customers, leads, or interests.

Make It a Routine

List cleaning shouldn’t be a one-off task. Include it in your annual review process to keep your email marketing in top shape.

Want a deep dive into the process? Check out episode 80 - How to Clean Your List for a step-by-step guide to list cleaning and more tips on managing your subscribers effectively.

Bonus Task: Get Inspired!

While you're neck-deep in all this data, keep a notebook handy. You might spot some gems:

• Topics that make your subscribers click like crazy
• High-performing subject lines or topics
• Content themes that convert better than others

Or you might just find some emails with strong engagement that you can reuse or repurpose for the ultimate time saving hack!

The bottom line...

This isn't just busy work - it's about making your email marketing actually work. Set aside a couple of hours, grab your favourite beverage, and get it done. Can't face doing it all at once? Break it into chunks. Even 30 minutes of maintenance is better than none.

Just start somewhere - preferably before your emails end up in digital purgatory. Your bank account will thank you later!

Need extra guidance? Check out The Email Experience, which includes a full Email Optimisation Lesson and Workbook to help you level up your email marketing strategy with ease.