Monthly Email Marketing Routine: A 2-Hour B2B Checklist

#01What is the cadence?

#02What is in the weekly check?

1. Postmaster Tools: spam rate for each sending domain (under 0.1%, never reaching 0.3%) and compliance status.
2. ESP: bounce rate per send, any blocks or deferrals by provider.
3. Flows: errors, paused flows, unusual entry counts.
4. Replies inbox: unsubscribe requests sent by reply, complaints.

If anything is red, act that week rather than waiting for the monthly review (lesson 6).

#03What is in the monthly review?

1. Sender health (20 minutes)

2. List health (15 minutes)

3. Flows (20 minutes)

Look at one flow in depth each month on a rotation.

4. Newsletters and campaigns (20 minutes)

• Unique click rate by send and by segment.
• Replies and forwards.
• Unsubscribe and complaint rate by send.
• Top-clicked content and topics; feed into next month's plan.
• Web archive performance and AI Assistant sessions (lesson 19).

5. Tests (10 minutes)

• Tests completed, results and decisions in the test log (lesson 14).
• Next month's tests with hypotheses and sample sizes.

6. Business results (20 minutes)

7. Actions (15 minutes)

Write a summary with:

• Three wins.
• Three issues.
• Three to five actions with an owner and date.

#04What goes in the quarterly review?

#05How do you build the scorecard?

Use one page, built in Looker Studio or a sheet:

Postmaster Tools has an API, so health data can feed the scorecard automatically; the Looker Studio executive reporting lesson covers layout.

#06Worked example: Ledgerline

Ledgerline is a fictional accounts-payable software company. Figures are illustrative, not benchmarks.

Ledgerline has completed the track: authentication done, outbound moved off the main domain, flows rebuilt, newsletter archive published. The risk now is drift.

Walkthrough

1. Weekly check on Monday mornings: Postmaster Tools, bounces, flows; 15 minutes.
2. Monthly review second Tuesday: lifecycle manager, marketing ops, RevOps.
3. Scorecard in Looker Studio with Postmaster Tools, ESP exports and GA4.
4. October review findings (illustrative): spam rate stable below 0.1%; active share up; onboarding flow activation ahead of holdout; one product-update email had a high unsubscribe rate.
5. Actions: reduce product-update frequency for Tier C; test a new welcome offer; fix two UTM values producing Unassigned sessions; rotate DKIM key next quarter.
6. Quarterly review in January: DMARC move from quarantine to reject planned.

#07Common mistakes

• Only reviewing when something breaks.
• No weekly spam-rate check.
• Reviews without written actions.
• Different numbers in every report.
• Never revisiting authentication after setup.

#08Try it yourself

Book the weekly check and the monthly review in your calendar. Build the scorecard skeleton with the sections above, even if some cells are empty. Run the first review and write three actions with owners.

#09Quick quiz

1. What belongs in the weekly check? Answer: Spam rate, compliance status, bounces and flow errors.

2. What spam rate should you stay below? Answer: 0.1%, and never reach 0.3%.

3. What should every monthly review produce? Answer: A written summary with three to five owned, dated actions.

4. What belongs in the quarterly review? Answer: Authentication, sender requirements, compliance, ESP and strategy.

#10What should you check before you finish the track?

• Weekly and monthly reviews scheduled.
• Scorecard built.
• Test log and suppression list shared.
• First quarterly review date set.

Previous: Newsletters as citable content for AI search

Or return to the Email Marketing for Marketers track.

Related: Postmaster Tools v2 and deliverability monitoring · Email metrics after Apple MPP · Meta Ads monthly review routine

#11Common questions

How long should a monthly email review take? About two hours for a small B2B team once the dashboards exist, plus time to act on the findings. The first month takes longer while you build the scorecard.

What should be checked weekly rather than monthly? Gmail Postmaster Tools spam rate and compliance status, bounce spikes, and any flow errors. Problems there can damage reputation within days.

Who should attend the monthly email review? The email or lifecycle owner, someone from marketing ops or the ESP admin, and a sales or RevOps representative for pipeline. Content and product join when their programs are discussed.

What should come out of the review? A short written summary with three to five actions, each with an owner and date, plus updates to the test log and suppression or sunset lists.