Use this handy checklist before sending your campaigns to help optimise your emails and avoid common mistakes.

Send With Confidence Every Time

Do you ever hesitate before hitting send on your email campaigns? It's that crucial moment when your message is about to reach hundreds or even thousands of recipients. To help you send with confidence, here's a comprehensive checklist to optimise your emails and avoid common mistakes.

Have you created a clear subject line and preheader?

Make sure your subject line is clear and to the point, enticing recipients to open your email. Include a preheader that adds context and value to encourage recipients to engage further. For more best practice advice, explore our Preheader tips. 

Have you used personalisation and segmentation?

Whenever possible, personalise your emails by sending them from a named individual within your organisation. Use personalisation tags to address recipients by name or include other relevant details like their company name or location. Segment your email list based on criteria such as city, industry sector or interests for targeted messaging.

Does it include clear calls-to-action?

Check that you have included clear and prominent calls-to-action within your email, making it easy for recipients to take the desired action. Ensure your CTA stands out visually and has a persuasive (but non-spammy) message.

Is the content engaging and relevant to your audience?

Make sure your content is interesting and useful to your audience. Use attractive visuals and videos when appropriate. Avoid using spam-like phrases such as 'act now' or 'limited time offer' to prevent your emails from being marked as spam. For more tips, explore our guidance on avoiding spam filters.

Have you included alt tags on images?

Use alt tags for all images in your email. These provide alternative text descriptions if your images fail to load. Tip: Alt tags help convey the meaning and purpose of the images, ensuring recipients understand the intended message even without the visuals.

Is your styling and design consistent?

Check that your email template matches your brand's visual style, including logo, colours and fonts. Keep all elements consistent. Consider using an email marketing platform like Smart Messenger, which provides easy drag-and-drop features to customise templates with your branding. We also offer a template design service if needed.

Are your links and tracking properly set up?

Check that hyperlinks in your email are in the right places and that they work correctly, leading to the intended landing pages or resources. Set up tracking for links and campaign performance measurement. Tip: Always verify the links in your emails when you do your test sends. You'll be surprised what you pick up!

Have you removed unwanted branding?

Ensure your emails reflect your brand, not your service provider's. Tip: Choose a provider that lets you remove their branding from templates and use your own domain for sending emails. This reinforces your professional image. Smart Messenger never adds its logo to your emails and offers fully customisable templates, making it an ideal choice for those looking for Mailchimp alternatives.

Have you proofread your email?

Check your email carefully for grammar, spelling and formatting mistakes to ensure your message is clear and error-free. Consider sending a test email to a colleague for a fresh perspective before sending your campaign. Our dedicated account managers are always happy to provide a quick sanity check on clients' emails for added peace of mind.

Don't forget to test and preview your campaign!

Before sending your campaign, test it by sending emails to various accounts to ensure it looks good on different platforms like Outlook and Gmail, both on desktop and mobile. This is also the time to double check links and ensure everything works as intended. Tip: Platforms like Smart Messenger allow you to send test messages to multiple contacts and automatically optimise your design for mobile devices.

Discover The Smart Messenger Advantage

At Smart Messenger, we understand the importance of getting things just right when it comes to our clients' email marketing campaigns. We offer exceptional personalised customer service that we believe is unrivalled in our sector. Our Just Call Us support ethos means our clients can ring us any time they need help with their campaigns and our friendly, dedicated account managers will be ready to help. There's no automated response or call queuing system - you'll get straight through to real help from real people.

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