Email Marketing Checklist

Pre-flight workflow a marketing manager runs before every list-wide email send — from brief through segmentation, copy, render testing, deliverability checks, and post-send reporting.

5 sections 23 steps Collects data
1

Campaign Brief & Segmentation

  1. Define campaign goal and primary KPI

    • Pick one primary KPI — open rate, CTR, conversions, attributed pipeline, or revenue. Vanity metrics like opens are increasingly unreliable post-Apple Mail Privacy Protection; CTR or downstream conversion is more defensible. Document the goal in the campaign record so reporting can compare apples to apples.

  2. Confirm the target segment in your MAP

    • Open the segment in HubSpot, Marketo, Iterable, or whichever MAP you run on. Verify the smart-list logic, suppression list overlap, and total addressable count. Common gotcha: a segment that worked last quarter no longer matches because a property was renamed in CRM sync.

  3. Audit list health and bounce rate

    • Pull the segment's last-90-day engagement: opens, clicks, hard-bounce rate, complaint rate. A list quiet for six-plus months will tank sender reputation on a broad send. If hard-bounce trends above 2% or engagement is below 10%, mark the segment as needing sunset before this send.

    Collects list
  4. Run a re-engagement or sunset pass

    • Send a 2-3 email re-engagement series to the stale segment with a clear 'still want to hear from us?' ask. Move non-responders to a suppression-only list — don't include them in the broadcast. Skipping this step is the most common cause of inbox-placement collapse on enterprise sends.

  5. Identify regional audience scope

    • Filter the segment by country to determine whether EU or Canadian residents are in the send. GDPR (EU) and CASL (Canada) require lawful basis or express consent that US-only opt-in flows don't satisfy. The answer here drives the compliance gating downstream.

    Collects list
2

Content & Copywriting

  1. Draft the subject line and preheader

    • Aim for under 50 characters on subject and 90 on preheader so mobile clients don't truncate. Avoid spam triggers (ALL CAPS, excessive punctuation, 'free', '$$$'). Write 3-5 variants for an A/B split test on a 10% holdout.

  2. Tailor body copy to the funnel stage

    • TOFU prospects need an educational hook; MOFU readers want a use case or proof point; BOFU contacts respond to a demo or pricing CTA. Sending the same body to all three is the fastest way to flatten conversion. Match copy density to where the segment sits.

  3. Place a single primary CTA

    • One primary action, repeated 2-3 times: above the fold, mid-content, and at the bottom. Secondary links are fine but never compete in styling. Confirm the destination URL works and matches the email's promise.

  4. Run a brand voice and copy edit pass

    • Editor checks for tone match against the brand's voice guide, AP or house style on punctuation and capitalization, and accessibility (descriptive link text, no 'click here'). Spell-check is not enough — read aloud catches awkward phrasing the eye skips.

3

Build, Format & Render Testing

  1. Build the email in your ESP template

    • Use the approved master template in HubSpot, Marketo, Klaviyo, or Iterable — don't paste raw HTML from a designer's mockup. Keep total weight under 100KB to avoid Gmail clipping; images hosted on a CDN, not embedded.

  2. Add UTM parameters to every link

    • Use the team's UTM convention document — source=newsletter or campaign-specific, medium=email, campaign=YYYY-MM-slug, content=cta-position. Drift here breaks GA4 attribution and makes month-over-month reports uncomparable.

  3. Write alt text for every image

    • Roughly 40% of recipients have images blocked by default; alt text is what they see. It also matters for screen-reader accessibility under WCAG 2.1 AA. Decorative images get empty alt (alt=""), not the filename.

  4. Run Litmus or Email on Acid render tests

    • Test against Outlook (desktop and web), Gmail (web, iOS, Android), Apple Mail (macOS and iOS), and Yahoo at minimum. Outlook desktop is where most renders break — Word's rendering engine ignores most modern CSS. Attach the screenshot grid for the approval record.

    Collects file
  5. Send a seed test to the internal QA list

    • Seed list should include the campaign owner, copy lead, brand reviewer, and a Gmail and Outlook account on the team. Click every link from the seed copy — staging URLs and unparameterized links slip through automated checks routinely.

4

Compliance & Deliverability

  1. Verify the CAN-SPAM footer block

    • Required: a valid physical postal address, a clear unsubscribe link, and an accurate From / Reply-To. Confirm the suppression list is honoring opt-outs within the 10-business-day window — failures here are per-email statutory penalties.

  2. Confirm GDPR consent basis for EU recipients

    • Pull the consent record for the EU and Canadian portion of the segment. Cookie banner 'accept all' is not marketing consent; the lawful basis must be documented (opt-in, contract, or legitimate interest with documented assessment). For Canadian recipients, CASL requires express or implied consent on file.

  3. Check SPF, DKIM, and DMARC alignment

    • Send a test through Mail-Tester or GlockApps and confirm all three pass. DMARC policy should be at least p=quarantine; p=none means you're not protected against spoofing. BIMI logo display requires DMARC enforcement plus VMC.

  4. Review sender reputation in Google Postmaster

    • Domain and IP reputation should be High or Medium; spam-rate dashboard must be under Google's 0.3% threshold. If reputation has dipped in the last 14 days, reduce send volume or warm a fresh sub-domain rather than blasting on a damaged sender.

  5. Collect legal and brand sign-off

    • Capture timestamped approval from legal (claims, disclosures, regulated-industry language) and brand (visual lockup, voice). Slack DMs do not count as approval records — log the decision here so the audit trail survives team turnover.

    Collects list Collects paragraph
5

Send & Post-Send Review

  1. Schedule the send for the optimal window

    • Use the segment's historical engagement-by-hour data, not generic 'Tuesday 10am' advice. For multi-region sends, use the ESP's send-time optimization or split the send by timezone so 9am local lands consistently.

  2. Monitor first-hour deliverability and bounces

    • Watch the bounce rate, complaint rate, and ESP throttling alerts in the first 60 minutes. A spike above 5% hard bounce or 0.1% complaint is a stop-the-send signal — pause remaining batches before more damage compounds.

  3. Pull 24-hour engagement metrics

    • Capture click-through rate, conversion rate per the campaign's primary KPI, and unsubscribe rate. Flag any GA4 events that fired off-pattern — a CTR/conversion mismatch usually means the landing page broke or the UTMs misrouted.

  4. Compile the 7-day performance report

    • Roll up opens, clicks, conversions, attributed pipeline or revenue, unsubscribes, and complaints. Compare against the KPI set in the brief. Note any subject-line A/B winner so the next campaign benefits from the learning.

    Collects file

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Sections 5
Steps 23
Category Marketing
Price Free to start
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