Should Your Marketing Team Migrate ESPs?

ESP migrations impact data, workflows, and deliverability. Here's how to plan, execute, and stabilize the transition without disrupting performance.

What Happened

MarTech published a detailed guide on ESP migrations, highlighting how platforms like Bronto (sunset by Oracle in 2022) and Yotpo (removed email/SMS in 2025) are forcing businesses to migrate. The guide emphasizes that migrations affect data architecture, design templates, automated flows, deliverability, and require coordination across marketing, IT, sales, and legal teams. Key recommendations include securing stakeholder alignment, planning for platform overlap periods, and treating migrations as opportunities to clean contact lists and improve performance.

Why This Matters for B2B Marketing Leaders

Your ESP migration strategy directly impacts revenue continuity and team productivity. The guide notes that migrations touch multiple organizational functions beyond marketing, requiring cross-team coordination and budget approval for overlap periods. For B2B companies managing complex nurture sequences and account-based campaigns, a poorly executed migration can disrupt lead scoring, attribution tracking, and sales handoffs. The trend of platform consolidation means you'll likely face this decision within the next 24 months, whether voluntarily or due to partner changes.

The Starr Conspiracy's Take

Smart marketing leaders treat ESP migrations as resets, not technical burdens. The process forces you to audit your data architecture, eliminate inactive contacts, and reassess your email marketing automation workflows. This creates an opportunity to improve deliverability rates and campaign performance while aligning your tech stack with current business needs. The key is proactive planning. Waiting until your current ESP announces a sunset puts you in reactive mode with compressed timelines. Start evaluating your ESP's long-term viability now, especially if you're using older platforms or those owned by larger companies focused on other priorities.

What to Watch Next

Monitor your current ESP's product roadmap and AI feature announcements. Companies that aren't investing in AI-powered features or showing signs of acquisition activity may signal future platform changes. Plan your evaluation timeline to avoid the rush when migrations become mandatory.

Related Questions

How long should you budget for an ESP migration?

Plan for 3-6 months including stakeholder alignment, data migration, template rebuilding, and testing phases. Budget for 2-3 months of overlapping platform costs while you transition gradually and validate deliverability.

What data should you prioritize during an ESP migration?

Focus on the last 12-24 months of engagement data, active subscriber lists, and automated workflow logic. Use migration as an opportunity to eliminate inactive contacts and outdated segments that drag down your email deliverability metrics.

Which teams need to be involved in ESP migration planning?

Include marketing operations, IT/development, sales operations, client success, legal (for compliance), and finance (for engagement and overlap costs). Each team manages different touchpoints that ESP changes will affect.