Use this checklist before sending your newsletter
Are you thinking about sending a newsletter? Great idea! Newsletters are a fantastic way to keep your customers and prospects up-to-date on what's new with your company, product, or service.
Before you hit "send," though, there are a few things you should do to make sure your newsletter is as effective as possible. Use this checklist to make sure you're covering all your bases:
Segmentation
One of the most important things you can do to ensure your email marketing campaign is successful is to segment your list. This means breaking down your list of contacts into smaller groups so you can send more targeted content.
For example, you might segment your list by
platform
company size
last interacted with
plan size
…etc.
Not sure how to segment your list? Check out this guide for some ideas.
Send Time
Timing your send is important to ensure your email doesn't conflict with any other sends, and to make sure it goes out at the best time for your subscribers. Choose the date and time for your send, and schedule it on your calendar.
I like to send my emails at 7:00 AM during the week because most people are checking their emails 1st thing in the morning. Sure it’s a bad habit, but it is done by many working professionals!
Subject line & Preheader
This is the first thing the person reading your newsletter or broadcast will see. Assuming you have already come up with a clever subject line, you should also
Check for typos (a misspelled word can be a costly mistake!)
Personalization (Are you using the right tag to display a person’s first name? Do you have a fallback in case you don’t have first name data?)
Footer Details
Does the unsubscribe link work?
Is your address correct?
Are your social icons linked to the correct places?
Design
Design checks for your internal newsletter should focus on consistency. The following elements should be consistent throughout your newsletter in order to create a cohesive reader experience:
Images (are all the images small enough for email and are they suitable for both desktop and mobile?)
Layout (spacing, padding, alignment)
Colors (are you using brand colors for things like links and buttons?)
Branding (does the overall email feel like your brand?)
Content
You might keep your design consistent by re-using or duplicating templates when you send your newsletter. While this saves time, you can forget to delete the old content or change the links!
Here’s what content you should be checking before you send your newsletter:
Links (click each link and photo to make sure they go where you want them to go)
Spelling and formatting (did you double check your grammar?)
Accessibility (are your fonts, colors, and text easy to see and interact with? Have you added alt text?)
CTA (does your email have a prominent CTA?)
There you have it! You can download this checklist and keep it for future sends or get an editable template (sign up required) to make it your own or use this one in Google Docs!
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