The Complete Email Marketing Audit Checklist: 50 Points to Review

Most e-commerce brands know their email programme could be doing more. They sense revenue is being left on the table — but they’re not sure where. A structured audit changes that. It replaces guesswork with a clear map of what’s working, what’s broken, and what’s missing entirely.

This checklist covers the six areas that matter most. Work through each section, score yourself honestly, and you’ll have a concrete action list by the end.

Section 1: List Health

Your list is the foundation of everything. Even the best strategy falls apart on a broken foundation.

Size and Growth Rate

A healthy e-commerce list grows consistently month over month. Aim for a net growth rate of at least 3–5% per month after unsubscribes. If your list is flat or shrinking, your acquisition channels need attention before anything else.

Audit points:

• Total list size vs this time last year
• Monthly net list growth rate (new subscribers minus unsubscribes)
• Top 3 acquisition sources and their relative contribution
• Whether pop-up forms are live and converting at 2–5% of site visitors

Engagement Rate

Engaged subscribers are the ones who open, click, and buy. A healthy engaged rate (opened or clicked in the last 90 days) sits above 20% of your total list. Below 15% is a warning sign.

Audit points:

• Percentage of list active in the last 30, 60, and 90 days
• Whether you have a formal definition of “engaged” in your platform
• Whether campaigns are regularly sent to engaged-only segments

Unsubscribe and Bounce Rates

Benchmarks:

• Unsubscribe rate: under 0.2% per send is healthy; above 0.5% signals a content or frequency problem
• Hard bounce rate: under 0.1% per send; above 0.3% indicates list hygiene issues
• Soft bounce rate: under 1% is acceptable

Audit points:

• 90-day average unsubscribe rate
• Hard bounce rate for your last 10 campaigns
• Whether you have an automated suppression process for repeated soft bounces

Section 2: Automation Coverage

Automations (flows) deliver revenue while you sleep. Most brands have significant gaps here.

Which Flows Exist

Audit points:

• Welcome series: live or not?
• Abandoned checkout: live with at least 2 emails?
• Browse abandonment: live or not?
• Post-purchase sequence: live and covering cross-sell?
• Win-back flow: targeting lapsed purchasers?
• Sunset flow: suppressing chronically unengaged profiles?
• Replenishment flow (if you sell consumables): live or not?

Revenue Attribution

Automations should contribute 30–50% of your total email-attributed revenue. If yours are delivering below 20%, there are gaps to fill.

Audit points:

• Total automation revenue as a percentage of total email revenue (last 90 days)
• Revenue breakdown by individual flow
• Flows live but generating zero revenue (a config problem)

Gap Analysis

Audit points:

• Are all 7 core flows live?
• Do any flows have fewer than 3 emails where more would add value?
• Are flow trigger filters correctly excluding recent purchasers?
• Are flows sending to the right segments, or to everyone?

Section 3: Campaign Performance

Campaigns — your regular broadcast sends — should drive consistent revenue and strengthen your subscriber relationship.

Open Rate

Post-iOS 15, open rate is an unreliable metric due to Apple’s Mail Privacy Protection inflating numbers. That said, it still has directional value.

Benchmark: 35–50% inflated open rate is typical post-iOS 15. If you’re seeing below 20%, something is wrong with deliverability or subject line relevance.

Audit points:

• 90-day average open rate (with iOS caveat)
• Click-to-open rate as a more reliable engagement proxy (benchmark: 8–15%)
• Whether subject lines are being A/B tested

Click-Through Rate and Revenue Per Send

Benchmarks:

• Click rate: 1.5–3.5% is a healthy range for e-commerce campaigns
• Revenue per recipient: varies by product price point, but track this as your primary campaign metric

Audit points:

• 90-day average click rate
• Revenue per recipient for your last 10 campaigns
• Whether campaigns with product focus consistently outperform content-only sends

Send Frequency

Audit points:

• Current campaign frequency (sends per week/month)
• Whether frequency varies by segment (VIPs vs general list)
• Whether you track unsubscribe spikes after specific send types
• Whether you suppress recent purchasers from promotional sends

Section 4: Deliverability

Deliverability problems silently kill revenue. Everything else in this audit is irrelevant if your emails are landing in spam.

Authentication Setup

Authentication is non-negotiable. Without it, major inbox providers will filter or reject your mail.

Audit points:

• SPF record: published and valid?
• DKIM: configured and signing outbound mail?
• DMARC: policy set (at minimum p=none with monitoring)?
• Custom sending domain set up (not using a shared Klaviyo/ESP domain)?

Sender Score and Spam Placement

Benchmarks:

• Sender Score (via Validity): 80+ is healthy; below 70 needs attention
• Gmail spam placement rate (via Google Postmaster Tools): under 0.08% is the target; above 0.3% triggers filtering

Audit points:

• Current Sender Score or domain reputation score
• Google Postmaster Tools: is it set up? What does it show?
• Spam complaint rate from your ESP dashboard
• Whether you check mail-tester.com before major sends

List Hygiene Practices

Audit points:

• Last time you ran a list cleaning / email validation pass
• Whether you have automatic suppression for hard bounces
• Whether inactive subscribers are moved to a suppression list rather than kept indefinitely

Section 5: Design and Copy

Design and copy affect whether subscribers engage once they open — and whether they trust your brand.

Mobile Rendering

Over 60% of email opens occur on mobile. Emails that don’t render correctly on mobile bleed clicks.

Audit points:

• Are templates tested on iOS Mail, Gmail app, and Android?
• Are CTAs at least 44px tall and thumb-friendly?
• Is image-to-text ratio balanced (not image-heavy emails that trigger spam filters)?
• Does the email read clearly with images disabled?

Dark Mode Compatibility

Dark mode is used by a significant and growing portion of subscribers. Logos and images with transparent backgrounds can render as invisible in dark mode.

Audit points:

• Are images tested in dark mode?
• Are logo versions with appropriate dark mode backgrounds available?
• Does the email template handle dark mode colour inversion gracefully?

CTA Clarity

Audit points:

• Is there one primary CTA per email (or a clear hierarchy)?
• Is the CTA button text specific (“Shop the sale” rather than “Click here”)?
• Is the CTA above the fold on mobile?
• Is CTA contrast ratio sufficient for accessibility?

Section 6: Strategy

Strategy is the layer that ties everything together — and the layer most brands neglect.

Segmentation Practice

Audit points:

• Are campaigns sent to meaningful segments or to the full list every time?
• Do segments exist for: VIP customers, recent purchasers, engaged non-purchasers, lapsed customers?
• Is there a segment for high-value prospects (engaged but never bought)?
• Are segments based on behaviour (events) or only on profile properties?

A/B Testing Practice

Benchmarks: Running at least 2–3 meaningful tests per month is a sign of a maturing email programme.

Audit points:

• How many A/B tests were run in the last 90 days?
• Are tests properly structured (one variable, meaningful hypothesis)?
• Is there a test log documenting results and learnings?
• Are winning variants being applied systematically?

Reporting Cadence

Audit points:

• Is there a weekly or fortnightly email performance review?
• Are KPIs tracked against benchmarks over time, not just in isolation?
• Is there a designated owner for email performance accountability?
• Is reporting used to make decisions, or is it just retrospective?

How to Score Your Audit

Work through all 50 points and mark each as: Pass, Needs Improvement, or Not In Place. Then group findings by section and identify your highest-impact gaps.

As a rough benchmark:

• 40–50 passes: you have a strong programme with optimisation opportunities
• 25–39 passes: significant revenue is being missed — prioritise the gaps
• Under 25 passes: foundational work is needed before optimisation makes sense

What Comes Next

The audit gives you the map. The question is where to start. Quick wins — like fixing authentication, enabling a missing abandoned checkout flow, or suppressing your unengaged list — typically take days and pay back immediately. Strategic projects, like rebuilding your welcome series or implementing full segmentation, take longer but compound over time.

If you want a second set of expert eyes on your programme, Excelohunt conducts comprehensive email audits for e-commerce brands — covering all six sections above, with a prioritised action plan and implementation support.

---

Related Excelohunt Services

Looking to implement these strategies with expert support?

• Email Audit — learn how we implement this for clients
• Email Strategy — learn how we implement this for clients Book a free strategy call with Excelohunt →