Moving to a New Email Provider? ESP Migration Doesn’t Need to Be Daunting

Moving to a New Email Provider? ESP Migration Doesn't Need to Be Daunting

Take these eight steps to success today and in the future

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Moving your entire email marketing ecosystem can feel daunting. How do you safely uproot years of campaigns, data, and workflows? Well, what if we told you it doesn't have to be overwhelming. Think of an email service provider (ESP) migration like moving to a new house. With the right planning, a strong team, and a clear process, you can make the transition a success and set yourself up for an even better future in your new home.

Here are eight steps to take to make your migration smooth, thorough, and pain-free.

Step 1: Establish your moving team

The first step in any successful move is assembling the right people. Your migration team should be cross-functional and include key players from various departments, including:

• Business/Marketing (Brand): Defines and aligns content requirements with business goals and marketing plans.
• Marketing operations: Oversees current campaigns and workflows, with strong knowledge of key dependencies critical to ensuring a smooth transition.
• Data: Identifies and manages the data required for each campaign to be migrated.
• Technology: Handles the technical backend of the migration.

Once the team is in place, it's critical to define everyone's responsibilities and identify key decision-makers for final approvals. Clear communication channels, like routine meetings and a dedicated Slack channel, are essential to keep everyone aligned and prevent any heavy boxes (or campaigns!) from being dropped.

Additionally, demonstrated and unwavering support from the project sponsor helps set the tone and get commitment across all stakeholders, providing a strong foundation for project success.

Step 2: Define the criteria for what stays and what goes

Sifting through years of campaign content can be overwhelming, but it's also a golden opportunity to declutter. Set clear criteria for what you're migrating. Focus on:

• Strategic priorities: What campaigns are essential to the business goals?
• Reach: Which campaigns are reaching the most people?
• Business impact: Which campaigns are driving the most value? Which are business critical?

Begin by understanding your business requirements and goals, as well as any limitations of the new platform. This will help you identify the "universe" of campaigns that need to be moved. Don't forget to "look under the couch" for any forgotten or archived campaigns! By the end of this step, you should have a detailed inventory of what needs to be packed and what can be left behind.

Step 3: Conduct the initial inventory

Just like you would sort through your possessions before a move, you need to conduct a thorough inventory of all your campaigns.

• Define the universe of campaigns that may need to be moved.
• Identify campaign owners
• Use migration criteria defined in the previous step to determine what data points to pull with each campaign.
• Have a plan to capture new campaigns that will be released after the initial review process but before migration is complete.

By taking the time to conduct a comprehensive inventory, you'll be able to see exactly what you're working with and make informed decisions about your migration.

Step 4: Prioritize your moving plan

Now that you've completed your inventory, it's time to prioritize the order of what you're moving. Not all campaigns are created equal, and some will be easier to migrate than others. The key is to make a smart plan that minimizes disruption and maximizes impact. You should:

• Prioritize programs that are active, with significant reach and have simple content.
• Evaluate the differences in ESP functionality and save for later programs that would require significant restructuring or tech debt due to those differences.
• Consider complex dependencies such as real-time triggers, multi-item personalized lists, and dynamic forms.
• Identify business critical programs, and hold them until you have successfully stood up and pressure-tested the new platform.
• Have a plan to capture new campaigns that will be released after the initial review process but before migration is complete.

By prioritizing your campaigns, you can tackle the most critical and straightforward items first, building momentum and confidence for more complex projects down the line.

Step 5: Document content to be moved

Documentation is your best friend during a migration. The more detailed your records, the smoother the move will be. For each campaign you're migrating, you should:

• Identify entry, exit, and suppression criteria.
• Capture the decisioning flow.
• Identify all dependencies.
• Document assets and links.
• Capture creative and copy if emails have to be rebuilt.
• Keep track of what's been documented using a comprehensive tracker.

This meticulous documentation will serve as a blueprint for rebuilding your campaigns in the new platform, ensuring nothing gets lost in the shuffle.

Step 6: Change your address (the importance of IP warming)

When you move, you file a change of address to ensure your mail gets delivered. In the world of email marketing, IP warming could be considered a functional equivalent. This critical step protects your sender reputation and ensures your emails land in subscribers' inboxes rather than the spam folder.

IP warming involves gradually increasing your email send volume on a new IP address to build trust with internet service providers (ISPs). The process typically takes 6-8 weeks depending on your send volume and subscriber base. Here's how to get it right:

• Bring in a delivery consultant: Leverage their expertise to create a solid transition plan to protect your sender reputation and maximize deliverability.
• Assess your send volume: Determine if you need a dedicated private IP address or can work from a shared address.
• Segment your subscriber list based on engagement: Warm your list by sending to the most engaged subscribers first.
• Choose the right content: Select content that isn't time-sensitive, has a large send volume, and a history of solid engagement.
• Test rigorously: Always conduct thorough QA testing and pre-release checks, especially with a product like Marketing Cloud Next.

Step 7: Organize your new space

A successful move isn't just about getting everything into the new house-it's about organizing it in a way that works better than before. A well-thought-out Content Management System (CMS) facilitates better organization in the long run. This is your chance to simplify complex systems and reassess existing naming and folder conventions. In fact, a shift to Marketing Cloud Next may well require it as only 5 levels of hierarchy are permitted and file names are limited to 80 characters.

Take these steps to design your new CMS:

• Review and update naming conventions: Make sure they align with your new structure.
• Determine where creative assets will live: If they will be shared across multiple digital platforms they will need to be easily accessible for all users
• Define a folder structure: Plan a logical hierarchy that meets both current and future needs. An folder hierarchy might look like this:

Workspace (Parent) -> Team -> Category -> Campaign -> Country -> Assets

• Whiteboard the layout before you build it: Try out different configurations to see what works best to you. Since Marketing Cloud Next doesn't allow you to delete a Workspace you need to have a final layout designed before you implement it.

By mapping out your content and folder hierarchy ahead of time, you'll avoid the headache of trying to find things in a cluttered system later on.

Step 8: Get moving!

Once you've completed all the preparation-aligning your team, cleaning out old content, warming your IP, and organizing your new digital space - you're ready for the actual migration.

The "Big Move" might seem daunting, but it's also an incredible opportunity to streamline your marketing operations, improve efficiency, and set yourself up for long-term success. By following these steps, you can avoid the common pitfalls and look forward to that "Welcome Home!" feeling in your new marketing cloud.

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As a Digital Experience Advisor for Salesforce Professional Services, I specialize in Marketing Cloud and marketing strategy. My background includes experience as a brand and customer marketer at Fortune 100 companies, where I developed integrated marketing programs to foster brand affinity through...Read More various channels such as multimedia campaigns, corporate sponsorships, events, and promotions. I currently hold 8 Salesforce certifications and have achieved the ranks of Agentblazer Legend and Triple Star Ranger.