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"My open rates are good."

When I kick off an Email Roadmap with a new client, one of the first questions I ask is during the onboarding call is, "What's working with your email marketing?" And 9 times out of 10, that's one of the few things they can pinpoint.

And it's a solid place to start, in part because it means you're actually sending emails (yay!).

But clearly something is still...off. Something that you can't quite put your finger on.

It's not that you haven't tried.

But so often, things were hobbled together piecemeal, pulled from bits of knowledge and templates you've gathered over the years, and doing the whole email marketing thing generally feels unnecessarily complicated.

The goal is to get things working so that your email marketing setup is supporting your business (instead of causing friction and feeling like yet another thing to do).

In addition to having those solid open rates - and of course some of those subscribers turning into clients & customers - this what it looks like when your email marketing is working.

14 signs that your email marketing is working:

1. No matter how many lead magnets or entry points onto your email list you have, each new subscriber is being brought into your email marketing ecosystem intentionally. They know what they signed up for and why they're receiving emails from you. (And for those who hire me for the Cleanup Kit, this is a big piece of what I do.)

2. All new subscribers receive an automated email or series so that they're not left hanging until your next newsletter goes out. It introduces your work and sets clear expectations for what's coming, and gets the right people excited.

3. You can open your email service provider and see at a glance what people are signing up for. You know where to look to see who's booking calls and who's signing up for your newsletter or specific opt-ins.

4. You're showing up consistently at an intentional cadence that aligns with your business model AND is sustainable for you to maintain. Your newsletter frequency makes sense for your business model (not because someone told you that you must email weekly), and you can actually maintain it. (And part of your Email Roadmap is making a clear plan for your business.)

5. You understand that your subscribers gave you permission to email you and that they want to hear from you. You understand that by showing up consistently, you're not bothering people or being spammy or salesy, you're honoring the relationship they asked for.

6. You have several buckets of people inside your email list and you feel confident emailing them separately. You know that when you go to send a sales email about your latest program or service, just the people you designated will receive it and your current clients won't.

7. When an email goes out it's clear to the recipients how they got on your list and why they're receiving your emails. Maybe you have a note in your welcome sequence, or there's a little reminder in your newsletter, but either way by the time they start getting your newsletter you've shown up enough that there's a least a glimmer of recognition.

8. When someone becomes a client, your system knows it too. Something that happens on the back end automatically that reflects the change in that relationship, or you have a simple system in place to manually identify them. (Which you'll have neatly documented for you as part of your build.)

9. When you resend an email, it's a deliberate choice. You're not routinely resending newsletters to people who didn't open them the first time just to boost open rates. When you do resend, there's a real reason: time-sensitive information or an issue the first time you sent it.

10. Your emails make it easy to work with you. Your main call to action is front and center, and any supplemental resources or free links are secondary. Someone who reads your email and thinks "okay, I'm ready" knows exactly what to do next.

11. You do periodic list cleanups and let people go when it's time. You understand that someone who signed up two years ago for a freebie and hasn't engaged since isn't your potential client, and holding onto them can actually hurt your deliverability and your metrics.

12. You're not just assuming your tools are talking to each other, you've verified that they are. When someone buys through your payment processor or fills out a form on your website, you know that information is transmitted to your email marketing system. (That's why I always test things out multiple times for my clients during a build!)

13. You're using the platform that fits your business, not the one someone else swore by. You chose your email marketing software because it works for how your brain works and how your business runs.

14. Your email marketing setup is designed for your practice. You're not trying to copy the email strategy of a course creator or a product business. You've got it setup to match your business model, what you're selling, how many clients you need, your primary audience, and what feels sustainable for you.

How many of these do you have in place?

Take it one step at a time,
​Bev