THE EMAIL MARKETING
SCORECARD Find out how much you're really getting out of email marketing!
Know The Score
Your email marketing program is, or should be, one of the most important elements of your marketing mix. No other channel
combines the ability for personalized content delivered to the right people at the right time, in turn driving revenue for your
organization. In fact, email has long been the number-one revenue generator for marketers. That’s why We Love Email.
But email marketing is hard. We get that. And sometimes it can be even harder to really gauge the health and success of your
email efforts. There are a lot of steps to create, test, deploy, measure and revise your program: And that’s a lot to keep track
of! Ultimately, the best way to measure the health of your email program isn’t to compare yourself against your competitors
– it’s to measure against yourself, and to try to do better today than you did yesterday.
And that’s why we built this Email Marketing Scorecard. This free tool allows you to score yourself in every phase of email
marketing – including initial design and strategic planning, list acquisition and hygiene, targeting and automation, testing,
cross-channel implementation and more. Once you know the score, then you can identify the gaps. (And if we can help you
fill those gaps, we’d love to have a conversation.)
Let’s get started!
Check all the boxes that apply to your business:
We know the return on investment (ROI) of our email marketing programs.
We track the ROI of each individual email campaign.
We have developed an email marketing program roadmap.
We know the stages of our email marketing lifecycle.
We have programs and processes to support each phase of the email marketing lifecycle.
We have established success metrics, set benchmarks, and we analyze each of our email campaigns.
We have created testing plans for continuous optimization.
We follow the email programs of our top 5 competitors.
We manage the branding, messaging, and metrics for our transactional emails.
We have integrated other channels with our email marketing channel.
Strategy and Goals
The Email Marketing Scorecard • 2
Check all the boxes that apply to your business:
We collect First and Last Name for all email addresses.
We collect Gender for all email addresses.
We collect Zip Code and/or Location for all email addresses.
We collect Date of Birth for all email addresses.
We collect Physical Address for all email addresses.
We email all subscribers to share their specific interests with us.
We collect special dates to drive reminder programs.
We collect purchase information (or other conversions) on all email addresses.
We specifically collect and store last purchase date for all email addresses.
We specifically collect last product category, product purchased, or conversion.
Data Collection, Integration and Hygiene
The Email Marketing Scorecard • 3
Check all the boxes that apply to your business:
We collect email addresses on the home page of our website.
Our email address collection form is above the fold on our website.
Our email sign up incentivizes the subscriber for signing up, e.g. a birthday offer.
Our website uses a pop-up to acquire new records.
We ask for email sign up upon checkout.
We require (check box) selection for opting into email marketing programs.
Email sign up requires a double opt-in process or CAPTCHA option.
We ask for email in-store / use an employee incentive program to ask for an email address.
There is a referral program that allows subscribers to share with a friend.
Email sign up goes through a preference center.
Acquisition Subscriber Growth
The Email Marketing Scorecard • 4
Check all the boxes that apply to your business:
We collect email preferences through a preference center.
We know the breakdown of active, passive, and inactive subscribers on your list(s).
We retarget subscribers based off of email engagement (i.e. opens, clicks, etc.).
We use segmentation on our current email marketing campaigns.
We target messaging based off of email acquisition source.
We segment and target subscribers based off of RFM (Recency, Frequency, Monetary) Analysis.
We know the personas of subscribers on our list(s).
We target inactive subscribers with special messaging to encourage engagement.
We have email campaigns that are automated based off of a subscriber's action.
We utilize dynamic content to personalize messages for specific segments.
Segmentation and Targeting
The Email Marketing Scorecard • 5
Check all the boxes that apply to your business:
Someone on your staff is in charge of developing email marketing content.
We have developed an email marketing content calendar that drives our program.
All our email marketing content is stored internally in our organization.
We are able to automate our content into our email marketing messages.
We are able to use our content for personalization within email marketing campaigns.
We are able to dynamically change content based on the behavior of subscribers.
We currently use our website analytics for content development and targeting.
We leverage content curation for additional content development.
Our internal Content Management System (CMS) supports RSS/XML formatting.
We leverage APIs to automate the flow of our content for email marketing.
Content Development and Automation
The Email Marketing Scorecard • 6
Check all the boxes that apply to your business:
We update our creative templates more than once a year.
Our templates are responsive.
We have an in-house email creative team.
We render test our template across multiple browsers, platforms, and devices.
Our email design follows our website brand.
We do first name personalization.
We do subject line personalization.
There is a call-to-action above the fold (desktop and mobile).
We have our company logo in the header.
We use bulletproof buttons.
Message Creative and Personalization
The Email Marketing Scorecard • 7
Check all the boxes that apply to your business:
We perform subject line A/B testing.
We perform Template (call-to-action/offer/layout/etc) A/B testing.
We perform Day of Week / Time of Day A/B testing.
We perform multivariate testing.
We define test criteria and success metrics prior to testing.
We have a rendering checklist/process prior to deployment.
We use a third party rendering tool on email campaigns.
We test email campaigns on mobile devices (tablets, phones, etc.).
We have tested responsive design.
We have refreshed your email template design in the last 12 months.
Testing and Optimization
The Email Marketing Scorecard • 8
Check all the boxes that apply to your business:
We integrate CRM or past purchase data into our email marketing program.
The process for integrating data into our email marketing program is automated.
We integrate subscribers' web browser behavior into our email marketing campaigns.
We have a central marketing database that collects all subscriber engagement.
We integrate our mobile app data into our email marketing program.
We provide social sign on vs. email/password for creating an account.
We integrate offline transactions (such as Point of Sale) with our email marketing programs.
We retarget subscribers with ads based on web browser activity or email click behavior.
We source email content through social media such as subject lines, surveys, and preferences.
We integrate customer reviews/rankings into our email marketing programs.
Channel Integration
The Email Marketing Scorecard • 9
Check all the boxes that apply to your business:
We have SPF records set up for each domain we send mail from.
We use DKIM authentication to sign our email.
We use a consistent From Name and From Address for all mailings.
We send only to opt-in subscribers.
We regularly clean our lists of non-engaged subscribers (not opened or clicked).
We offer email preferences to allow users to choose type(s) and frequency of email.
Our unsubscribe link is conspicuous and easy to use.
We immediately remove users who request to unsubscribe.
We remove hard bounces (invalid addresses) from our mailing list after the first occurrence.
We work only with affiliates/third parties who can verify their list sources and best practices.
Inbox Delivery
The Email Marketing Scorecard • 10
Check all the boxes that apply to your business:
We track revenue generated by email program (e.g. Welcome Series vs. Cart Abandonment).
We track revenue generated by email type (Transactional vs. Lifecycle vs. Promotional).
We know our RPE (Revenue Per Email).
We track the success of each campaign based on specific calls-to-action or goals.
We know our customer lifetime value.
We track which subscribers are active, passive, or non-active.
We review the success of our campaigns based on lifecycle state.
We track email conversions.
We know what percentage of our subscribers engage with our emails on each device.
We track open reach and click reach metrics.
Insights and Analytics
The Email Marketing Scorecard • 11
Strategy and Goals
Data Collection, Integration and Hygiene
Your email marketing score:
Acquisition Subscriber Growth
Segmentation and Targeting
Content Development and Automation
Message Creative and Personalization
Testing and Optimization
Channel Integration
Inbox Delivery
Insights and Analytics
Your Results
Looking to improve your score? We're here to help you get the most out
of your email marketing.
Click on the button below to submit your
score or get in touch by phone or email:
• (866) 804 0076
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