Create the Perfect Email Newsletter - Part 3

Following on from looking at the Strategy and Structure of a perfect email newsletter here is the final step, a Checklist, to maximise your efforts. The other rather huge benefit to avoid an embarrassing or catastrophic failure, affectionately know as an entry in the Oopsey hall of Fame¹.

Checklist

Comprehensive quality control checklists are a way of ensuring a successfully deployed email newsletter, even one where time is tight. Preventing mistakes is the bottom line here.

• Plan

  • Define the goal for your newsletter. What are you aiming to achieve by sending this?
  • How will you measure its success? Sales? Clicks? Engagement?
  • What will the main call-to-action be? How will you ensure subscribers do what you want them to do and achieve your goals?

• Prepare

  • Have a procedure for getting your text and image content supplied/created.
  • Get an approval process in place once the newsletter is written and ready for sending.
  • Decide on the links you will be using. Entering link details into a spreadsheet can help.
  • Work out your alternative text (alt tags) for your images.
  • Move your content into plain text format before styling it appropriately it inside your newsletter.
  • Spell and grammar check in advance.

• Create

  • Is the copy/content of your email too long? Think under 45 words for each section.
  • Is the main call-to-action clear and positioned at the top of your email?
  • Look at the From line and ask yourself will subscribers know who it is from without actually opening it.
  • Is your subject line compelling, interesting and consistent with the actual content?
  • Proof read what you have written. Does it make sense?
  • Check your spelling, again!
  • Are the images used of the correct size? Crop and resize as needed.
  • Enter an abbreviated plain text version with a link to the main HTML version.
  • Make sure the unsubscribe link is there as well as a subscribe option.
  • Include a valid postal address to conform to spam laws.
  • Add a subscriber feedback mechanism of one form or another.

• Test

  • Send yourself a test! Try a few different email accounts. Look at the email with 'images on' and 'images off'.
  • Send your 'preview list' of trusted associates a test as well. Use your approval process.
  • Consider using spam checker and render checking tools to see if the newsletter gets through okay and can be viewed effectively across different platforms.
  • Click every link to ensure it works and goes to the correct location. Broken links = very bad.
  • Do your call-to-actions work? Can you register, download, buy, etc. smoothly and verify that via your email tracking system?
  • Can you clearly read your primary message and main call-to-action without scrolling in your own preview window/pane?

• Send

  • Is your newsletter properly targeted? Are your lists properly segmented for optimum results?
  • Are you sending to the correct lists and/or segments?
  • If you are suppressing contacts are the correct lists or segments being excluded?
  • Are you sending at a time when your subscribers are likely to be reading their email?
  • If sending to a large amount of subscribers have you made allowance for the time it actually takes to send to everyone.

• Analyse

  • Identify which statistic(s) relates to your goal and see if the relevant thresholds have been exceeded?
  • Use clickthrough and conversion rates to see if your calls-to-action were successful or not. Benchmark against your own averages.
  • Identify links that performed well and those that performed poorly. Seldom clicked links can be re-used at another time.
  • Use offline and website analytics to identify the wider impact of non-trackable sales/interest from the newsletter.
  • Review trends in your key stats over time to see this newsletter send in context.
  • Use opt-out survey results to see why people opted out.
  • Consider using spreadsheet exports of reporting data to build your own custom reports.
  • Look at your feedback results to help determine direction for future sends.

Quality control is definitely worth it.

References
1. The Retail Email Blog: Oopsey Hall of Fame: 2009 Inductees

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