Email Marketing Audit vs Internal Team Review: What You’re Missing

There’s a reason some email campaigns fly and others flop and it’s not always about the subject line.

As email marketers, we often get caught between two crucial choices: do we rely on our internal team’s knowledge or bring in an outside expert for a deep-dive audit? 

These expert-led evaluations, known as email marketing audits, are comprehensive reviews designed to optimize your overall strategy. Both options sound productive, but their impact can differ drastically.

Understanding when to choose an email marketing audit vs internal team review could mean the difference between stagnant performance and record-breaking engagement. Let’s unpack how each approach works, their pros and cons, and how to get the best of both worlds.

What Is an Email Marketing Audit?

An email marketing audit is a comprehensive audit of your email marketing strategy, typically carried out by external experts. It takes a wide-angle view of your email marketing efforts to examine whether your email marketing practices align with your goals, tools, and audience expectations.

This isn’t just a glance at open rates. A real audit digs deep into your email marketing platform, using a structured email marketing audit checklist. As part of this process, you also audit emails by reviewing and analyzing individual campaigns, their objectives, and overall strategy to identify areas for improvement. 

It uncovers issues like invalid email addresses, poor email deliverability, or missing email authentication protocols, ensuring compliance with regulations like the CAN-SPAM Act and General Data Protection Regulation.

An audit process provides valuable insights on everything from subscriber engagement and campaign data to industry benchmarks and opt-in processes. Audit findings are then used to guide targeted improvements and refine best practices for better results.

What Is an Internal Team Email Review?

An internal team email review is an in-house evaluation led by your marketing team. It’s typically used to improve email marketing performance on a campaign-by-campaign basis, with a focus on analyzing each email campaign to ensure alignment with overall goals and strategy.

This includes reviewing email campaigns for subject lines, design, email data, engagement rates, and click through rates. It’s where the entire email marketing team uses email service providers and email marketing software dashboards to optimize ongoing campaigns.

While these reviews are essential for managing automated campaigns and post purchase follow ups, they often stay tactical rather than strategic. However, by consistently auditing and optimizing, internal reviews can significantly improve how subscribers engage with your email content through better design and targeted strategies.

Audit vs Review in Email Marketing: Scope & Depth

Here’s how these two approaches differ:

Audits are comprehensive, covering every aspect of your email marketing strategy. They identify gaps, compliance issues, and opportunities for improvement. Reviews, however, refine what’s already there. Audits help establish key practices for ongoing improvement, while reviews focus on incremental changes.

External Email Audit Scope:

• Analyzes email deliverability
• Identifies spam filters and spam folder placement
• Checks for accurate sender information
• Audits opt-in processes and unsubscribe rate
• Measures overall marketing performance and key performance indicators
• Reviews email clients and mobile optimization
• Ensures compliance with email marketing regulations
• Evaluates the full customer journey

Internal Review Scope:

• Focuses on specific email campaigns
• Tweaks subject lines and clear call to action placements
• A/B tests landing pages and dynamic content
• Optimizes design for mobile devices
• Monitors campaign data and subscriber engagement

An audit helps identify areas in your overall email marketing strategy that need restructuring. Reviews, however, refine what’s already there.

Who Brings the Expertise?

Audits are typically performed by outside professionals who specialize in marketing automation, deliverability audit, and marketing channels. They bring a fresh perspective to help identify opportunities and improve marketing performance.

In contrast, your internal marketing team knows your audience best. They provide brand consistency, understand the nuances of your voice, and use ongoing customer feedback to guide content and timing. 

Understanding and tailoring your content to your target audience is crucial for increasing engagement and response rates.

Together, these two approaches offer a balanced view of your strategy.

Familiarity vs Objectivity

Internal reviews rely on familiarity with the brand and audience. But familiarity sometimes creates blind spots that overlook key elements, especially in areas like authentication or spam complaints.

External audits are objective. They apply a rules-based approach, use industry benchmarks, and test your processes against relevant regulations. Auditors can spot gaps in your email marketing practices that your team may not see.

Email Audit Process

A successful email audit is more than a quick check, it’s a structured, data-driven process designed to elevate your entire email marketing strategy. 

The audit process begins by setting clear objectives: Are you aiming to boost subscriber engagement, improve compliance, or increase conversions? 

With goals in place, the next step is to gather all the data from your email marketing platform, including campaign performance, key performance indicators, and subscriber activity.

Once the data is collected, a thorough analysis follows. This involves reviewing your email marketing practices for alignment with industry standards and relevant regulations, such as the CAN-SPAM Act and General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). 

The email marketing campaign audit process also examines opt-in methods, unsubscribe processes, and the accuracy of sender information to ensure compliance and build trust.

By systematically identifying gaps and opportunities, an email audit helps refine your email marketing efforts. Regular audits not only keep your campaigns compliant but also enhance subscriber engagement and drive better results across your marketing channels.

Frequency and Timing: When to Use Each

When to Schedule an Email Marketing Audit:

• During major strategy shifts
• When you’ve never audited emails before
• When struggling with low conversion rates or average click through rate
• Before launching a new product or entering new markets
• To ensure compliance or maintain list health

Set an audit schedule that aligns with strategic planning, typically quarterly or bi-annually.

When to Rely on Internal Reviews:

• After sending individual campaigns
• While testing subject lines or mobile optimization
• To make immediate content improvements
• When tracking metrics on performance trends

Internal reviews are more frequent audits, part of the daily rhythm of successful email marketing strategy.

Cost & Resources

Audits require budget allocation for expert services and time from your entire email marketing team. They may involve technical resources and sometimes even updates to your email marketing platform.

However, the return on investment is clear. Audits can uncover deliverability problems, poor engagement rates, or gaps in compliance that cost more in the long run.

Internal reviews use existing team time and tools. They’re cost-effective but come with opportunity costs, time that could be spent elsewhere in your email marketing efforts.

Tools and Checklists

Email Marketing Audit Checklist Includes:

• Spam filters and spam complaints review
• Email authentication protocols
• Unsubscribe rate and opt-in process checks
• List segmentation and maintaining list health
• Testing across email clients and mobile devices
• General Data Protection Regulation and CAN-SPAM Act compliance

Internal Review Tools:

• Email marketing software dashboards
• A/B testing platforms
• Campaign performance analytics
• Design previews and customer journey mapping

Each method provides different insights into your email marketing performance.

Email Deliverability: Why It Matters and How Audits Help

Email deliverability is the backbone of any successful email marketing strategy. If your emails aren’t reaching the inbox, even the best content and design won’t make an impact. 

Deliverability issues, like getting caught in spam filters, sending to invalid email addresses, or lacking proper authentication, can quietly erode your results and damage your sender reputation.

This is where email audits prove invaluable. A comprehensive audit will pinpoint deliverability problems by analyzing bounce rates, spam complaints, and authentication protocols such as SPF, DKIM, and DMARC. 

By identifying these issues, audits help you optimize your email marketing practices, ensuring your campaigns land where they belong: in your subscribers’ inboxes.

Regularly auditing your email deliverability not only protects your reputation but also uncovers opportunities to improve your email marketing strategy, increase open rates, and maximize the impact of every campaign.

List Management and Segmentation: Audit vs Review

Effective list management and segmentation are at the heart of a successful email marketing strategy. An email audit takes a deep dive into your list health, examining factors like invalid email addresses, inactive users, and spam complaints. 

This comprehensive approach helps identify areas where your list may be underperforming and uncovers opportunities to boost subscriber engagement.

In contrast, an internal review of list management and segmentation is more focused on day-to-day adjustments, ensuring your current segmentation aligns with campaign goals and that your list remains clean and relevant. 

While reviews help maintain ongoing performance, audits provide a broader perspective, highlighting trends in unsubscribe rates and the risk of spam filters.

By combining regular audits with frequent reviews, you can maintain a healthy, engaged list, improve campaign performance, and reduce the risk of deliverability issues.

Automation and Workflow Assessment in Audits and Reviews

Automation is a powerful driver of efficiency in email marketing, but only when workflows are optimized and aligned with your goals. 

During an email audit, experts will thoroughly assess your automated campaigns, trigger-based sequences, and overall marketing automation setup. This ensures that every workflow supports your broader email marketing efforts and delivers a seamless customer experience.

Internal reviews, on the other hand, focus on the effectiveness and accuracy of current automation processes. They help identify areas where workflows may be lagging, contain errors, or could be further streamlined to enhance subscriber engagement.

By regularly assessing automation and workflows through both audits and reviews, you can identify opportunities to improve efficiency, reduce manual errors, and ensure your email marketing strategy is always operating at its best.

Pros and Cons Without the Table

External Email Audit Pros:

• Provides objective feedback
• Identifies technical or compliance issues
• Offers benchmarking and strategic direction

External Email Audit Cons:

• Requires investment of time and money
• Can disrupt day-to-day operations temporarily

Internal Review Pros:

• Maintains brand tone and voice
• Allows real-time optimization of email campaigns
• Uses existing resources effectively

Internal Review Cons:

• Risk of bias or missed issues
• May overlook technical elements like email authentication or spam folder placement

Best Practices and Common Mistakes in Email Audits and Reviews

To get the most from your email audits and reviews, it’s essential to follow best practices and steer clear of common pitfalls. Start by maintaining a clean, engaged list, never purchase email addresses, and regularly remove inactive users. 

Always ensure compliance with relevant regulations like the CAN-SPAM Act and GDPR to protect your brand and avoid legal trouble.

Optimize your subject lines for clarity and engagement, and make sure every email includes a clear call to action. Avoid spammy language and misleading tactics that can hurt your deliverability and increase unsubscribe rates. 

Regularly review your email marketing performance metrics to identify opportunities for improvement and maintain compliance with all relevant laws.

By following these best practices and learning from common mistakes, you’ll strengthen customer loyalty, boost conversion rates, and ensure your email marketing efforts deliver consistent, measurable results.

When to Use What

Choose an email marketing audit tool or an expert when you're not seeing results, or when building or evolving your overall email marketing strategy. Use it to validate your data, ensure compliance, and identify areas to improve.

Leverage internal reviews when you're iterating, experimenting, and making small changes to enhance email campaigns.

The Hybrid Approach

The most effective teams combine both strategies. An audit gives you the blueprint; internal reviews ensure you execute that blueprint correctly and adapt along the way.

By mixing regular reviews with a comprehensive audit every few months, your team can identify opportunities for improvement while staying compliant and competitive.

FAQs: Email Marketing Audit vs Internal Team Review

What’s the difference between an email marketing audit vs internal team review?

Audits are external, objective, and strategic. Reviews are internal, continuous, and tactical.

Why choose an email marketing audit over an internal team review?

Audits identify big-picture issues and compliance risks. They help shape your entire email marketing strategy.

Can an internal team review replace an email marketing audit?

No. Reviews are crucial but limited in scope. An audit complements them by diving into technical and strategic elements.

When should I schedule an email marketing audit vs rely on internal team reviews?

Schedule an audit quarterly or biannually. Use internal reviews continuously after each campaign.

What are the benefits of an email marketing audit vs an internal team review?

Audits provide in-depth insight and ensure compliance. Reviews keep campaigns fresh and responsive.

Final Thoughts

It’s not a question of choosing between an email marketing audit vs internal team review. It’s about knowing when and how to use each.

Internal reviews keep you agile. Audits keep you aligned with best practices and long-term goals.

When both are integrated into your email marketing strategy, your marketing team can deliver campaigns that connect, convert, and comply.