Email Newsletter Checklist

State the single goal for this send — webinar registrations, content downloads, product announcement, re-engagement. Pick one primary KPI (CTR to landing page, MQLs, revenue attributed) so post-send analysis isn't ambiguous. A newsletter trying to hit four goals usually hits none.

Pull the segment in HubSpot, Marketo, or Klaviyo and confirm the count is in the expected range. Apply the global suppression list (unsubscribes, hard bounces, complaints, role-based addresses). EU contacts go through the GDPR-consented segment only.

Write to the persona, not the company. Open with the value, not the brand. Keep the hero copy under 90 words above the fold; everything else supports the single CTA. Note any claims that need fact-check or legal review.

Two to three subject line variants for an A/B test on a 10-20% split. Preheader complements the subject — don't repeat it. Avoid spam triggers (ALL CAPS, excessive punctuation, free/guarantee language). Target under 50 characters so mobile clients don't truncate.

Use the approved master template — don't fork. Confirm logo lockup, color palette HEX values, and typography match the brand guidelines. Single-column layout for mobile-first reading.

Use the team's UTM convention doc — source=newsletter, medium=email, campaign=[YYYY-MM-issue], content=[hero|secondary|footer]. Inconsistent UTMs are the most common reason GA4 reporting becomes uncomparable across sends. Use the shared link-builder, not freehand.

Every image needs descriptive alt text — not 'image1.jpg'. Link text should describe the destination ('Read the Q3 benchmark report'), not 'click here'. Heading hierarchy uses real H1/H2 tags, not styled paragraphs. WCAG 2.1 AA is the bar.

CAN-SPAM requires: working unsubscribe link, physical mailing address, accurate sender identification. CASL adds explicit identity disclosure for Canadian recipients. Include the privacy policy link and preferences-center link so users can downgrade rather than fully unsubscribe.

Check rendering across Outlook (desktop and 365), Gmail web, Apple Mail, iOS Mail, and Android Gmail. Outlook desktop is where templates most often break — VML fallbacks, missing background images, busted padding.

Tap every link from the test email on a mobile device. Verify each lands on the correct page with UTMs intact. Confirm the landing page form fires the GA4 conversion event correctly — a misfiring submit event distorts attribution for the rest of the campaign.

Run a tool like GlockApps or EasyDMARC against the test send. SPF pass, DKIM signed and aligned, DMARC policy enforced. For sends over 5K to Gmail/Yahoo, DMARC alignment is now mandatory under the 2024 sender requirements.

Approval lives here, not in Slack DMs. Brand reviews voice and visual; legal reviews any product claims, comparative claims, or testimonial substantiation. Timestamped record before the send goes out.

Make the requested edits, re-run Litmus on the changed sections, and re-circulate to the original approvers. Do not send until every approver has signed off on the revised version.

Schedule for the time block your audience opens — typically Tuesday-Thursday 9-11am recipient-local for B2B. Use send-time optimization if your ESP supports it. Confirm the A/B split percentage and the winner-selection criterion (open rate vs. CTR).

Watch delivery rate, bounce rate, and complaint rate in the ESP dashboard. A complaint rate above 0.1% or a sudden bounce spike means pause and investigate. Confirm inbox placement on seed addresses (Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo).

If complaints, bounces, or blocks spike, pause the send. Check Postmaster Tools (Gmail) and Sender Score for reputation drops. Document the incident, suspected cause (segment health, content trigger, authentication failure), and remediation before resuming.

Capture open rate, CTR, click-to-open rate, unsubscribe rate, and complaint rate. Compare against the rolling 6-send average for this segment. Note Apple MPP-inflated opens — CTR is the more reliable engagement signal.

Cross-check ESP click counts against GA4 sessions for the campaign UTM. Material gaps usually mean a UTM typo, missing tag, or consent-banner blocking the pixel for EU traffic. Reconcile before the number gets quoted in the WBR.

One row per send in the master tracker (Airtable, Notion, or sheet): subject line, segment, send time, recipient count, KPI result, and one sentence on what to repeat or change next time. This is the input to the quarterly content audit.