Whether you’ve been creating emails for years or you’re just getting started, any good email marketer will tell you that an email checklist is a good resource to have on hand. They are so simple that you probably already have one in mind while scrutinizing your emails before you hit send. Well, we’re here to make things even easier for you with a comprehensive list to ensure that all your emails are perfect when they hit your recipients’ inboxes.
The Importance of an Email Marketing Checklist
An email checklist is exactly what you’d expect. Basically, it’s a straightforward list of items to review before you hit send. While crafting email campaigns may feel like second nature, it’s always useful to have a reference to serve as a reminder for all the little checks and reviews you should make. This can help you avoid looking back on what you sent only to realize you made a mistake. There’s a lot that can go right and wrong when you’re launching a campaign, especially one that comes with high expectations. Here’s the ultimate email marketing checklist to help you out in those moments.
Email Marketing Checklist
1. Sync the Timing
What is the goal of your email? Who is your audience? When do you see the most engagement? Knowing all these things will help you schedule your emails at the appropriate time.
2. Check Sender Information
Your company may have multiple email addresses active at one time. This is a pretty common practice to route emails to the appropriate department. For example, some companies may have “info@companyname.com”, “contactus@companyname.com”, “support@companyname.com”, and more. This makes things convenient for you and your audience but be sure to double check your From Sender address first. Also check to make sure whatever email address you’re sending from has a friendly and easily recognizable name. For example, if I sign up to receive email updates from Beyoncé, I’m going to know what they are and open them when they show up in my inbox.
3. Check Your List
It is also important to check your recipients and ensure the right people are being sent the email. The last thing you want is for people who didn’t sign up for an email to be upset by receiving it. For example, if you have different newsletters, ensure they’re going to the correct lists because if a recipient receives something they didn’t ask for they could get confused or you could lose them as a subscriber. If you’re sending a reengagement campaign, you want to make sure those that fit the criteria are the ones getting it. Otherwise, a lot of these emails aren’t serving their purpose.
4. Run Through Personalization
Personalization is key when connecting with your email list. However, with so many factors, it’s easy for personalization efforts to go haywire. Do you have the correct list selected? Is your dynamic content functioning the way it should? Do you have fallbacks in place? These are all important aspects of your email to check through before sending. The emfluence Marketing Platform makes this easy with its “Contact Preview” feature where you can check that all your personalization is accurate.
5. Scan Your Copy
Giving your content a solid read through is a must before hitting send. There’s nothing more frustrating than finding a typo or mistake that could have easily been avoided with a careful scan.
Once you’ve checked for spelling and grammar, take it a step further and ensure everything is optimized. This means concise wording, smooth reads, and powerful copy that gets the message across.
6. Ensure Accessibility
Accessibility is a top priority for marketers of all kinds. It shows your audience that you were thoughtful in creating your emails and keep inclusive content in mind. This not only benefits your email subscribers but also your company and ensures everything you’ve worked on is actually reaching everyone. Some key things to check for include:
- Contrast in images and colors
- Descriptive text for your links
- Alternative text for graphics
- Utilizing heading elements like your H1, H2, etc. rather than just making fonts bigger
7. Verify Links
Broken links are painful not just for your audience but for you as well. Don’t let these become missed opportunities by manually going through each link and ensuring it works.
8. Make Sure Your Email is Mobile-Friendly
Tons of emails are read on our mobile devices these days which means your email needs to be Apple or Android friendly. These screens are narrower than your average desktop so you’ll want to preview your email and ensure there are mobile friendly versions of it ready to go out.
9. A/B Test
If there’s a lot riding on this email, it may be a good idea to run an A/B test to a select group first before sending it out to your entire list. A/B testing is useful because it allows you to optimize a variety of aspects in your emails. You can test out various subject lines, calls to action, placements, etc. Just remember to test one thing at a time so you know exactly what’s working.
10. Look for the Essentials
Some things should always be included in an email. While these may already be in your email templates, it’s always a good idea to check them off when you’re looking over an email. For one, your contact should always have the option to unsubscribe. Make this easy to locate and use.
Another essential to include in your emails are your social media links. These can be easily recognizable icons representing Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, or whatever other accounts your company actively uses. It doesn’t have to be front and center but include it at the footer of emails for anyone that’s interested.
11. Preview Your Email
Don’t forget to preview your email before sending. While it may look great in draft form, it can show up differently depending on the device and the inbox it’s being sent to. How does it look in a Gmail vs Outlook? If you’re using the emfluence Marketing Platform, take the time to use the pre-flight tool to ensure it renders well across 70+ email clients.
12. Loop in Your Teams
Email campaigns are usually not independent marketing strategies. If there are other teams involved with the content in the email, make sure to give them a heads up before you deploy. Maybe your marketing team needs to activate a landing page or your web developer needs to ensure your site content matches up with email announcements. It’s never a bad idea to let people know when an email is about to go live.
13. Hit Send
This is an obvious one but can get lost in the mix when you’re too excited. It can be easy to forget the whole purpose of your email after an entire workday of creating, polishing, and triple checking everything. So, we’re here to remind you of one of the most important steps. Don’t forget to schedule or hit send!
Depending on your campaign and your goals, your checklist could look slightly different from this one, but this should get you started on helping ease some of that ‘send anxiety’ all email marketers experience.
