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Have you ever contemplated changing email marketing platform?
Maybe you have a niggling suspicion that the email marketing platform you’re currently using isn’t the right one for you.
Or maybe you’re absolutely frustrated with your current platform and are 100% ready to move on.
If either of those sounds like you, you’ve likely also wondered how hard is it to change your email marketing platform?
What considerations do you need to be mindful of?
And what are the practical steps that are involved when you move from one platform to another?
I wrote this blog to take you through the key considerations you need to be mindful of when you’re moving from one email marketing platform to another. AND to show you that the process of changing email marketing platform could be much more simple than you think.
Unsubscribers and email preferences
The first thing you need to be mindful of when you’re changing email marketing platform is your unsubscribers.
If someone has opted out of your email communications in your existing email marketing platform, you can’t opt them back in just because you’re moving to a new platform.
So, it’s really important that you’re honouring your unsubscribers when you’re changing email marketing platform.
While this might sound complicated, in reality it’s quite easy. Any email marketing platform, when you are exporting your mailing list, will give you a clear list of your unsubscribers.
This makes it simple for you to then either:
- Not upload your unsubscribers to your new email marketing platform, or;
- Upload them, but clearly flag them as unsubscribers
This is the same if you have been offering email preferences. For example, you might have been offering the ability for your subscribers to opt in and out of a weekly newsletter, sales and promotions emails, as well as affiliate marketing.
If you don’t have email preferences set up in your existing marketing platform, this is also a really good opportunity to start thinking about them. Now that you’re moving to a new email marketing platform, do you want to set up different email preferences for your subscribers?
I would recommend this because it gives your subscribers the flexibility to choose what types of content they would like to receive from you and potentially even how frequently.
Managing your unsubscribers properly is one of the most important considerations when you’re changing email marketing platforms because it has legal ramifications.
If someone has unsubscribed from your mailing list, it is illegal for you to send marketing emails to them again unless they choose to opt back in, so be very mindful in how you manage your unsubscribers if you do choose to make the change.
I’ve moved to a new platform. Why are my emails going to spam?
Another one of the biggest hurdles I see businesses come up against when they’re changing email marketing platforms is dips in their email performance.
They might start seeing a decline in open or click through rates or have people start telling them that their emails are landing in their spam folder.
This is obviously far from ideal but (thankfully) it’s also absolutely avoidable if you know what actions to prioritise when you’re changing email marketing platforms.
Email reputation
To explain this further, I need to introduce you to the concept of email reputation.
Similar to the idea that your website has a reputation and this reputation is associated with how well you rank within Google search results, your email also has a reputation and this is associated with how often your emails land in your subscribers inbox (rather than their spam folder or not landing at all).
What does email reputation have to do with changing email marketing platform?
Well, when you move to a new email marketing platform, your email reputation is essentially reset. Different inbox providers like Gmail, Outlook and Yahoo, don’t associate your new email marketing platform with your domain because you’ve never sent from this platform before.
So, when they see your domain sending from a new email marketing platform, they get a little bit suspicious. Is this really you? Or is it someone pretending to be you (i.e. spam)?
How to build a new email reputation
There are a couple of things you can do to show inbox providers that it really is you.
- Make sure your domain is set up properly within your new email marketing platform. This typically involves adding to or modifying your domain’s DNS records. If you’re not comfortable editing your domain’s DNS records, I recommend talking to an IT or email marketing professional to have this done for you.
- In the first week of sending from a new email marketing platform it is common to experience email performance issues, as your email reputation is being re-established. To mitigate this, only send to your most engaged subscribers during this time. High rates of engagement will help build your email reputation faster.
- If you have a mailing list of over 1000 subscribers, something you also need to be mindful of is how many emails you sending on any given day. On average, building an email reputation takes about 30 days. During this time, inbox providers are also looking for unusual spikes in sending volume so it is best to send to no more than 1,000 subscribers per day. You can then double your sending volume every three to four days until you’re able to email your desired audience size.
When you’re changing email marketing platforms, how you manage your unsubscribers and your email reputation are undoubtedly the two most important considerations to keep in mind.
Of course, you’re also going to need to allow yourself time to:
- Re-establish relevant integrations (i.e to e-commerce stores, invoicing software, appointment booking software, Google Analytics, Facebook Ads, etc.)
- Recreate your mailing list sign up forms
- Recreate your email templates
- Rebuild any email sequences
If you need a hand figuring out if moving to a new email marketing platform is the right decision for you, I’d highly recommend taking our free email marketing platform matchmaker quiz. We’ve compared over 60 email marketing platforms and crafted a series of clever questions to let you know what email marketing platform is *the one* for you.
