How to Audit Your Email & SMS Program
A framework for auditing your retention marketing. Identify gaps, benchmark performance, and prioritize improvements for maximum ROI.
Why should you audit your email and SMS program?
A retention audit scores 5 areas: revenue attribution, flow performance, campaign performance, list health, and technical setup. It shows you where the biggest wins are before you touch a single email. Most stores find 10 to 20% of revenue sitting in missing flows and unsegmented sends.
You cannot fix what you have not measured.
An audit tells you what is working, where the biggest wins are, and the benchmarks to hold yourself to.
Start here before you change a single email.
Audit 5 areas in order: revenue attribution, flow performance, campaign performance, list health, and technical setup. Email and SMS combined should drive 25 to 45% of revenue, so anything under 20% is a gap. Confirm your essential flows exist and hit benchmark, keep 30-day engaged above 25%, and lock down SPF, DKIM, and DMARC. Then rank every fix by Impact divided by Effort and do the high-impact, low-effort work first.
What areas should a retention audit cover?
A retention audit covers 5 areas, in this order. Revenue attribution tells you the size of the prize. Flow and campaign performance show where you win or leak. List health protects deliverability. Technical setup makes sure the emails land at all. Work them top to bottom.
What share of revenue should email and SMS drive?
Combined, email and SMS should drive 25 to 45% of total revenue, and 40%+ is excellent. Email alone should sit at 20 to 35%, SMS at 3 to 5%. Under 20% combined means you are leaving money on the table. For the full picture, see how much revenue email should drive. Pull the last 90 days to check.
The question: what share of total revenue comes from email and SMS?
| Metric | Needs Work | Good | Excellent |
|---|---|---|---|
| Email % of Revenue | Under 15% | 20-35% | 35%+ |
| SMS % of Revenue | Under 2% | 3-5% | 5-10% |
| Combined | Under 20% | 25-40% | 40%+ |
In Klaviyo: Analytics → Dashboard → Attributed Revenue (last 90 days) ÷ Shopify Revenue
Which flows should you have, and what should they earn?
You need 4 essential flows first: welcome series, abandoned cart, abandoned checkout, and post-purchase. Then add growth and advanced flows. Abandoned checkout should convert 5 to 15% and earn $3 to $8 per recipient, your strongest flow. See our abandoned cart and checkout recovery guide for the setup. Welcome runs 3 to 8% at $2 to $5.
Flows You Should Have
Essential:
- Welcome Series
- Abandoned Cart
- Abandoned Checkout
- Post-Purchase
Growth:
- Browse Abandonment
- Winback
- VIP/Customer Thank You
Advanced:
- Replenishment
- Birthday
- Back in Stock
- Price Drop
Flow Benchmarks
| Flow | Conversion Rate | Rev/Recipient |
|---|---|---|
| Welcome | 3-8% | $2-5 |
| Abandoned Cart | 5-15% | $3-8 |
| Abandoned Checkout | 5-15% | $3-8 |
| Post-Purchase | 2-5% | $1-4 |
| Browse Abandonment | 1-3% | $0.50-2 |
Midpoints of the benchmark ranges. The abandonment flows earn the most per send, so build them first.
What are good email campaign benchmarks?
Aim for a 25 to 35% open rate, a 2 to 4% click rate, and 1 to 2% conversion, with unsubscribes under 0.4%. Anything under 20% open or under 0.5% conversion needs work. Send 3 to 4 times a week to your engaged segment, and segment every send.
Pull your last 10-20 campaigns and look at them together.
| Metric | Needs Work | Good | Excellent |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open Rate | Under 20% | 25-35% | 40%+ |
| Click Rate | Under 1% | 2-4% | 5%+ |
| Conversion | Under 0.5% | 1-2% | 3%+ |
| Unsubscribe | Over 0.5% | 0.2-0.4% | Under 0.2% |
Ask yourself:
- How often are you sending? Aim for 3-4x a week to your engaged segment.
- Are campaigns segmented, or blasted to the full list?
- Are you A/B testing anything at all?
What does a healthy email list look like?
A healthy list keeps 25%+ engaged over 30 days, 40%+ over 60 days, and 50%+ over 90 days, with inactive subscribers under 20%. Once inactive climbs past 40%, deliverability suffers. Size is a vanity number. A smaller, more engaged list beats a big dead one every time.
| Segment | Healthy | Warning |
|---|---|---|
| 30-Day Engaged | 25%+ | Under 15% |
| 60-Day Engaged | 40%+ | Under 25% |
| 90-Day Engaged | 50%+ | Under 35% |
| Inactive (180+) | Under 20% | Over 40% |
Total list size is a vanity number. A 10,000 list with 30% engaged beats a 50,000 list with 5% engaged every time.
What technical setup does an email program need?
Three things must be right: authentication, integrations, and compliance. Configure SPF, DKIM, and DMARC, and add a custom sending domain once you pass 50K sends a month. Connect Shopify, sync your catalog, and confirm event tracking. Then check that unsubscribe links, a physical address, and SMS consent are all in place.
Authentication:
- SPF configured
- DKIM configured
- DMARC configured
- Custom sending domain (if 50K+/mo)
Integrations:
- Shopify connected
- Product catalog syncing
- Events tracking (Browse, Add to Cart, etc.)
- Revenue attribution working
Compliance:
- Unsubscribe links work
- Physical address in footer
- SMS consent captured
How do you prioritize what to fix first?
Score each fix by Impact and Effort on a 1 to 5 scale, then divide Impact by Effort to get a priority score. Highest score wins. Adding an abandoned cart flow scores 2.5, so it beats a welcome redesign at 1.3. Do the high-impact, low-effort work first.
Score each fix by Impact (1-5) and Effort (1-5). Then rank them. Priority = Impact ÷ Effort.
| Opportunity | Impact | Effort | Priority |
|---|---|---|---|
| Add abandoned cart flow | 5 | 2 | 2.5 ⭐ |
| Segment campaigns | 4 | 2 | 2.0 ⭐ |
| Redesign welcome | 4 | 3 | 1.3 |
| Build replenishment flow | 3 | 4 | 0.75 |
Do the high-impact, low-effort work first. That is where the fast money is.
What are the most common audit findings?
Four problems show up in almost every audit. Missing flows leave 10 to 20% of revenue on the table. Outdated flows built 2+ years ago underperform. No segmentation drags down engagement and deliverability. And too much inactive list, often half or more past 180 days, hurts inbox placement.
Audit Template
| Area | Current | Benchmark | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| Email % of Revenue | ___ | 20-35% | |
| Welcome Conversion | ___ | 3-8% | |
| Cart Abandonment Conv. | ___ | 5-15% | |
| 30-Day Engaged % | ___ | 25%+ | |
| Campaign Open Rate | ___ | 25-35% | |
| SPF/DKIM/DMARC | ___ | Configured |
Get Expert Help
Our team runs a full retention audit as part of onboarding. Deep analysis, competitive benchmarks, a prioritized roadmap, and revenue estimates you can plan around.
Apply to work with us. Audit included with all packages.
Need help implementing this?
We build and manage complete email & SMS programs for DTC brands. Get a custom plan for your brand.
Apply Now