Your Monthly Flow Audit Checklist to Avoid Email Revenue Drops

Email flows are largely, but not entirely, “set it and forget it”. Problems can happen during or after automation.

Links break. Web pages change. A button gets the wrong URL. A line of copy gets deleted. An integration screws things up.

Also, your business is always in flux.

New products arrive. Old products are discontinued. Promos are happening. New types of customers are coming into your business. Email marketing is evolving.

These and other issues necessitate regular review of all your flows. 

So below, I’ve compiled a 9-step checklist for auditing your flows every quarter or month (I lean toward the latter).

Table of Contents

First: Fix the Broken Stuff Next: Add More Revenue Maintain Your Moneymaking Flows What To Do Next

First: Fix the Broken Stuff

I prefer checking these monthly. Things don’t break often, but at a larger size, one broken link could lose a good chunk of change.

That said, feel free to lessen that interval to quarterly. Some of this stuff is a bit boring.

1. Links

The first thing I do is click through every last link. I look for:

1. The link existing (I’ve found buttons that don’t have links in emails before)
2. The link working (not throwing errors)
3. The link landing on the right page
4. Anything else (like auto-apply coupons working)

It’s indeed a bit tedious. Still worth it.

2. Images

If you use design in your emails, check that images are loading:

1. Properly, AND
2. Quickly

And, of course, make sure the images are correct. You don’t want the wrong product showing.

Consider whether images are necessary or if a different image would work better, too. 

3. Coupons

Coupons might expire or “run out” depending on how they were set up before. That can lose you sales and cause customer frustration. 

Make sure you replace any of those coupons with working ones, if needed. 

Check the code, too, if you’re having the coupon generate a random number/letter string. If the code snippet’s wrong, the coupon code may not show.

4. Drastic Data Swings

Emails rarely swing dramatically in performance (assuming you have a lot of traffic moving through the given flow). More often it’s slow and incremental.

So huge shifts in data, such as plummeting CTR or a bounce rate spike, could indicate some underlying problem.

Could be broken links. Could be a surge in bot subscriptions. Could be some other techie issue. It’s up to you to find out based on what pieces of data are shifting dramatically.

5. HTML/Design Blocks

Automations like the Browse, Cart, and Checkout Abandonment flows use simple custom blocks to show the product the customer viewed/added to cart/reached checkout with.

These blocks have a few failure points that could cause trouble:

1. Code snippets to display the product
2. Wonky design (by not selecting the right options)
3. Integration issues (it might not show the products if Klaviyo and Shopify are having integration issues)

You can check these with a visual exam (do the images and product names look right?) plus a click test like with broken links.

6. Accidentally “Off” Emails

Accidents happen. Emails might be unintentionally “off” due to:

1. Previous BFCM promos: Perhaps you turned off your BFCM version of a flow but forgot to reactivate the main one.
2. New emails: You added a new email but forgot to turn it on.
3. Complete accident: You or someone else somehow misclicked and shut an email off.

But don’t flip them on immediately. Investigate and see if there was a legitimate reason the emails were turned off, first.

If you can’t find a good reason, turn it back on.

Next: Add More Revenue

Now, for the fun part:

Finding more hidden money in your list.

7. Subject Line Tests

More opens = more sales, all else held equal. A/B testing subject lines regularly helps you squeeze more opens out of each email, earning you more and helping deliverability.

First, identify the email with the lowest open rate. Compare to that email’s send count. You want a balance of higher sends and lower opens to get the most ROI if you lift opens.

Set up a new A/B test. Pick a new subject line — try a different type. For instance, if the current one is “listicle” style, try a “storytelling” style subject line.

Run that test for 30 days, but have it end sooner if it reaches statistical significance. 

Boom. There’s your new subject lines.

I like to do these once monthly. There are TONS of emails to test on, so it’s good to have a few tests running at all times.

8. New Emails

More emails ALSO generally = more sales. Adding more emails offers more opportunities to address objections, answer questions, and shift beliefs.

Abandonment flows are good candidates to start with. Many brands go with 2-3 emails, but you could add up to 4 more to nab otherwise lost orders.

Don’t want to write new emails? You may not have to. High-performing broadcasts often find their way into Welcome Sequences and abandonment flows.

Now, I don’t just mean adding new emails. How are your current emails performing? Anything that could do better?

You could A/B test new body copy or even a design email (or a plain text email if the control email is design) to try and raise CTR and sales.

Lastly, you could add a whole new branch. For example, a “Returning Customer” branch to your abandonment flow.

Tailor the messaging in each branch to the relevant customer type.

9. New Offers

Changing up your flow’s offers can squeeze more sales out of the flow.

For instance, look at your Welcome Flow. Could a higher discount drive more sales… or a lower one preserve more profits? Perhaps you try a whole new lead magnet to get more people in the door?

It’s worth testing offers in some flows that don’t have them, too.

For example, abandonment flows do well with them. Gets those people off the fence.

This can work particularly well for abandonment flows with New Customer branches. The discount gets them in the door at a “loss,” but then you can earn that profit on the backend.

Maintain Your Moneymaking Flows

The hard work is done once you implement a brand-new flow. But you still need ongoing maintenance. Otherwise, you might miss out on revenue… or worse.

Look for broken stuff — links, images, coupons, and so on — and fix those immediately. Don’t forget to routinely test new subject lines, emails, copy, and offers.

Make this a quarterly/monthly habit. Set aside a bit of time each quarter/month and knock it out.

It’ll save you a LOT of headache and lost revenue later.

What To Do Next

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