What should be remembered from the “2019 State of Email Workflow”?

As every year, Litmus shared its report on the state of email. The 2019 State of Email Workflows reviews the market shares of email clients, emerging platforms, the latest updates, topics such as security and privacy, as well as the challenges you should expect in 2020.

Here are the key figures and information that seem relevant to us to extract from this report.

Creating an email takes more time than you think

Indeed, while the action itself seems relatively simple and many tools help us create our email campaigns, it is clear that an email is not created in a single day.

• Length of the production cycle for an email (from the beginning of brainstorming or design to sending): 77% spend more than one week preparing it, and 21% spend more than one month!
• Number of emails produced simultaneously: there are 2 categories, very small businesses that have between 1 and 5 emails in preparation, versus more than ten for SMEs/mid-sized companies and large groups.
• Most time-consuming tasks: email approval is the most time-consuming. But it should also be noted that paradoxically, even though many tools are there to help you, HTML integration (code development) and design creation still take a lot of time.

Defining and implementing a process before sending your emails is essential

Every year, it becomes more and more difficult for a brand to make itself heard through the multitude of ads and messages filling inboxes. So what will set you apart from the hundreds of emails in your subscribers’ inboxes? If you want your email campaigns to drive your actions, you need to send targeted and effective campaigns. And for that, you need a pre-send process, which will indeed ensure high-quality output.

But then, how do companies manage the workflow before sending, and what tools do they use to achieve this? From content planning to copywriting, including design and coding, preparing an email involves a multitude of steps, tools, and stakeholders. An effective pre-send email process helps move projects forward quickly and defines the role of each stakeholder in carrying out the project.

• Collaborative tools: Google and Microsoft office suites are the most widely used. It should be noted that chat tools (Slack) and collaborative project management tools (Jira, Trello, Asana, Basecamp) are also widely used in companies.
• Preparation time: more than 70% of companies start less than 2 months in advance, logically corresponding to the production time presented earlier in the study.

But then, does your team need to create an editorial calendar? We think so. Every team, regardless of its size or the complexity of its email campaigns, must first define its strategy and objectives, then create an editorial calendar that will help meet those objectives. Campaign calendars help all team members plan their time more effectively and make it easier to align email campaigns with other marketing channels. The degree of detail and advancement in your content planning, however, depends heavily on your team’s unique setup. Is your team small and are projects evolving quickly? A simple spreadsheet covering the next 2 to 4 weeks is enough to keep your team aligned. Larger teams juggling multiple complex campaigns should benefit from more advanced content planning and project management software.

Does your company define in advance the objectives, target, message, and KPIs for your emails?

Too few marketing players still ask themselves the right questions before moving on to the production phase. Indeed, only 24% of respondents say they define the objectives, target, message, and KPIs to analyze before sending their emails. 34% of respondents say they never do it!

Defining the purpose, message, schedule, key performance indicators, and other important details ensures that everyone involved agrees on the goal and action plan of the email campaign. This helps keep team members on track and improve the future quality of upcoming emails.

What share of your sent emails contains an A/B test?

63% of respondents say they use A/B testing on their emails at least from time to time. This figure is quite high even though 75% of respondents do not set or only rarely set objectives for their emails. Companies seem to be putting the cart before the horse!

To create effective email campaigns, you must constantly improve, and there is no better way than A/B testing to learn quickly. We recommend giving your teams the time and resources they need to implement A/B tests. Give your team the time and resources it needs to test, at least for your most crucial campaigns. Indeed, sometimes a slight change can tip the results.

Does your company follow a brand guideline to create the design of your emails?

66% of the marketing professionals surveyed follow a brand guideline when creating their email campaigns. This figure is up compared with 2018. Having a brand guideline, as well as templates, makes email creation easier and faster and ensures a more consistent user experience across all campaigns. If you have not defined a guideline for your email campaigns, we recommend making it a priority for your team.

How often do you test your automated emails in order to improve them?

For most of the marketing specialists surveyed, automated emails are reviewed on average once a year. This is a dangerous approach. Indeed, email solutions change HTML support without notice, so an email that seemed to work yesterday could be broken today. Spam filters are constantly changing their algorithms, and an email that always lands in the inbox can suddenly be marked as spam and never be seen. That is why no email should be sent without a solid review if it was last checked more than 3 months ago.

Generally, how many people do you have test and validate your emails before sending?

Most companies involve 3 people in the testing and approval process for an email. Once again, this will depend on the size of the company. For a small company, 3 people are more than enough to test and validate emails. On the other hand, large companies should be careful about involving a large number of people, as this may complicate the testing process. In addition, data shows that having senior executives involved in email validation generally slows down the process. If possible, we recommend not including management in the day-to-day testing and approval of emails, but rather involving them in the strategy and overall campaign objectives.

Email marketing remains a highly used channel for a majority of companies

How important is email marketing to your company’s overall success?

For 73% of respondents, email marketing plays an important role in their company’s success. So make sure you regularly share, with your teams, your successes and what you have learned from them, whether through a newsletter, a slideshow, or a spreadsheet presenting key performance indicators.

Do not forget that what you learn about your subscribers can also be extremely valuable for other teams. Always share your knowledge. Did a subject line trigger more opens than ever before? Did a message in your newsletter receive more clicks than any other content? Share it with your content team, which can then improve future content.

In conclusion, for each of your email campaigns, define your strategy, your brand guideline, and determine a clear process in order to simplify and speed up the production phase of your emails. For each of your emails, do not hesitate any longer to set up A/B tests, with the aim of continuously improving. And finally, never forget to always test your emails before sending them. To do this, we recommend choosing in advance the people responsible for testing, and using a collaborative tool to facilitate the management of all corrections.