Email Migration Checklist

To ensure a smooth transition after migrating your email to Yotpo, it's crucial to review every aspect of your setup. This checklist will guide you through key steps such as verifying email templates and checking subscriber data, helping you prevent any post-migration issues. Being thorough now will save you time. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to reach out to our Support team!

The checklist items are grouped into the following categories:

• Checking your email templates

• Checking your flows

• Checking your subscribers

• Checking your subscriber collection tools

• Checking your integrations

• Deliverability best practices

• Other tips for success

Checking your email templates

• Check the links within your email body to ensure they are correct:

  • Did you check your image hyperlinks?

  • Are there links using the UTMs of a previous Email Service Provider (ESP) or are they updated?

  • Is every button or image that should have a link actually linked?

• Check your discounts to be sure you have re-added them where needed:

  • For example, does a template refer to a 15% discount? Be sure to create the actual discount in the campaign or flow settings, then apply the relevant discount personalization tags, like Discount URL or Discount code, so that your subscribers can use it.

• Check your dynamic content and personalization tags to ensure they are updated:

  • Every ESP has different personalization tags. If you copied over tags from your previous ESP, replace them with the relevant Yotpo tags.

  • Every personalization tag in Yotpo should appear as a gray bubble when entered correctly. If you see a personalization tag with brackets, then it needs to be replaced with a personalization tag in the Yotpo system.

  Please note:

  If you are designing an email template for a flow trigger, some of the personalization tags that are specific to that trigger may not be available. You can only add these personalization tags once the template is applied to a message in the flow. To learn more about personalization tags, see Adding Dynamic Content with Personazalization Tags.

  • Be sure that you haven’t copied over any static content that should be a personalization tag. For example, a discount code written statically as “ABC123” needs to be updated with a discount personalization tag.

• Check your email templates to make sure that everything you’ve copied over is supported, or replaced with the identical Yotpo functionality:

  • For instance, if you had a dynamic content block in your previous ESP shown to a certain audience based on a tag, you should use the same conditional logic to re-create that personalization in our tool. To learn more about conditional content, see Adding Conditional Content to Emails in Yotpo Email.

  • Or, if you had a product feed in another ESP, replace it with our AI Recommendations, and re-build your feed logic using our “Saved Filters”. For more details, see Adding Product Recommendations to Your Email.

  • If you're unsure whether something is supported, please contact our Support team

• Preview your email on mobile vs. desktop to ensure you like the look and feel in both scenarios. If you need help adjusting your mobile template, see Designing Mobile-Friendly Emails.

  • Did you check your menus?

  • Did you check your footers?

Checking your flows

• Check your flow-specific personalization tags:

  • If you created a template in the email template builder, you’ll need to add the relevant flow personalization tags once you open the flow builder and select a trigger

    Tip:

    You can use our customizable templates, which have all recommended personalization tags already built in.

  • However, if you have moved over a template for a flow, follow the same steps above as in Checking your email template to ensure that you are not missing key elements:

    • Are your links properly updated for the relevant flow trigger? If it’s an “Abandoned checkout” flow, does your button link customers to their abandoned checkout (i.e. the Abandoned checkout URL tag)? You can find these options suggested in the button URL section per flow.

    • Do you need to apply those links to any hyperlinked images, etc.?

    • Are there any UTMs or old links from a previous provider that no longer apply?

• Check your discounts:

  • Be sure that you have created any discounts mentioned in your flow in the relevant flow template and apply the necessary discount personalization tags (Discount URL, Discount code, etc.) to the email.

• Check your dynamic content:

  • Ensure that you have added the relevant dynamic block to the flow template

  • Did you check that the product block in your “Abandoned checkout”, for example, is an Event Dynamic Block, rather than a static product block? This allows the product block to update based on the specific trigger. In this case, it will reflect the products left at checkout; or the items that have returned to stock in a “Back in Stock” flow.

• Check for duplicate flows:

  • Prevent duplicative experiences by turning automated messages off in your previous provider before turning them on with Yotpo

  • Double-check that every flow you intend to have live is turned on and that nothing was accidentally left in draft mode

Checking your subscribers

• Importing subscribers:

  • When adding your subscribers to Yotpo Email, make sure you only include people who have explicitly opted in to receive your emails and leave out anyone who has unsubscribed or is marked as suppressed. Yotpo pre-gathers subscriber information from Shopify but some ESPs don’t update this data for customer profiles, meaning you may need to add some data to make your lists 1:1

    • Ensure you have both columns: Email Marketing Consent & SMS Marketing Consent in the .csv file. Even if you’re only migrating for Email, we want to ensure that we have accurate marketing consent statuses. To learn more, see Importing Customers to Yotpo SMS & Email.

Checking your subscriber collection tools

• Did you turn off your previous providers’ on-site subscriber tools before turning them on here to prevent duplicate experiences?

• Did you activate all your key tools such as Checkout Opt-in?

• For any subscriber collection tools you set up with Yotpo, did you check the behavioral settings to ensure that the logic matches what you had set up in the past? For instance, any delays/URL-specific triggering, etc.?

Checking your integrations

• Activating key integrations: Ensure your key integrations are activated with Yotpo so that you do not have any gaps in the migration process

  • In your Yotpo SMS & Email, go to the Integrations, find the integrations you are looking for, and ensure they’re properly set up.

  • Questions or not seeing an integration? Reach out to our Support team.

Deliverability best practices

• Complying with Google and Yahoo changes: Do you send over 5,000 emails per day? You need to comply with Google and Yahoo’s sender requirements which include:

  • Authenticating your sending domain:

    • A dedicated and authenticated sending domain provides a layer of security and credibility to the emails that you send to your customers. Inbox service providers (ISPs) distrust messages that haven't set up domain authentication as they cannot be sure they are coming from you. Confirming you are the source of the messages increases your reputation and makes it less likely that the provider will filter your email. To learn more, see Adding and Authenticating a Sending Domain.

  • Setting up a DMARC record:

    • After you’ve authenticated your domain, you must set up an additional authentication protocol called a DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance) record. Establishing a DMARC record proactively safeguards your brand and audience against phishing and spoofing threats.

  • Warming up your new domain infrastructure:

    • After you add a new and authenticated sending domain, it’s necessary to warm up the infrastructure. The warm-up requires sending fewer emails to highly engaged audiences right after adding the new subdomain, gradually increasing the volume, and relaxing the engagement constraints over a period of time.

      For more information, see Warming Your New Domain Infrastructure.

  • Allowing one-click unsubscribes:

    • Yotpo has implemented a “list unsubscribe header” that will appear at the top of all emails from February 1, 2024, allowing a one-click unsubscribe experience. However, you must always provide a prominent and easy-to-find unsubscribe link in your emails to make it easy to opt out and prevent customers from marking your emails as spam out of frustration. All Yotpo Email templates include the Unsubscribe personalization tag in the footer by default.

  • Staying below a spam-rate threshold:

    • A spam-rate threshold is the maximum percentage of messages considered spam before action is taken, such as warnings or account suspension. It helps ISPs control spam and maintain quality. The threshold is not fixed and can vary by provider, with many email services commonly setting it around 0.1%. To learn how to keep your deliverability metrics in good health, including your spam rate, see Improving the Health of Your Deliverability Metrics.

Other tips for success

• Did you install the web pixel? This allows you to track the actions customers take on your site, such as viewing products or adding items to their cart, giving you the most comprehensive engagement data.

• Did you set up your brand kit? This pre-sets your preferred colors, fonts, and styles for faster, more on-brand creation of subscriber collection tools, emails, and more. For further details, see Setting up Your Yotpo Brand Kit.