Here are 5 core questions you should be asking yourself when looking at an email:
Did this email add value to my list? Put yourself in the shoes of your customer/client and ask why they want this information. If the answer is “because the quarter was ending and I needed a revenue spike”… that’s not something your customer cares about.
Do I need to adjust my frequency? If you’re seeing steadily declining open rates, your audience may getting numb to all the messages you’re sending. If you’re seeing steady unsubscribes or spam notifications, you may be sending so infrequently that they don’t remember joining your list.
Is my engagement increasing or decreasing? Increasing engagement is awesome, obviously, but it’s important to find out why it’s increasing. If your audience is responding well to any email you send with a video thumbnail, you’ll definitely want to send more videos! If you’ve only been sending videos and they’re growing less and less interested, maybe it’s time to try to some words.
Should I have A/B tested this? I’ll spoil the surprise here—the answer is almost always yes. You can’t know for certain if another subject line, send time, or lead off content might have worked better if you never tried one. (The Exception: You A/B tested this message before & perfected it, and you want to see if your audience will respond to it again or if the messaging always needs to be fresh.)
Should this message become automated? Some messages blow our metrics out of the water. It’s a great day when that happens, but it’s important not to settle for a one-time win. If you think future audience members will benefit just as much, it’s worth turning it into an ongoing automated message to make sure it keeps working for you.
These aren’t the only questions you need to ask yourself when looking at your data, but it’s a great start down the rabbit hole of email analysis.
