I always get nervous when I am about to hit the send button and the level of nervousness / tension is directly proportional to the size of audience that will receive the email. This is due to the reason that when you have sent an email, it is gone to the inbox of recipients forever and there is no way you can fix those errors. However by following a stringent review process and a checklist of important things to consider before deployment, you can eliminate errors and get rid of the “send” fear.
Email Review Process:
When an email developer has built an email, it is very important to have it reviewed by different people before the final deployment. This is critical and every time a change is made, it should again be sent to the review team for checks. The review team should include people who were part of the email planning and development and the email should be checked for design, copy and links.
In my experience I have found the review done by the team to be very helpful as most of the time people who build an email are not able to identify and see issues that can be easily noticed by other fresh eyes. By having a robust review process, you can eliminate errors and ensure you do not receive emails from unhappy customers and stakeholders.
Checklist to be followed by the person deploying the email:
This is an extensive list and some of these options may not be required in certain circumstances. For example, if you work for an end customer and not a consultancy, the send classification, from name and from address would remain same in most cases.
- Check Send Classification
- Check and make sure From Name and From Address is correct
- Verify that “Reply To” address is correct
- Check Subject Line and Pre-header. Make sure they are correct and there are no spelling / grammatical mistakes
- Verify that the link to Online Version of email is present and working
- Verify that a physical mailing address is included and is in the form of live text
- Verify that unsubscribe link is present and working
- Compare the email with the design mock up and brief to ensure all the required elements have been added and they are in correct order
- Check all the links and make sure they are working correctly
- Check Alt text for all the images
- Check if any legal copy is required and if yes, it has been added as a disclaimer to the footer.
- Verify that all the links are being tracked – tracking parameters are getting added to the URL.
- Check and make sure the audience is correct – the name of the targeted Data extension is correct and audience count is correct.
- Send a test email to yourself and verify that any personalization is working correctly.
- Do a proper rendering test and verify that the email is appearing correctly in different devices and screen sizes.