An Expert’s Guide to Cleaning Up and Organizing Your Email Marketing

While packing things up to move to Tennessee from Nebraska next month, I’m taking time to go through my closets, my drawers, my bookshelves… and getting rid of what’s not going to make the move with me.

It’s amazing how the same things I’ve had for years feel either like “must have” or “toss” now that I’m viewing them through the lens of this move.

Will it be worth moving this 12 hours away? Yes or no?

It’s time to decide, delete, and clean houuuuuse.

It has me also thinking about…have you considered how it might feel to ALSO clean up your email marketing house?

Because if you don’t know what’s happening within your ESP, you can’t be confident about how new subscribers are joining your list or what’s being sent to them.

👇🏻👇🏻 Pick one of these three housekeeping strategies to get started!

01 | Clean up, delete or rename areas of your email service platform

Okay, I’m a NERD about systems and organization. You’ve probably learned that from me by now. (If not, this blog post will catch you up to speed. 😂)

And what’s ONE thing that everyone — I promise, everyone — gets befuddled about that I would LOVE to help you with? It’s getting your email service platform (ESP) cleaned up and organized!

Why? Because if you don’t know how your ESP is set up, what freebies are sending and when — or, like many people, you have too many unused forms hanging out in there and you have no idea what’s doing what — you’ll FEEL messy.

And MESSY is not exactly a place to be creative or build something wonderful through your email strategy, right?

So! I made you something.

A Short. Sweet. Video. Walkthrough.

I want to help you knock around some cobwebs and feel better about what you see when you log into your ESP (email service platform, like MailChimp, Kit, Flodesk, etc.).

Because if you’re like my clients, you’re probably logging into your email platform and seeing:

• Tags you don’t need anymore
• Forms that you have no idea what they send (or where they’re located on your site)
• Automations your old VA made but you don’t know what they do

Clarity is kindness, so let’s be kind to OURSELVES with a more organized ESP, shall we?

​Watch this video​ for what order I’d suggest when tackling an ESP cleanup!

WATCH THE VIDEO HERE

The key points:

• Rename your forms based on what it’s offering / delivering. Is it a general newsletter opt-in or an 5-day _ email course? Name it that way, so you know from the Forms page what’s what.
  
• Delete or archive forms you’re no longer using. Rename your sequences on what’s being promoted / the goal of the emails. Is it promoting a waitlist? Delivering that 5-day _ email course? Maybe it’s a follow-up email for people who haven’t bought yet?
  
• Delete sequences you’re no longer using or rename them to start with a Z or something (this will move them to the end of the alphabetical list)
  
• Delete unused tags and rules. (This isn’t shown in the video, since I didn’t want peoples’ email addresses out there for everyone to see, because #privacy)
  
• Rename your Visual Automations or Workflows (whatever they’re called in your ESP!) based on WHAT is happening in the automation.

Pro tip: This clean-up is essential if you’re planning to move to a new platform (like Kit’s new plan​). You’ll feel much better doing it now and only moving to Kit what things you actually need there.

02 | Revisit your automated email sequence

This one’s simple but often overlooked. If you feel the slightest inkling that your Welcome Sequence could be outdated — or you’re not even sure the last time you looked at it — I encourage you to spend 15 minutes giving it a look.

Consider things like:

• If a new subscriber doesn’t know me at all (until this very email), is it clear what I offer? And who my content is for?
• Is the visual branding up to date?
• Am I asking them to reply back or engage with me by answering a question?

You can ​find more ideas on how to improve your new subscriber sequence in this free guide​.

Yep, free. Enjoy!

03 | Track your current email marketing stats

You can’t grow what you don’t know! (I did not coin this term, obviously.)

While I’ve spoken about stats before in a few places — ​like this free video training​ and ​this blog post​ — and while I suggest that your email engagement stats don’t RULE over your content strategy, they’re still important to track and measure over time.

​Here’s a free Goals & Growth Email Marketing Stats Tracker​ for you to save, copy and fill in with your own stats — your forms, automated sequences, and newsletters or broadcast emails.

04 | Re-engage and warm up your cold subscribers

Having cold subscribers on your email list impacts your engagement data (like click rates), sales funnel conversion rates, as well as your email deliverability.

You’ll want to find out who your not-so-engaged subscribers are, create a 2-part email sequence to try and get them to click, then remove everyone who doesn’t. Harsh, but trust me, it’s necessary.

For all the details and resources for how to do this, I’ve got a blog post for you! Scroll to the bottom for free templates. 🎁

🆘 Stressed at the thought and want my team to do this for you? Sure thing! You can hire us for our Re-Engagement Sequence & List Clean-Up service. If you’d like our help, simply book a Discovery Call by completing this form and schedule a call with me (Allea).

05 | Streamline your system for sharing freebies with new subscribers

As someone who has swapped out old, outdated PDF freebies for new ones (like when I’ve added a page or rebranded the style of the document entirely) using this simple Google Drive tech hack makes it WAY easier:

👉🏻 2 Tech Hacks for How to Organize and Share Your Free Resources

Taking the next step

If it feels doable to do even ONE of these strategies, you’ll feel so much better, I promise.

If it feels NOT doable, like you need a hand getting things done — whether that’s cleaning up your ESP or writing a refreshed Welcome Sequence that better reflects your content — I’d love to chat with you!

I have full-service, done-for-you email services — as well as lower-cost services specifically for mid-established bloggers who need help getting MORE out of their email (but without breaking the bank). I’m happy to chat more about your situation to see what’s the best fit for you.

To take the next step, simply complete this form and book a free Discovery Call with me to chat more!

I’m a proud affiliate of Kit.com — and have been a happy user since 2017. There are affiliate links in this post, which means I will receive a small commission if you choose to sign up using any of them (at no additional cost to you!).