Make sure your campaigns are 100% ready to go
Have you ever pressed SEND on an email only to immediately find a mistake?
Despite having checked everything over and over again, the mistake only appears after you press send.
I have. 🙋♀️
There is a lot going on when you’re sending your email marketing campaigns and newsletters. You’re trying to do it all, so something ought to slip through the cracks.
Let’s fill in those cracks by going through a pre-send checklist that will make it as smooth as a kitten.
Pre-send checklist for your next email campaign:
Goal:
- Goal and success criteria defined for this campaign
Subject line:
- Represent the content of the email
- Not click baity
- Pre-header text is relevant
- Addresses the audience, not about you
Content:
- The information is correct
- Spelling and grammar is correct
- Tone of voice is on-brand
- The content is relevant and valuable to the audience
- Written as text, not converted into an image
Image content:
- Images that support your content
- Images are no bigger than 1MB
- Images have alt text
Links:
- All links are correct and working
- Tagged as “open in a new tab”
- Photos are linked
Text formatting:
- One font for headings and one for text
- One font size for headings and one for text
- There is a good amount of white/empty space allowing the content to breathe and the reader to skim
- Is it easy for text-to-speech software to read?
Audience segmenting:
- The audience has been segmented and targeted specifically for this email
- Inactive subscribers excluded
Personalisation:
- First name
- Dynamic content
- Relevant content based on behaviour / information
CTA:
- One call to action
- CTA is clear and in line with your goal
- CTA is repeated several times
Testing:
- A/B test for subject line
- A/B test for content
- Sent a test email: reviewed the content and tested all links
- Tested in both Gmail and Hotmail
Mobile:
- Tested and optimised for mobile
Legal stuff:
- Unsubscribe is easily available as a link
- Company details are provided in the footer
- Only those that opt-in are emailed
Sending:
- Consider your audience’s timezone for timing
- Schedule or send based on timezones
This is a comprehensive list, but by all means you don’t need to do it all all the time. Like you cannot A/B test both subject line and content in one email, you may not want to personalise with first name for your email.
Yes, I think some parts of this list are more important than others, like making sure everything works, looks nice, is sent to the relevant audience, and is tested.
But do keep all the other parts in mind before you hit SEND.