I’m sure at some point or the other in your life, you’ve had to move houses. Sorting your items into different categories, putting them into boxes of varying sizes, using separate packing material for delicate and non-delicate items- I’m sure you don’t need any introduction to the packing and moving routine. Now, why am I talking about this? To call your attention to the fact that this process is pretty analogous to migrating from your current ESP (Email Service Provider) to a new one.

ESPs offer a bevvy of functionalities- website tracking, automation, list segmentation, lead capture forms, and A/B testing- which is why they are absolutely adored by businesses. However, with time, as a business (and its needs and requirements) evolves, they find themselves having to bid farewell to their existing ESP and embrace another solution that is better cut out for their demands. But, this can be an incredibly complex process (again, much like moving houses). If you’re currently in the middle of migrating ESPs or are considering doing so in the near future, this blog can prove to be a timely read. Here, we discuss some of the common pitfalls that crop up during the ESP migration process and how one can effectively deal with them. Ready to find out? Dive in!

The Pitfalls

From gaining familiarity with the features of your new ESP to assessing whether it’s holding up as desired to your expectations, one has to contend with plenty of challenges while migrating. Let’s take an in-depth look at the mistakes businesses are most likely to commit in the process.

1. Rushing The Process

ESPs are complex entities. Therefore, should you fail to carefully plot out your migration from one system to another, you’ll find yourself neck-deep in undesirable outcomes. Once you’re definite about making a switchover, ask yourself this: “What should I be looking for in my new ESP?” Getting a lucid answer to this alone will solve more than half of your problems. All agencies offering email campaign management services will advise you to do the same, too.

Below, we’ve highlighted a few factors one must prioritize while hunting for an ESP.

• Utility of features: Selecting an ESP equipped with diverse functionalities is the way to go, right? Well, not always. You see, it all eventually boils down to your scale of operations. If you are a small or mid-sized enterprise, chances are that you won’t really get many opportunities to fully use a highly sophisticated ESP. While you might be tempted to invest in such an ESP, exercising prudence is key. You can consider asking yourself the following two questions to fine-tune your decision-making:

1. Are the features of this ESP aligning with my business objectives?

2. Will this feature-suite continue to accommodate my business as it scales up?

If and only if you get an affirmative answer for both these questions, go ahead with the purchase.

• Budget: This is pretty much a logical continuation of the point stated above. Most ESPs offer tiered packages where the primary difference between the upper and lower echelons is the number of subscribers they can service. So, if you don’t really have a huge email list, buy a lower-tier plan; you’ll be able to maximize your ROI that way. 
• User-friendliness: Never lose sight of the fact that ESPs are long-term assets for a company. Hence, while choosing an ESP, make sure to check that it has an intuitive and user-friendly interface. The best way to inspect this is by availing of a free trial of the ESP in question- all the top ESPs in the market offer one to new users, anyway. Make the most of it.
• Customer support: We’re sure you’re well aware of the sheer number of nuts and bolts that go into executing an email campaign. At the core of it, lies your ESP. Ensuring, thus, that an ESP has round-the-clock customer support is downright imperative.
• Performance measurement: You might have heard this before, but we are going to state it again nonetheless: Launching an email campaign is just half the job done; the other half lies in tracking its performance. An ESP that has a robust analytics apparatus will give you an in-depth understanding of how subscribers are responding to your campaigns, making it easy for you to optimize them. 
• Security: Your ESP will be privy to a lot of sensitive information pertaining to your subscribers. Therefore, after you have shortlisted an ESP, thoroughly scrutinize its data security policies.

2. Not Warming Your New IP Adequately

This is particularly important if deliverability was the driving reason behind you switching ESPs. Remember, simply migrating to a new ESP which promises superior deliverability won’t solve all your issues. It will improve things to an extent, sure, but you’ll still have to take certain measures from your end to make sure you’re completely in the clear. By “certain measures”, we are mostly alluding to chalking out a dedicated IP warming plan. Moving from one ESP to another also involves moving from your existing IP addresses and domains to new ones. So, unless you establish a good reputation for these new assets by duly warming them up, the migration will prove to be counterproductive. 

3. Being Lousy With Old Data

Your old ESP is a repository of priceless customer data, beyond the obvious email address and contact information, such as subscription dates, opt-outs and unsubscribes, interests and preferences, spam complaint addresses, past purchase behavior, suppression lists, and the like. Now, what happens if you omit this data while shifting ESPs? You’ll have to make your customer profiles from scratch, end up sending emails to subscribers who no longer want to hear from you, and soil your existing personalization strategies, among many, many other things. 

In a nutshell, you risk setting your business back by an unthinkable number of paces. Despite the catastrophic consequences, the number of businesses who fall prey to this is larger than what one would assume.

4. Not Imparting The Requisite Training To Your Staff

One of the major challenges of migrating ESPs is having to wrap your head around the features of a new system, all over again. Without the right direction and guidance, this can appear fairly overwhelming and cumbersome. Whatever level of proficiency you had with respect to your previous ESP won’t reflect in your new one, always keep that in mind. The ideal course of action is to team up with the support team of your new provider and set up dedicated workshops for all your various departments to make the migration process as smooth as possible for them. 

The Solutions

Now that we have learnt about the various potholes, let us understand how we can steer clear of them. 

1. Strike Up A Sync Between Your Marketing And IT Departments

Let us address the question that might have popped in your head after reading that heading: “How does my ESP concern my IT department?” 

Allow us to elaborate. Your marketing department and sales, by extension, are the only two departments to whom your ESP is going to be directly relevant at all times. However, during migration, your IT department will have an equally important role to play. Tasks such as importing contact lists, historical data, and testing for custom integrations will be carried out with them. Hence, getting your marketing and IT departments to coordinate with each right at the onset of the migration process will make life a lot easier for you. Alternatively, you can also seek out the help of dedicated ESP migration experts from an agency.

2. Test At Every Step

Be it creating a segment, designing a template, or setting up an automation workflow, it is always best to stop and test after performing an action for the first time in your new ESP. Yes, even if there happen to be certain similarities between your previous and current providers. Doesn’t matter if you have performed a certain action over a hundred times in your last ESP; you’ll never know how it is going to manifest in the new system unless you take a moment to test it. 

3. Create A Foolproof IP Warming Strategy

Earlier, we talked about the importance of IP warming while shifting to a new ESP. Here, we are going to list out a few best practices. Take a look.

• Know who your most engaged subscribers are. Target them first while sending out emails using your new ESP. This will help improve your standing with ISPs (Internet Service Providers), who use audience engagement as a primary metric to rule whether an email is spam or not.
• Don’t send emails to all your subscribers at once. Instead, increase your send volume gradually. Depending on the number of contacts on your list, phase out the warming process over a few days or weeks as necessary. 
• Which of your email segments has enjoyed the most success historically? Newsletters? Recommendation emails? Customer appreciation emails? Testimonial emails? Whatever might be the case, make sure to keep them at the centre of your IP warming process. This will also help you understand what direction you should take while designing your custom email marketing templates.

As you might have already guessed, much hard work and research go into curating a solid IP warming strategy. If your plate is already full of responsibilities, you can always consider working with a reliable agency to carry out this critical task for you.

Wrapping It Up

Migrating from one ESP to another is, no doubt, a challenging affair. We hope the insights shared above help you make an informed decision and select an ESP that will elevate your business to new heights. 

The post Migrating To A New ESP? Common Pitfalls And How To Overcome Them! appeared first on Email Uplers.

In the blog that follows, we will take you on a step-by-step journey wherein you can hop on your Braze dashboard and customize existing snippets or upload your own HTML Email Templates. Needless to say, we at Email Uplers are always up to help you create flawless, customizable campaigns that you can alter later if you choose to (though we doubt you’d want to do that! ;)) 

Step 1: To create emails in Braze HTML email editor, we first need to upload the images. 

Begin by going to Templates and clicking on Media Library

Step 2: You should now be able to see the Browse File option, wherein you can Drag & Drop the selected images.

Step 3: You now need to select the requisite URL and replace it with Local Images in HTML. 

Once you are done with uploading the images, you can now shift gears to the next part of the journey, which is creating customizable content blocks. 

Step 4: Hit the Templates section and choose Content Blocks 

Step 5: Select Create Content Block

Step 6: Enter the name of the Content Block

Step 7: Select Classic Editor under the editing experience section

Step 8: You can now proceed with the option of Edit the Content Block to introduce requisite changes.

Step 9: You will now be able to peruse the HTML editor on the left side, wherein you can choose to paste the content block’s code. Once you are done pasting the code, click on Done. 

Step 10: Once you have pasted the code, you are now all set to click on Launch Content Block.

Now, let’s get privy to creating customizable Email Templates.

Step 10: Go to the Templates section and select Email Templates

Step 11: Select HTML Editor in the Template Type.

Step 12: You can choose any of the following options;

• From File: This can be used to upload limited images. Upload the ZIP file, which has a folder of images and a single HTML file. For this, you don’t need to upload the image into the Media library.

• Blank template: After replacing the hosted image, one can paste the HTML code. Add the requisites such as template name, subject line, email body copy, and HTML code.

Step 13: One can now proceed with pasting the HTML code into the HTML editor box. 

Step 14: In order to add the Content Block, click on the (+) icon.

Step 15: Select the type of Personalization in the Content Block

Step 16: Select the Content Block that you would like to add in HTML

Step 17: Once you are done with adding all the requisite Content Blocks, all you need to do is hit the Done button and Save the template. 

Super cool, right?! If you would like to edit the email, you need to edit the requisite Content Block individually. For instance;

Summary

Now that you have understood how to go above and beyond WYSIWYG email templates as a marketer, if you feel you’d rather have professional developers create customizable Braze email templates for your next email campaign, Email Uplers can do the job for you at amazing TATs with maximum efficiency. Hit us up now!

The post An Insight Into Delivering Richer Campaign Experiences Using Braze Advanced Integrations appeared first on Email Uplers.

Shifting systems, revamping current databases, or introducing new additions to your existing apparatus- whatever the scenario, data migration is an occurrence that every company has to contend with at one point or another. In the realm of email marketing, businesses are confronted with it while migrating ESPs (email service providers). From exporting all relevant assets from the previous system to loading them flawlessly in the new one, all the while defining workflows to ensure the ensuing downtime doesn’t bring operations to a standstill, migration is a pretty complex and intricate process. 

But, as daunting as it may sound, there’s no summit that can’t be scaled with a solid strategy and sound implementation of the same. And that’s precisely what we are going to help you out with today. To make certain that your data migration journey is as friction-free as possible, we will talk in detail about some relevant techniques in this blog. Eager to find out what they are? Keep reading, then!

The Need for a Bulletproof Data Migration Strategy

Before we delve into the nuances of devising a migration strategy, it’s only fair we wrapped our heads around the significance of crafting one, right? Let’s check out.

• Allows you to take full stock of existing data: Before migrating to a new ESP, it is important that you thoroughly assess your current databases to identify which portions need to be a part of your new setup and which are dispensable.
• Gives you a clear idea about your data quality: Over a period of time, even data undergoes wear and tear, sometimes even to the point where it becomes absolutely inaccurate and unreliable. And transferring this flawed data to the new system is completely off the table, you’d agree? Hence, when you assess your data as part of your migration strategy, you make yourself privy to its merit and quality in the process, subsequently making informed decisions beneficial to your business. Every agency dabbling in ESP migration services will ask you to do so without fail.
• Enables you to keep data security issues at bay: A carefully chalked-out data migration strategy would have taken into account data privacy frameworks such as GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) and CCPA (California Consumer Privacy Act), thereby ensuring that the data is not mishandled during migration. Not to mention, this also allows you to steer clear of legal complications (which can get excruciatingly unending, to say the very least).
• Helps you ascertain the migration strategy that best suits your business: There are two kinds of data migration strategies:
  • Big Bang Migration: In this approach, the entire database is transferred at once. Understandably, then, the big bang route invites considerable downtime, which is why companies employing this strategy usually prefer to do it during the weekends. Alternatively, a dedicated scheduled downtime period is announced for the same. Since it is the quickest way of completing the migration, this approach has several supporters. However, naysayers aren’t scarce either. The large downtime is an obvious issue; not all organizations can afford it, to begin with. It entails incredible risk, too- any inadvertent misstep can jeopardize all your data.
  • Trickle Migration: As the name somewhat suggests, the trickle migration process involves transferring your data in phases. As a result, there is less stress on all the departments involved, allowing everyone to exercise greater control over the process. Quality control is easier to achieve since the governance, mirroring the migration, also happens in phases. Should any phase run into a roadblock, only that phase needs to be rebooted again and not the entire operation. Because both the old and new systems run in parallel in this method, there is essentially no downtime involved. The flipside of trickle migration is that it can be extremely time-consuming, and hence, if you are running on a tight schedule, you might find yourself hard-pressed to take this route.

As you can see for yourself, both approaches come with their own pros and cons, so before choosing one, you must evaluate whether it aligns with your business’ style of operation or not.

Data Migration Best Practices to Help You Iron Out All Wrinkles

Wise, now that we are, to the importance of setting up a robust data migration strategy, let us understand what all comprises the ingredients of a winning one.

Ask The Right Questions

• What goals are you looking to accomplish by migrating systems?
• The involvement of which departments (or leads) are totally non-negotiable in the process?
• By when do you want to complete the migration? (Advisable to set both an aspirational as well as a pragmatic deadline, to manage expectations better)
• How much budget can you allocate to the process?

You get the drift, surely? Identify the facets lying at the core of your migration process and seek to address any and all uncertainties or inconsistencies that may cloud them. Doing so will empower you to generate a strategy that covers all bases (especially the ones that matter the most) and one that can effectively take on any curve balls thrown its way.

Examine Your Current Database

And do so with a lens as flexible as possible. The terrain of your new system will obviously differ vastly from that of the one you have at present. Migration, therefore, merely doesn’t involve shifting your data headlong from one site to another; making certain that your data maps accurately to the architecture of the new system is also a pressing responsibility. 

Yes, you have probably caught on to the idea we are trying to put forth here- not every kernel of data needs to be migrated religiously. As with every other organization out there, we are sure that not all of your data occupies the same hierarchy, right? So, as you go about your assessment, make it a point to escort the upper-echelon bits to one side safely- these should not be tampered with at all, or you risk bringing your operations to an abrupt halt. 

Next, as you proceed to the secondary and tertiary levels, don’t be afraid of bearing a strict chisel; you are allowed to trim or restructure anything you feel wouldn’t add value to your new system (not in its present form, at least). 

This step is crucial, for it will help identify data redundancies and inaccuracies, enabling you to address them at the earliest before you move on to ply your trade with your new apparatus. Goes without saying, if you have been truthful with your database assessment, nothing can get in the way of you tapping into the full potential of your new system. 

Establish Transparent Channels of Communication With Every Department

Your IT team is the one that will migrate your data as you switch systems, so it’s only natural if you feel like confining all migration-related communications to them. Well, this is one of those cases where you stand to benefit by betraying your natural instinct. The key to achieving a seamless transition lies in clear, transparent communication; communication that involves every single department comprising your organization, and not just the good, hard-working IT folks. 

The ramifications of migrating systems will be felt by each and every cog of your business; never lose sight of this. Therefore, it is vital to keep everyone in the loop with respect to every single development of the data migration process. In fact, there is no explicit need to ask the IT department to shoulder this act single-handedly, to begin with. Sure, they will preside over the technical component of the operation, but when it comes to devising your strategy, you’d do well to fetch inputs from everyone concerned. This collaborative approach will ultimately help you have a robust plan of action at your disposal, allowing you to wrap up the process with minimal interruptions. 

Backup, Backup, Backup

Without fail. Even if you feel doubly sure about your controllables, it is always wise to account for the uncontrollables. Before commencing the migration, thus, backup your source data, so even if something happens to go awry during the migration process, you wouldn’t be left grasping at thin air. Backing up your data becomes all the more important if you are implementing the big bang approach.

On a related note, try avoiding effecting any upgrades to your current system during the migration process. If at all there are some vital upgrades that need to be implemented, they should be taken care of before the migration itself.

Audit and Test

Migrating all your data to your new system is a major chunk of the work done, agreed, but it is by no means the finishing line. After the migration is complete, you must audit the data to eliminate any and all redundancies and inconsistencies. Additionally, since you will be operating in a new environment now, it is crucial that you routinely test the operational flow of the new system to make sure that everything is on track, at all times.

Wrapping It Up

Data migration is an uphill task; there’s no denying that. However, you can easily navigate all its challenges by preparing a strategy that exemplifies discipline, precision, and attention to detail. We hope the insights shared above will help you in that endeavor. 

The post Facilitating a Seamless Data Migration: Here’s Everything You Should Know appeared first on Email Uplers.

I’m sure you have heard or read it in the past. But let me assure you, this won’t be the last time you’ll come across this adage. 

In the current times, when the economy has become so unpredictable, a recession is lingering around the corner, and marketing budgets are taking a toll, you need to be on edge to fulfill your objectives. And for that to happen, change becomes inevitable. 

If you are looking to change your ESP portal, you have to evolve at the same time. Changing ESP email providers involves moving an organization’s email marketing infrastructure to a new provider. The importance of ESP migration grows in today’s “pressure cooker” market, where organizations must adapt quickly to survive. 

Maybe, it’s about time to make your ESP your USP. When you are sure to hit your bottom line in such a volatile economy, you also need to rethink your profitability. The success of an email marketing campaign is highly sensitive to the caliber of the ESP you are using.

Wait, is your current ESP not fulfilling all your requirements or taking a toll on your budget? Maybe it’s time to migrate to one apt for your specific needs. 

However, during the transition, there should be as little impact on customers, operations, and the deliverability of email marketing as possible. Agreed? Let’s dive right in to learn how we can make this migration smooth and swift. 

10 Steps Recommended by Experts to Do ESP Migration Right 

There are ten steps to keep in mind if you wish to successfully migrate to a new ESP in today’s fast-paced industry. Let’s adhere to these guidelines by experts to ensure a seamless ESP migration. 

1. Defining Migration Objectives 

Successful ESP migration requires your business to recognize the challenges that might be currently plaguing your operations and realign migration objectives accordingly. If you are experiencing financial challenges, prioritize your migration plan to save money and increase productivity. List down your marketing objectives. 

Features that help automate procedures and save time should be prioritized if your company has limited resources. The way your company prioritizes features that provide insights into customer behavior and preferences if it is facing market uncertainty tells you a lot about its core strengths. 

You can consult an expert for their ESP migration services. It will open doors for you to prioritize your short-term and long-term objectives. Focusing on what’s most important increases your chances of succeeding in your email marketing efforts.

2. Conducting a Cost-Benefit Analysis 

By analyzing pricing plans and potential cost savings, you can make well-informed decisions consistent with your economic considerations. 

It would be best to consider how more features will affect your ROI. Some capabilities may have an additional fee, but the potential return on investment (ROI) in the form of enhanced email marketing performance and revenue growth is substantial. 

A/B testing, enhanced segmentation, and automation must be a part of your plans if you aim to make your email marketing campaigns more cost-effective. 

3. Prioritize Essential Features 

You need your new ESP to rapidly and effectively meet your needs since time is paramount. Focusing on what matters most to achieve your business goals can be made easier with careful prioritization. 

First, list down all the features that your business requires.

Your email marketing software will help you determine the most crucial elements. Find out what functions meet your needs and fall short. Prioritize the most essential features of the new ESP, such as automation solutions that reduce human labor and increase efficiency. 

4. Streamlining the Migration Process 

Switching over to a new ESP for email marketing needs a lot of patience. That’s because a cluster of processes effectively analyzes and streamlines the data. But eventually, automating data import, template creation, and campaign setup will help you save time and boost productivity. 

In today’s fast-paced market, you must find ways to streamline operations and save time to successfully implement the migration process, keeping it error-free. Getting help from ESP marketing services is a fair thing to do if you are not accustomed to the technicalities of ESP migration. Take the help of an expert. 

Also, you can improve the efficiency of your campaigns by making tweaks to your email designs and segmentation methods. During the transition to the ESP, you should cause as little disruption as possible while getting as much done as possible. To achieve this goal, teaching and supporting users, communicating with stakeholders, and conducting migrations during off-hours are necessary.  

5. Setting Realistic Timelines 

When moving email marketing operations to a new ESP, planning for testing and troubleshooting is essential. The potential for mistakes and downtime that could harm the efficacy of your email marketing would be reduced by establishing such a wireframe.

Downtime can be reduced by planning migration efforts for off-hours, keeping all parties informed, and assisting users with questions or concerns. 

Realistic deadlines can only be set if speed and thoroughness are both considered. While it’s understandable to want to get the migration over with as soon as possible, taking your time and ensuring everything goes smoothly is more important.

6. Effective Stakeholder Communication 

For a successful transfer, you need your marketing teams, IT department, and upper management to work together and communicate clearly. The success of any relocation effort is dictated by clear and consistent communication. 

You must explain to all the relevant stakeholders why you’re migrating and what you want to gain from it. Like, better deliverability, higher engagement, and cost savings. This is crucial so everyone can be on the same page and make preparations. 

Maintaining stakeholder alignment on migration goals and timetables requires meeting regularly to discuss progress, recognizing and addressing concerns swiftly, and so on. 

7. Managing Risks Effectively

The key to successfully managing risks and obstacles during an ESP migration is identifying them before they occur. You need to weigh the potential consequences against the possibility of these threats materializing. 

Each potential risk should have a contingency plan drafted explaining the activities that will be taken to mitigate the risk and keep the migration on track. 

For effective problem-solving throughout an ESP migration, it is also essential to set up channels for escalation. Creating a help desk, building up reliable lines of communication, and identifying who is responsible for fixing what are all absolutely vital. It will help in resolving issues quickly and effectively. 

8. Optimizing Deliverability 

Email marketing strategies must be optimized to succeed in today’s fast-paced industry. To accomplish this, you must ensure your emails reach your intended inboxes. Increase your chances of your prospects receiving your emails by watching your sender’s reputation, avoiding common spam traps, and keeping your subscriber list in good shape. 

Make the most of your new ESP’s powerful deliverability features and tools. Among these features are spam filters, reputation management systems, and email authentication protocols. If you really want to boost your email deliverability and reputation, invest in dedicated IPs.

Improving deliverability requires using authentication mechanisms like SPF, DKIM, and DMARC. These protocols check the origin of emails to prevent spoofing and impersonation. 

9. Monitoring and Analyzing Performance

To guarantee the success of your email marketing efforts, you must monitor crucial metrics and performance indicators. The number of opens, the number of clicks, the number of conversions, and the amount of money made are all examples of valuable metrics. By keeping tabs on these variables, as marketers, you can better understand your target demographics and craft more effective advertisements that resonate with your target audiences. 

Data analytics solutions can help you evaluate the efficacy of your marketing strategies and pinpoint problem areas. Checking open and click-through rates can help you learn more about your readers and improve your email marketing strategies. It is thus essential to have all these features in your new ESP.

10. Continuous Improvement of Strategies 

Knowledge of current developments in your field can lead to discovering previously unrecognized avenues for advancement. To do this, you can go to conferences, read trade journals, and talk to other experts in the field of email marketing. 

To maximize the efficacy of your email marketing efforts, keeping tabs on the latest tools and features offered by your ESP is essential. 

Key metrics and performance indicators should be analyzed so that you can spot problem areas and make necessary adjustments to your approach. As a part of this process, you must test several variations on your email’s layout, headlines, and body copy to understand what clicks best with your target audience. 

Key Takeaways 

We hope the insights shared above will make your ESP migration process as smooth as possible. Have any more migration tips up your sleeve? Do let us know; we’re all ears!

The post ESP Migration in a High-Pressure Economy: The Why and How Of It appeared first on Email Uplers.