Alright, so you’ve crafted the perfect email. It’s on-brand, on message, and ready to reel in customers. You hear that voice in your head, “Done. Hit send.” Not so fast. Even the most seasoned marketing vets make mistakes.
Do these 8 things before sending your next email campaign:
Email Campaign Check 1: Who & When
Double-check that you’re sending the campaign to the right list at the right time. You are doing great! You’ve collected lead and customer information and have carefully tagged your contacts. Make sure you have selected the right list and correctly scheduled your email before sending your campaign.
Email Campaign Check 2: Proofread (Body, subject line, email header text, plain text version)
We all try our best to make our former English teachers proud but that doesn’t mean every email we write is going to be spelling and grammar mistake-free initially. If you aren’t a confident writer, you can download Grammarly or the Hemingway App. These apps will scan your work as you write, giving your writing an initial boost.
Once your email pleases the applications, send your copy to two different colleagues, preferably in different departments. For example: if you’re sending a product update email, send it to a grammar geek in communications and a member of the product team.
Email Campaign Check 3: Check your Dynamic Tags
“Hi, First Name” is a horrible way to kick off an email. Yes, consumers are aware that brands don’t manually type their names into their bulk email campaigns. But this “customization” is expected. And your subscribers will notice if you fail to test your dynamic tags.
Email Campaign Check 4: Test Links
Links are often one of the most important aspects of an email campaign. That’s why it is crucial to test each link in your email, whether it’s a CTA button, inline link (shortened), or linked image. Forgetting to add a link or sending a subscriber to a broken link on your website is an easy way to leave a negative impression in a potential customer’s mind.
Email Campaign Check 5: Meets Email Regulation Requirements (CAN-SPAM, GDPR, CASL)
There are many pieces of legislation regulating commercial email. The CAN-SPAM ( Act is the most important piece of regulation for those of us in the U.S. However, CAN-SPAM is also the most dated of the major pieces of email regulation legislation. GDPR (enacted in 2018) regulates email in the European Union and its regulations are more stringent than CAN-SPAM. Some US-based email marketing platforms have preemptively increased their standards in response to new legislation (Ex. Active Campaign).
If you’re unsure whether your email is complaint check out these blog posts:
Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography And Marketing (CAN-SPAM) Act CAN-SPAM (link to blog post)
General Data Protection Regulation GDPR (Link to blog post)
Canada Anti-Spam Law CASL (Link to CASL blog)
Email Campaign Check 6: Formatting/Design (Mobile & Desktop)
Most email marketing platforms allow marketers to view a preview. This is a great start, but we also recommend viewing a test on your phone before hitting send. Check for images that may need resizing, text that might overlap boundaries, and alignment issues.
Luckily, these are normally pretty quick fixes, thanks to drag and drop email marketing platforms! It may be a little more involved if you are designing your email templates in HTML/CSS.
Email Campaign Check 7: Plain Text Version (link to Plain Text blog post)
Make sure the plain text version of your email is proofread and formatted. Email marketing platforms allow you to simultaneously send your plain text version with your templated email.
Your Plain Text version is your fail-safe when an ESP/device doesn’t display your templated email.
Email Campaign Check 8: Send Test
There’s a reason email marketing platforms have this feature. It’s important. Do NOT send your campaign until you have sent a test. We suggest you send your test to at least two other members of your organization. You can send your test to your two trusty proofreaders for a final scan. If you need final approval from a supervisor, send them a test after you have completed all of the other checks.
Wrap Up
If this article seemed basic to you, we are happy to hear it! We love that you are staying on your toes and ensuring that your emails are of the highest quality.
If you aren’t doing all 8 of these things, we hope you will add them to your process. It may seem repetitive. It might even seem like a waste of time. But it will drastically reduce the number of mistakes that slip through the cracks.
This article was originally published on Carbon Digital.