ESP Migration: How to Make the Process Smooth

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Follow this ESP migration checklist for a smooth move

ESP migrations admittedly involve many moving parts–but following these important steps can make your migration process as smooth and headache-free as possible.

1. Prioritize projects before the migration

You may not have the luxury of quickly moving everything from one ESP to another between sends, so you need to work in batches. Set some priorities (and add them to your email audit document) on what you need to migrate throughout a specific timeline.

Consider the need to keep automation and email nurturing running and avoid customers or subscribers from getting duplicate emails or getting totally left out and not receiving anything.

The prioritization and planning phase is also a great time to consider how you’ll measure your ESP migration ROI. 

2. Create an email audit document

Organization, planning, and communication will give you a vastly better migration experience than ad-libbing. Use an email audit document (you can copy ours here) to list out details and migration priorities for your:

• Segments
• Lists
• Email programs
• Emails

3. Make the most of your blank slate

Migrating to a new ESP gives you a blank slate. You can remedy all (or at least most of) of those organizational annoyances you had in your previous ESP!

Take some time to think about how you want to organize and set up your new ESP. This will be highly dependent on the ESP you’re migrating to, but consider elements like:

• Naming convention. A good naming convention can make it easier and faster to find what you’re looking for in your new ESP. This includes naming conventions for emails, templates, programs, campaigns, and even email lists.
• Folder structure. How do you want to organize your new ESP? If your new ESP allows for a folder structure—use it. Options include creating folders for specific campaigns or years, with sub-folders for months. Just be careful that you don’t create a never-ending folder tree,
• Automations. If you need to clean up segmentation or delete outdated steps in an automation, now is your chance to do it. With everything else on your team’s plate during an ESP migration it isn’t the time to overhaul your automation strategy, but you can at least prioritize and organize your email flows. 

4. Set realistic deadlines aligned to priorities

The timeline for your ESP migration depends on many variables, from the complexity of your email program to the differences between your old and new tool and how many people are involved. You can use three months as a starting point for an expected timeline and then adjust as needed. Don’t forget to share deadlines with your migration team to ensure structure and feel like you’re progressing.

“Brands want it done quickly and often set unrealistic expectations internally on how quickly it can be done. They also overlook just how much time it takes to coordinate everything if they are doing it themselves.” – Andrew Kordek, former Chief Strategist & Co-founder at Trendline Interactive

5. Leverage available tools

Your tech stack can come in very handy during a migration. Are there tools you already use that could be helpful? We leveraged Litmus’s ESP integration to migrate our email templates from Litmus to our new ESP with the click of a button. This automation saved the email team hours of copying and pasting email code.

6. Use your ESP’s customer support team

When thinking of “resources” to help you migrate easily, you often think of internal resources, like the people on your team and the tools you use. 

But consider the support team at your new ESP a valuable resource in this process, too. They have the expertise to help you as you start out in your new ESP. 

You’re going to have an abundance of questions—they can help answer them for you. Before you start migrating, get in touch with the support team and ask if they have any tips or documentation on migration best practices.

7. Create an IP warming plan

To make sure you can get up and running in your new ESP quickly and start sending emails as soon as possible, you need to warm your new IP address. (Hint: This is only applicable if you are on a dedicated IP address.)

Here’s a quick guide to whether you should implement an email warmup plan:

8. Test as you go

It’s easy to get sucked into creating new programs, lists, rules, segments, and email templates in a new ESP… and forget to test each as you go. 

Your new ESP may behave differently than your previous one, so it’s important to test everything you create in your new ESP as you go. Does that new automation work as you expected? The email template you just uploaded—does this new ESP change your code in any unexpected way? 

You’ll save yourself a lot of time (and heartache!) if you iteratively test as you create in your new ESP.

Create your very own Auto Publish News/Blog Site and Earn Passive Income in Just 4 Easy Steps