Email

It isn't too early to put key things in place so that when the holidays arrive, you'll be ready.

You have things to plan out well in advance for holiday or end of the year, and now is the time to do it. Sometimes I’m speaking on it, and sometimes I’m in the audience. What are the KPIs you should have at your command immediately? Rank their comments based on ROI, level of effort and the time you have to work on it during your day. A mid-year check-up is your chance to stop and see where you are and what you need to do to get ready. I was so focused on my day-to-day duties, putting out fires, going to meetings and writing reports that I wasn’t up to date on my own KPIs. That was a total fail – and one I never repeated. Make sure you’re tight on how your email program makes money, your acquisition targets, and how you measure success. I asked people to audit their programs and put the results in a PowerPoint deck. What do you need to do to differentiate this year from last year? We forget from year to year about this big looming holiday, and then we get all wrapped up in planning, do what everybody else wants us to do and cross our fingers and hope we make our numbers. “So, how long do you think it will take you to do all these things?” I asked at one point, and they both started laughing. Planning begins with an email audit, so you know where your program stands, and it needs an updated set of KPIs so you can measure whether your efforts are paying off.