Have you ever had an email you've put a lot of time and love into go wrong? Links that don't work, images that don't upload or a missing subject line are some examples of the most common errors that can happen when sending an email. Go through this checklist every time before you click the "send" button to avoid the stress of an incorrect email.
Check the language.
Writing the content in a Word document makes it easier to check spelling, sentence structure, etc.
Sync text from HTML
Is there a text version linked to your HTML email? Sometimes you need to update this text separately and it's easy to forget!
Add and double-check Alt text on all images.
If you have written a good Alt-text describing the image content, this text will be visible if the image is not uploaded in some email clients.
Sender.
Check the sender's name and email. Don't forget to check the "reply-to" address if it should not be the same as the sender's.
Inform the sender.
The sender will receive OOF (out of office) responses that can be many in a larger mailing
Double-check the subject line.
Double check the recipient list.
Links
Double check all links. Also check http/https and feel free to add UTM tags to send the right information about the traffic source to Google Analytics. You can generate your UTM tags here.
Check that the "read in browser" tags are present and working.
Check all dynamic tags like "Firstname" if there are any.
Check that at least one of the "Unsubscribe" link or link to "preference page" is present.
Review the header text.
Check the footer text.
After the year change sometimes you have to think about updating the year.
Test
Send test to yourself and preferably someone else and ask them to check text, image, link, sender and subject line carefully.
Mobile / Desktop
Check the email in mobile and render to see how the email looks in different mail clients if the option is available in your Marketing Automation system. Once you have gone through this checklist, you can safely click the Send button for your mailing and wait for traffic to your website! Enjoy! 🙂