{"id":3797,"date":"2020-02-21T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-02-21T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/blog\/5-productivity-killers-for-email-teams-webinar-recording-qa\/"},"modified":"2023-07-11T17:16:31","modified_gmt":"2023-07-11T21:16:31","slug":"5-productivity-killers-for-email-teams-webinar-recording-qa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/blog\/5-productivity-killers-for-email-teams-webinar-recording-qa","title":{"rendered":"5 Productivity Killers for Email Teams: Webinar Recording + Q&A"},"content":{"rendered":"

When productivity is high, your team is in sync, and you\u2019re meeting deadlines with ease, getting campaigns out the door can be\u2014dare I say it?\u2014fun. But such a well-oiled machine is a rare occurrence.<\/span><\/p>\n

Why are most email teams less productive than they\u2019d like to be? We teamed up with the productivity experts from Trello to look at the biggest mistakes that kill team productivity and share what you can do to help your team create better emails, faster.<\/span><\/p>\n

Didn\u2019t have a chance to watch the webinar live? Don\u2019t worry. You can <\/span>access the full recording<\/span><\/a>  and at any time read the Q&A below.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Q&A<\/span><\/h2>\n

A big thank you to everyone who chimed in during the webinar with a question! Here\u2019s a recap of our answers to the most popular questions, along with our take on some of the questions we didn\u2019t get to during the live webinar. Have any additional questions? Please leave them in the comments.<\/span><\/p>\n

How do Litmus and Trello handle approvals?<\/h3>\n

Jason Rodriguez<\/strong>: More and more, we are relying on centralized tools to collect approvals. For us, we use <\/span>Litmus Proof<\/span><\/a> for campaign feedback and signoff before sending, and Asana for project management, where team members check off approvals as tasks that are assigned early on in the project by the project owner.<\/span><\/p>\n

The key here is to use agreed-upon methods to collect approvals instead of ad-hoc methods. We\u2019ve talked to far too many teams that use email threads, verbal feedback, and other unreliable channels to try to wrangle approvals from different people and departments, which is almost always a huge productivity killer. We had similar pains, which is why we built Litmus Proof in the first place.<\/span><\/p>\n

Chris Kaundart<\/strong>: At Trello, we handle our review and approval on Trello cards. We have a well-defined process with consistent deadlines throughout that (generally) keep us on track. We also all designed and built our process together, so every stakeholder is on the same page.<\/span><\/p>\n

How can you avoid last-minute edits to an email after it\u2019s already been approved?<\/h3>\n

Chris<\/strong>: This is a difficult problem to solve. So difficult, you\u2019ll never <\/span>truly<\/span><\/em> escape last-minute edits. With that said, I think there are some straight-forward approaches you can take to make it a bit smoother.<\/span><\/p>\n

First, I recommend trying to drive a mindset change about the email process. I\u2019ve had success trying to structure our process as a collaborative experience, rather than just taking requests and fulfilling them (like an internal agency). When I get a stakeholder more involved in the process, everything goes significantly smoother. The biggest opportunity for collaboration is upfront when defining and scoping a campaign.<\/span><\/p>\n

Second, adding some padding to your timelines can go a long way. Pushing and structuring the process to give some breathing room between final approval and deployment can help. For example, if you absolutely need approval by 4pm, try setting the deadline to 2pm and see if that helps.<\/span><\/p>\n

How can you make sure you\u2019re getting thorough and accurate requirements from your team up front rather than hunting it down?<\/h3>\n

Jason<\/strong>: Formalizing your requirements and collection process is a great way to avoid hunting them down later. Setting up a form in something like Google Forms to collect information, <\/span>using an email brief<\/span><\/a>, or creating default card templates in Trello are all good ways to formalize that process. The key is to use the same tool for <\/span>every single campaign<\/span><\/em> and make sure it collects all of the information you need, from goals and audience to design and copy assets, KPIs, stakeholders, and more.<\/span><\/p>\n

Chris<\/strong>: Structure is your friend here! Build a consistent and repeatable request process to help gather requirements at the start. At Trello, we use a Google Form that\u2019s connected to a Trello board via Zapier. Requesters have to fill out each question in the form in order to make the request. This leads to less time hunting down information and more time shipping campaigns.<\/span><\/p>\n

How can you get your management team on board to commit to an email process?<\/h3>\n

Chris<\/strong>: While every manager and management team is different, I generally find leadership to be very receptive to a good data-driven narrative. If you can start to illustrate the real costs and downsides to a lack of an email process, you may be able to sway their thinking.<\/span><\/p>\n

The slides for this webinar (in addition to Litmus\u2019 <\/span>State of Email Report<\/span><\/a>) should help get you going to illustrate that the lack of a process is costing your company.<\/span><\/p>\n

What\u2019s the best way to parse down the list of email previews we review? How can we know which email clients are most popular with our subscribers?<\/h3>\n

Jason<\/strong>: The best way is to use a tool like <\/span>Litmus Email Analytics<\/span><\/a> (or something provided by your ESP) to see which email clients and rendering engines your subscribers actually use. We allow you to see how many subscribers open on web, desktop, and mobile\u2014including which actual clients they\u2019re using\u2014to make sure you\u2019re not wasting time testing in email clients you don\u2019t even send to. If you\u2019re not a Litmus customer, you can get a good idea of the most popular email clients by visiting <\/span>emailclientmarketshare.com<\/span><\/a>. Every month, we aggregate anonymous data from our analytics platform and rank the top ten email clients worldwide.<\/span><\/p>\n

Chris<\/strong>: Building on what Jason said, this is a great place to <\/span>apply the Pareto Principle<\/span><\/a>. The idea is 20% of your effort will generate 80% of your results. Use the analytic tools available to you to figure out how your subscribers are opening your email. Make sure your emails look great in those top clients. It\u2019s OK if it\u2019s not pixel-perfect in an email client that\u2019s not being heavily used by your subscribers.<\/span><\/p>\n

How should we approach email-related meetings so they aren\u2019t a productivity time suck?<\/h3>\n

Jason<\/strong>: Like with all meetings, you should follow a few guidelines:<\/span><\/p>\n