Before You Hit “Send”

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Email bloopers can be embarrassing, more so if it is a marketing email going out to thousands of prospects and customers. To make sure you don’t have egg on your face, run through this list of checks before you hit “send” on your next email.

• How much of your subject line can be read? Keep the subject line within 50 characters.
• Use a valid "From" address. It aids response and lead generation.
• Proof read your content. Grammatical errors and typos look shoddy in an email.
• Spam filters trap emails with strings such as “free”, “$$$” and “bonus”. Avoid these usages.
• If the email is an advertisement, say so.
• Avoid ugly line breaks. Keep your sentences short.
• Check the personalization tags. Are you calling the recipient by his correct name?
• Is your email easy to scan? Is there sufficient white space?
• Click on your call to action button. Make sure it links to the correct landing page.
• Click on the social sharing buttons on your email. Check if it throws up an appropriate tweet/blurb along with a link to the web version of your email.
• Does your “View in Browser” link take you to the right link?
• Is your image link absolute? It should start with http://.
• Check your images. They should be of high resolution and appropriate to your campaign.
• Make sure your image file name doesn’t contain embedded spaces. For example, use “company_logo.jpg” instead of “company logo.jpg”. The space converts to “%20” and often creates difficulties in resolving URLs.
• Is the image used in your template of the same size that you require? If an image is too large and resized via HTML, Outlook will display it at the original size, thereby distorting the template.
• HTML templates that only use images generate higher spam scores and risk diversion to spam folders. Avoid such templates.
• Use alt text for images. View the email with images blocked. Is the email complete?
• Legislation pertaining to email and “permission marketing” vary from country to country and is evolving. Make sure you know the rules in the markets you want to address.
• If your target market is the US, are you CAN-SPAM compliant? Add a signature line with a valid physical mailing address and an unsubscribe option.
• If you are using more than one mailing list for the same campaign, make sure to select the “Do Not Send Duplicates” option.
• If you are sending follow-up e-mails to the same set of contacts, ensure that the “Do Not Send Duplicates” option is unchecked.
• Check best time and day to send emails. Avoid the morning rush hour, Mondays and Fridays.
• Be aware of holidays in your target market. Don’t send it during the holidays and be lost in the clutter.
• Stick to a schedule for newsletters and online periodicals. This builds credibility and a sense of reliability. For instance, if you have a monthly newsletter, send it on the same date every month.
• Test on different email clients and devices which are commonly used by your subscribers. See how the email renders.