Scaling for Growth: Planning + Executing an Email Platform Migration

Migrating to a new email or automation platform is one of the most significant infrastructure projects a marketing team can undertake.

Migrating to a new email or automation platform is one of the bigger infrastructure projects a marketing team will take on. Get it right and you have a foundation for automation that actually scales. Get it wrong and you’re dealing with data loss, downtime, frustrated teams and missed revenue. The difference is almost always planning.

Most migrations happen because the existing platform hit a ceiling. Lifecycle programmes get more complex, and the cracks start to show – automation that requires too much manual intervention to scale, reporting you can’t trust, integrations with your CRM, eCommerce stack, POS or loyalty tools that are held together with duct tape. At some point the platform stops keeping up, and performance suffers.

Before the migration

The cleanest migrations are run like infrastructure projects, not marketing initiatives. Start by nailing down what the business actually needs from a platform – not just now, but 18 months from now. That means required features, integration requirements, and how the platform will support automation, reporting and governance.

Then plan properly. Set the scope, assign ownership across marketing, IT, dev, creative and data, and map out what needs to be rebuilt: customer data, integrations, templates, automation journeys. This is also when you should sort out your deliverability warm-up strategy and internal training – leave those to the end and you’ll feel it.

During the migration

There’s a lot moving at once. Integrations are wired up, data migrated and validated, templates rebuilt, key automations recreated. That complexity is manageable with strong project governance – regular check-ins, clear ownership, and a process for surfacing blockers early before they cascade. Test at every major stage before going live. Deliverability is hard to recover once it’s damaged.

After the migration

Once the new platform is live, wrap-up is quick: confirm key journeys are running, document what you learned, archive what you need from the legacy system. Then shift focus to the roadmap. A clear 6-12 month plan to expand automation, tighten segmentation and personalisation, connect more data sources and keep optimising – that’s where the investment starts paying off. With the right foundations, changes that used to take weeks get done in days.

Email platform migrations have a lot of moving parts. Planned well, executed with discipline and with testing and deliverability built in throughout, they create a platform you can actually build on.

For a more comprehensive guide on the planning and execution of an Email platform migration, download our full guide on How to Successfully Migrate to a new Email Platform.

Calibrate specialises in end-to-end email platform migrations, supporting everything from platform integration to journey setup, warm-up planning and execution. Partnering with Calibrate brings proven expertise to deliver a seamless transition and unlock stronger results faster.