Prior to sending your campaign, it’s important to check your content to make sure it's ready to be sent to subscribers. Use this checklist for all campaigns, but especially when starting a new mail stream, making major template changes, and warming up new IPs.
Device breakdown
Note your device breakdown for each group of email clients by navigating to Pre-Send>Design & Content>Design Tests and clicking on a recent test. The open percentage is listed on the right side of each section header. Tracking Pixel implementation is required for the open percentage values to populate.
- Desktop clients
- Mobile & Tablet Clients
- Webmail clients
The device breakdown may fluctuate over time but is likely to remain relatively stable unless a large number of new subscribers are acquired. It's good to check these values occasionally to ensure you focus on the devices that have the most performance impact.
Structure
Check your content structure to make sure the design is clean and:
- It has properly sized images, text and call-to-actions.
- The content is concise and easily skimmable.
- There are not too many focal points to distract the reader's attention.
For additional information on design, please read:
Creative
Within the email creative, check the:
- Friendly From
- Does your Friendly From include your brand name?
- One of the primary reasons for subscribers marking an email as spam is they don’t recognize the sender.
- Subject Line
- Does your subject Line accurately reflect the email content?
- Preheader
- Does your preheader text support the subject line and help lead the reader to open the email?
- Content header
- Is your company logo visible?
- Did you include a navigation bar (not applicable to all designs)?
- Content body
- Is there any overlapping or unreadable text?
- Is your call-to-action easily found and prompt the reader to click?
- Do all links take the reader to the right landing pages?
- Are the correct images displayed?
- If images are turned off by default, does the alternative-text describe the image and help the reader understand what is in the content?
- If Personalization is included, are all the correct merge tags present?
- Do you have a default value for your merge fields?
- Does your text have a tone that is appropriate for the audience based on the campaign’s objective?
- Are the colors correct and do they work well in dark mode and for color blindness?
- Does your design render well across all webmail, desktop, and mobile devices?
- Footer
- Did you include your social media icons and links?
- Is your physical address displayed?
- Do you have a prominent unsubscribe link?
- Did you include a privacy policy link?
For additional information on design, please read:
Spam tests
Perform a spam test within Design & Content by navigating to Pre-Send>Design & Content>Pre-Flight Checks>Spam Tests and clicking on New Spam Test.
- Overview
- Note any potential issues and check the details in the sections below.
- Authentication check
- Are SPF, DKIM, and DMRC all passing without error?
- Spam filter results
- Are there any issues with spam filters that may lead to delivery problems?
- Look at the SpamAssassin diagnostics results for any potential issues.
- Mailbox provider results
- Are you reaching the inbox and passing authentication at the major mailbox providers?
- Blocklistings
- Are there any active blocklistings that may lead to delivery problems?
Subject Line Previewer
Navigate to Pre-Send>Design & Content>Pre-Flight Checks>Subject Line Previewer and enter the information for your next campaign.
- Friendly From
- Is your brand name displayed so the reader recognizes you?
- Subject Line
- If your offer is not displaying as expected, you may consider moving it to the beginning of your subject line.
- Preheader text
- Ensure the important parts of your preheader are displayed and not cut off by the email clients.
