Identify Underperforming Emails Quickly

You think automation is saving you time.... .... But it might be silently killing your email performance. Here’s why: Most email flows (welcome, abandoned cart, post-purchase) are built once and left untouched for months or years. And that’s a problem. Because your audience, product, and market conditions are constantly changing. What worked six months ago might be tanking your engagement today. • Your welcome series might be promoting a best-seller that’s now out of stock. • Your post purchase flow might be sending review requests too soon, before customers have fully used the product. • Your abandoned cart emails might be offering a discount, when most customers were already willing to buy full price. Solution? Set a 30 day calendar to review and optimize key flows. Look at: • Click rates (Is the CTA still relevant?) • Unsubscribes (Is the timing too aggressive?) • Conversion rates (Is the offer still compelling?) • Revenue Per Subscriber (How is it trending?) • Open rates (Is the first email still grabbing attention?) Automation is powerful. But “set and forget” is just lazy marketing.

Sending 2,000,000 cold emails per month has helped me build an intuition for exactly how to diagnose cold email performance issues. Today, I'll share it with you. The problem isn't that campaigns fail. The problem is that people can't tell which part is broken. They see low results and start changing everything at once. Wrong move. Here's the diagnostic framework I use to pinpoint issues instantly: Scenario 1: High reply rate (2%+) but replies are mostly "not interested" You have an offer problem. People are opening and responding, but your value proposition isn't compelling enough to generate interest. Your deliverability is fine, your copy is getting attention, but what you're selling isn't resonating. Scenario 2: Low reply rate (under 1%) with few positive responses You have a deliverability problem. Your emails aren't reaching inboxes. Even if your offer is great, nobody can respond to emails they never see. Run some inbox placement tests. Scenario 3: Good reply rate (2%+) and positive responses, but minimal closed deals You have a volume problem. Your campaign is working, but you're not reaching enough people. Scale up your outreach or you'll keep getting trickles of leads instead of consistent pipeline. Scenario 4: Good metrics across the board, but declining performance over time You have copy fatigue. Your emails worked initially but prospects are seeing the same message too often. Rotate your copy and add more spintax variations. The fix depends entirely on accurate diagnosis. Guessing what's wrong with your campaigns is a great way to make zero improvements. Use this framework to identify the real issue, then solve that specific problem.

Here's why bounce codes can be your secret email weapon: Most businesses: ✖️ See bounces as a problem to minimize ✖️ Ignore the valuable data in bounce codes ✖️ Miss critical insights about their sending reputation Smart businesses analyze bounce codes to: Identify domain reputation issues Spot sending issues quickly Fix list building problems before they tank performance Bounce codes help detect content red flags: Know when copy is too aggressive Understand what triggers spam filters Fix authentication issues fast Monitor IP health: Track shared IP abuse Identify throttling problems Optimize send volumes Real example: A client with 400k contacts was seeing a 5-6% bounce rate on major sends. Analysis showed throttling issues from sending too much, too fast. Simple fix: Spacing out sends. Result: Immediate deliverability boost. Want to improve your email performance? Start treating bounce codes as intelligence, not just errors to avoid. How often do you check your bounce codes?

Our "Campaign Autopsy" frame we work when outbound results flatline (Use this exact method) Every agency claims they can fix struggling campaigns. Few actually have a systematic process for diagnosing what's broken. After managing 1,000+ campaigns, we've developed a data-driven method for quickly identifying why an outbound campaign isn't performing: ↳ Step 1: Metrics Isolation We separate the campaign into distinct phases: • Deliverability (inbox placement) • Engagement (replies, both negative and positive) • Conversions (meetings booked) Each phase reveals different potential problems. ↳ Step 2: Comparison benchmarking We analyze performance against: • Industry averages • Our historical data • A/B test variations This immediately highlights anomalies. ↳Step 3: Root cause analysis For each underperforming metric, we investigate: • Technical factors (sending infrastructure, authentication, ESPs, etc) • Targeting accuracy (list quality, ICP alignment) • Message relevance (pain points, personalization) • Offer clarity (value proposition, lead magnet, CTA structure) This process has helped us revive campaigns, with some achieving 300%+ performance improvements. When a campaign isn't working, guessing isn't an option. Systematic diagnosis is the only path to reliable improvement. What diagnostic process do you use when campaigns underperform?