Before You Hit “Send” in 2026

Why your first move should be a flow audit, not a new campaign

January creates momentum.

Calendars fill up.

Campaigns get queued.

New ideas move fast.

And many brands jump straight into execution without stopping to ask a simple question: Did last year’s flows actually perform the way we think they did?

Before you add more emails, more discounts, or more complexity, there is a higher-leverage move:

Audit what is already live.

------------------------------------

Flows do not usually break. They drift.

Most lifecycle programs do not fail in obvious ways.

They age quietly.

Links become slightly inefficient.

Conditions stop reflecting real behavior.

Discounts work, but not as precisely as they could.

Old branches sit untouched while new ones get layered on.

A flow audit is not about rebuilding everything. It is about small improvements that compound over time.

What a real flow audit uncovers

In a recent review across abandoned cart, browse, post-purchase, welcome, and win-back flows, the goal was not to find problems.

It was to find missed leverage.

A few examples:

Shorter paths to purchase

Replacing generic cart links with dynamic checkout URLs reduced friction at the exact moment intent was highest.

No redesign.

Just a cleaner path forward.

Incentives that respond to behavior

A 10% discount was already converting.

The audit surfaced a small group of shoppers who had started checkout multiple times without purchasing.

That created an opportunity for a simple test: a conditional branch with a slightly stronger offer for a very specific group.

Small audience.

Meaningful upside.

Flows that exist, but no longer flow

Date-based emails tied to properties that were no longer being populated.

Property update steps that were never set live.

Recipients quietly stopped entering.

Nothing obviously broken.

Just inactive.

Clarity gaps that create hesitation

Discounts applied to “select products” without clearly explaining which ones.

Good intent. Unnecessary friction.

This is not about perfection

There is no re-platforming here.

No teardown.

No grand reinvention.

Just tightening what already exists.

Flows are long-term assets.

They deserve the same regular review as paid media, pricing, or inventory.

Campaigns spike. Flows compound.