Forget baking cookie-cutter campaigns. This complete checklist is your secret recipe for chef-level email marketing.
Sending email campaigns without a plan typically ends in chaos—and disappointment. Neglected details and skipped steps wreak havoc on your open rates, spam scores, and subscriber satisfaction.
But we won’t let that happen on your watch.
This comprehensive email marketing checklist guides you to craft captivating campaigns consistently. It covers everything from defining your strategy to writing subject lines, from testing across devices to managing deliverability.
Follow each checklist item diligently before hitting send, and your emails will reach inboxes looking flawless every time. Avoid cringe-worthy mistakes and create wow-worthy experiences.
Let’s get cooking! We assembled tips, templates, and tools to help you become an email marketing master chef.
Why You Need an Email Marketing Checklist
Launching an email marketing campaign without a checklist is like baking a cake without a recipe. Sure, you might end up with something edible—but chances are it won’t turn out quite right.
Email marketing checklists help ensure marketing campaigns are meticulously planned, expertly executed, and continuously optimized. They provide a clear roadmap to follow that keeps your efforts aligned and on track.
Think of an email marketing checklist as your trusty co-pilot, guiding you safely through the often turbulent skies of inboxes, spam folders, and promo tabs. It highlights potential pitfalls and reminds you of critical steps, ultimately leading to more successful email campaigns.
Let’s explore some of the key benefits of using an email marketing checklist:
Ensures You Don’t Miss Critical Steps
Email campaigns have a lot of moving parts. From writing compelling copy to testing across devices to managing deliverability, it’s easy to overlook something important.
An email checklist acts as a reliable reminder, highlighting key tasks you need to complete during each phase. You’ll spend less time wracking your brain trying to remember what to do next, and more time executing those actions expertly.
Some of the critical steps a checklist covers include:
- Defining campaign goals and metrics
- Segmenting your subscriber lists
- Personalizing the content
- Choosing eye-catching subject lines
- Testing across email clients
- Scrubbing your lists and managing hygiene
- Sending tests to real inboxes
- Scheduling emails at optimal times
- Setting up tracking and analytics
With your checklist in hand, you can systematically move through each campaign stage with confidence, knowing all bases are covered.
Avoids Costly Mistakes
A single mistake in your email campaign can have disastrous effects. Send the wrong message to the wrong group? There goes your list growth. Have a broken image or link? Say hello to lower engagement rates.
Mistakes don’t just disappoint your subscribers—they can outright damage your sender reputation and email deliverability. For example, a faulty unsubscribe link or missing contact information could cause subscribers to report your emails as spam. And no one wants to fish their emails out of the spam folder.
An email checklist helps you proactively catch errors before mishaps occur. It prompts you to double check your links, test your templates across devices, verify your segments, and more.
Taking those few extra moments upfront to thoroughly QA your campaign is much less costly than trying to undo the damage from a careless mistake. Don’t learn this lesson the hard way.
Creates Consistent Processes
Effective checklists outline steps in a consistent, logical sequence. This standardized approach ensures each campaign follows the same methodical workflow.
With documented processes, your team members will work cohesively instead of stepping on each other’s toes. Everyone knows the order of operations and what needs to happen at each phase.
The resulting continuity also allows you to accurately compare campaign performance over time. Following a reliable system makes it easier to pinpoint which specific changes impacted your email metrics.
Think of your checklist as the blueprint for constructing fantastic email campaigns. While each message may differ in content, the foundational framework remains the same.
Allows You to Optimize and Improve
The great thing about processes is that you can tweak them. Each completed campaign provides an opportunity to assess what worked and what didn’t.
Regularly review your checklist to identify potential improvements. Look for areas where you can add more detail to avoid mistakes. Or consider if you need to re-prioritize certain steps.
An email marketing checklist is a living document. As you grow your expertise and experience, so too will your checklist evolve. Before long, you’ll have whittled it down to an efficient list of optimized best practices.
Key Components of a Winning Email Marketing Checklist
Now that you’re convinced of the power of checklists, let’s examine some of the key sections your checklist should cover.
Campaign Strategy and Goals
Every marketing effort starts with strategic planning. Outline your campaign’s purpose, target segments, desired actions, and how you’ll measure success. This will frame the rest of your workflow.
Email Copywriting
Well-written copy entices subscribers to open, read, and take action. Checklist items here ensure you craft compelling subject lines and valuable email content.
Design and Layout
Email design significantly impacts engagement and conversions. Use your checklist to verify elements like mobile responsiveness, image formatting, and stylistic consistency.
Personalization and Segmentation
Relevance is king, and personalization creates relevant connections. Checklist prompts will remind you to leverage data and test variations to individualize your emails.
Quality Assurance and Testing
Don’t launch any email without extensive QA and testing across devices and spam filters. Your checklist will insist you double (and triple) check everything before sending.
Deliverability Factors
Managing your sender reputation is crucial for deliverability. Checklist items will ensure you follow best practices for high inbox placement rates.
Send Execution
When it’s finally time to send, your checklist will guide you to schedule emails at optimal times and organize your lists properly.
Post-Send Tracking
Your efforts don’t end at send time. Use checklist items to consistently analyze metrics like opens, clicks, and unsubscribes.
One More Reason: It’s Just Good Business
If the points above haven’t fully convinced you, here’s one more reason you need an email marketing checklist:
It’s just good business.
Taking the time upfront to thoroughly plan, test, and execute your campaigns demonstrates commitment to your subscribers. It shows you care about their experience and are willing to go the extra mile to get it right.
This level of excellence will pay dividends in higher open rates, more conversions, and increased loyalty. Your hard work will produce results you can feel good about.
So do yourself (and your business) a favor and create an email marketing checklist. We’ve just given you a strong head start on what to include. Simply use it as a framework and customize it to suit your unique needs.
Before you know it, you’ll have a trusted checklist you can rely on again and again to create fantastic emails your subscribers love.
Key Sections of Your Email Marketing Checklist
A comprehensive email marketing checklist covers the entire campaign lifecycle from initial planning to final analysis. Let’s explore the crucial stages and steps your checklist should address.
Strategy and Goals
Every marketing effort starts with strategic planning—and your email campaigns are no exception. Outline key details upfront to set your program up for success.
Define Your Campaign Goals and Metrics
Be clear about what you want to achieve with each email effort. Do you want to:
- Increase brand awareness?
- Drive sales or conversions?
- Gather customer feedback?
- Reduce churn or increase retention?
Along with qualitative goals, determine quantifiable metrics you’ll use to track performance. Common email metrics include:
- Open rate
- Click-through rate
- Conversion rate
- Revenue generated
- Unsubscribe rate
Once you’ve defined your success criteria, it’s easier to optimize your emails accordingly.
Choose Your Target Subscriber Segments
Who should receive your email? While you may have one master list, take time to break it into targeted segments for each campaign.
Emails aligned to reader interests garner higher engagement. Refrain from blasting your entire list with every message.
Segment your contacts by:
- Demographics like age, gender, location
- Purchase history or order recency
- Engagement level with your brand
- Interests and preferences
Many email service providers offer segmentation tools to group contacts intelligently.
Plan Your Email Series or Funnel
Will this email kick off a nurture series or automate your onboarding funnel? Map out any follow-up emails or customer journeys associated with this campaign.
Understand how this message fits into the big picture of your email program. Ensure it moves subscribers logically towards your end goals.
Set Your Calls-to-Action
Every email needs a clear CTA that tells readers what action you want them to take. Before creating your message, decide what that desired action will be.
Strong CTAs boost conversions. Prioritize calls-to-action that align to your campaign goals, whether that’s visiting your website, making a purchase, or responding to a survey.
Email Copy and Content
Well-crafted copy ensures your recipients will actually read and engage with your emails.
Write Compelling Subject Lines
The subject line is the first impression your email makes. You have mere seconds to capture attention and convince subscribers to open.
Craft subject lines that speak directly to the recipient and highlight specific benefits. Urgency and personalization work well to pique interest.
Keep length under 50 characters so the full subject line shows on any device.
Avoid spammy words like “free” or “sale”—these could trigger filters. Use niche terms subscribers relate to instead.
Craft Relevant, Valuable Email Content
Every sentence and paragraph should ladder up to your call-to-action. Help readers understand why they should care, click, and convert.
Provide useful information tailored to your audience’s needs. Share valuable insights, entertaining stories, or helpful resources.
Focus copy on subscriber benefits vs. features. Demonstrate you understand your customers and can meaningfully solve their pain points.
Keep Copy Succinct, Scannable, and Focused
Don’t overburden your subscribers with lengthy blocks of text. People don’t read emails word for word—they skim and scan for relevance.
Make your content digestible by:
- Breaking it into short paragraphs
- Using bulleted lists
- Adding subheadings
Stick to your main message to avoid diluting your call-to-action. Extraneous details and overly clever copy will only confuse.
Include Relevant Images and Media
Visuals break up your text and can enhance engagement when used purposefully. But beware—irrelevant or excessive images can also detract.
Choose graphics and multimedia that:
- Supplement your copy
- Demonstrate or explain
- Add visual interest
Ensure images are professionally designed, high resolution, and mobile optimized.
Design and Layout
A visually appealing design makes your email content shine. Use your checklist to perfect formatting and responsiveness.
Use Professionally Designed Email Templates
Skip starting from scratch—leverage pre-made email templates to speed creation. Just plug in your brand, content, and images.
Professionally designed templates incorporate best practices for visual hierarchy, layout, and responsive scaling.
Many email service providers include free templates or offer paid designs tailored to your brand.
Ensure a Mobile-Responsive Layout
Over half of emails are opened on mobile. If your layout doesn’t reformat for smaller screens, subscribers will miss key information.
Test templates on actual devices or use “mobile preview” modes to optimize mobile responsiveness.
Simplify layouts to one column and increase font sizes for small screens. Stack elements vertically and remove unnecessary images.
Optimize Images for All Devices
Don’t just resize images—optimize them for retina and high PPI screens. This prevents blurriness on high-resolution displays.
Use image editing tools to export photos in WebP or JPEG 2000 format. These compress better and improve loading.
Double check image file sizes after export. Keep individual images under 100 KB when possible.
Check Formatting Across Email Clients
Rendering issues abound when emails display differently across inboxes. Verify your formatting remains consistent.
Test your designed email across major platforms like Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo, and Apple Mail using integrated rendering tests. Identify any CSS, media, or text flaws that need fixing.
Personalization and Segmentation
Leveraging data to tailor your messages boosts relevance and engagement. Add checklist items to prompt personalization and segmentation.
Leverage Data to Segment and Personalize
Generic batch-and-blast emails fail to resonate like tailored content. Use data like demographics, preferences, and behaviors to segment subscribers.
Personalize by addressing customers directly or highlighting past interactions and purchases in your copy. This added context strengthens connections.
Use Merge Tags to Individualize Emails
Merge tags insert subscriber-specific data into emails automatically. Use them to personalize subject lines, message copy, images, and links.
Common merge tags include:
- First name
- Location
- Order history
- Birthday
Test static email versions against personalized variants to learn what resonates most.
Test Static vs. Dynamic Content
Take personalization further by using data to serve different content to different users. Send targeted product recommendations or locale-specific offers.
Use A/B testing to identify the right mix of static and dynamic modules for each audience and campaign type.
Quality Assurance and Testing
Rigorously testing every campaign is crucial to identifying issues before you send. Build in time for extensive QA.
Proofread Copy Multiple Times
Buggy copy equals sloppy branding. After writing your email, step away then revisit it with fresh eyes. Better yet, have a colleague review it too.
Double check for typos, grammar errors, inaccurate information, and formatting inconsistencies. Read it slowly line by line.
Use spell checkers and grammar tools like Grammarly to catch what you might miss. But always manually review—tools aren’t perfect.
Verify Links and Images Aren’t Broken
Few things frustrate more than clicking a dead link or missing image. Check that all images, URLs, and buttons work correctly.
Click every link, view every graphic, and test every form. Resources like dead link checkers automate this process.
Check Spam Score and Make Adjustments
Run your email through a spam filter test tool before sending. Identify any red flags causing low spam test scores.
Avoid spammy language, excessive exclamation points, or randomly capitalized words. These signal to filters that your email might be risky.
Send Test Emails to Check Rendering
Previewing your email won’t catch rendering quirks across different inboxes. Always send actual test emails first.
Rendering Tests
Manually forward test emails to accounts on multiple platforms like Outlook, Yahoo, Gmail and Apple Mail.
Check that your text, fonts, images, and links render correctly on both desktop and mobile devices.
Many email service providers integrate rendering tests directly into the editor. These let you instantly view your email across 50+ clients with one click.
Accessibility Checks
Don’t just check the visual design—verify your email is accessible to all recipients.
Use checklist prompts to remember key accessibility best practices:
- Add alt text descriptions to images for screen readers
- Ensure colors and contrast ratios are legible for the visually impaired
- Use proper heading structure to improve navigation
- Check that all functionality works without imagery
By designing inclusively, you improve the experience for subscribers of all abilities.
Email Deliverability
If your emails never reach the inbox, subscriber satisfaction won’t matter much. Proactively manage deliverability with checklist tasks.
Scrub Subscriber Lists
Maintain stringent hygiene to keep your sender reputation pristine. Regularly scrub lists by:
- Removing inactive subscribers
- Deleting hard bounced and invalid email addresses
- Unsubscribing addresses marked as spam
Dirty lists directly drag down your inbox placement and deliverability rates. Take this housekeeping seriously.
Follow Best Practices for High Deliverability
Prevent issues by being vigilant about email best practices like:
- Acquiring double opt-in confirmed subscribers
- Providing easy unsubscribe options in all emails
- Ensuring compliance with anti-spam laws
- Sending from reputable domains and IPs
Also consider using an email validation service to guarantee list accuracy prior to sending.
Warm Up IP Addresses and Domains
New sending infrastructure starts with a cold, unknown deliverability reputation. “Warm up” fresh IPs and domains by gradually increasing sending volume.
Warmup services like 250ok can accelerate your warmup period. This helps you gain momentum faster when launching new email initiatives.
Send Setup
Executing the actual send is only one small piece of your checklist. Proper setup ensures your hard work pays off.
Schedule Emails at Optimal Times
Picking the right send date and time has a big impact on open and click-through rates.
Test different days and times against your audience’s habits to find the ideal mix. Day of week, time of day, even holiday seasons matter.
Use your checklist to prompt schedule optimization for each new campaign.
Organize Lists and Segments
Confirm you’re sending to the proper subscriber segments before launching any send. Double check your groups and filters.
Overlapping segments or selecting the wrong contacts could lead to irrelevant messaging and unsubscribes.
Plan Any A/B Test Variations
Decide upfront which email elements you may want to A/B test. Develop variants for subject lines, content sections, calls to action, etc.
Use your checklist to remember setting up split tests in advance, before you finalize and send your campaigns. This avoids missing key optimization opportunities.
Post-Send Tracking
Your efforts don’t cease at launch time. Consistent tracking provides the data you need for ongoing email optimization.
Review Open, Click-Through, and Reply Rates
Gauge email effectiveness by regularly analyzing performance metrics like:
- Open rate – Percentage of recipients who viewed your message
- Click-through rate – Percentage who clicked links or buttons
- Bounce rate – Percentage with failed deliveries
- Conversion rate – Percentage who completed your desired action
Compare metrics across campaigns and against industry benchmarks.
Monitor Unsubscribes, Bounces, and Spam Reports
Keep a pulse on list health by monitoring negative signals including:
- Subscriber unsubscribes
- Hard email bounces
- Complaints marked as spam
High unsubscribes may indicate relevance issues. Spam reports suggest deliverability problems. Identify causes and adjust.
Identify Opportunities to Optimize Future Emails
Use your analysis to pinpoint refinement opportunities:
- Better target segments that engage highly
- Improve subject lines with lower open rates
- Shorten copy or highlight CTAs in lower-click emails
- Try new list cleansing strategies if bounces increase
Add notes and learnings directly to your checklist template for easy reference as you plan your next campaign.
Don’t Forget the Basics
While extensive in scope, an effective email marketing checklist also takes care of the basics. Here are some fundamental elements to work into your document:
- Define audience and campaign goals
- Create compelling subject line and content
- Ensure mobile responsiveness
- Confirm branding consistency
- Proofread carefully
- Test across email clients
- Validate link functionality
- Review analytics and optimize
Turn Over a New Checklist
Building and maintaining an email marketing checklist takes diligence. But it quickly becomes an invaluable asset that sets your team up for ongoing excellence.
Use this guide of key sections and steps as a framework to create your own customized checklist. Tweak it to suit your unique workflows, brand voice, and campaign types.
Soon you’ll have a trusted checklist you can rely on again and again to keep your email marketing efforts running smoothly and successfully.
Key Tools to Streamline Your Process
While a checklist provides the blueprint, the right tools actually help you build faster and more efficiently. When equipped with purpose-built applications, your team can complete checklist tasks quicker and collaborate smoothly.
Let’s explore some of the top categories of email marketing tools to have in your stack.
Email Service Providers
An email service provider (ESP) is the core platform you’ll use for executing campaigns. Leading options include:
- Mailchimp
- Sendinblue
- Constant Contact
- Campaign Monitor
- Omnisend
Key features to evaluate when choosing an ESP include:
- List building and management: Import, organize, and segment your subscriber lists.
- Email editing and templates: Build and design responsive campaigns with drag-and-drop editors and pre-made templates.
- Workflow automation: Set up triggers and sequences to send automated drip campaigns.
- Analytics: Track opens, clicks, conversions, and other key email metrics.
- Deliverability tools: Optimize inbox placement with Domain and IP warming, blacklist monitoring, and more.
Select an affordable ESP that supports your specific use cases. Most offer free tiers to get started.
Deliverability Tools
As touched on above, standalone deliverability tools help perfect sending reputations and inbox placement. Options like Snov.io](https://snov.io/) and [Inbox Inspector assist with:
- Identifying issues damaging deliverability
- Warming up IP addresses and domains
- Monitoring sender scores and blacklist status
- Performing deep email address verification
- Generating detailed email logs and analytics
These deliverability-focused applications supplement ESP capabilities. They provide robust data and insights for maximizing your emails’ reach.
Proofreading Apps
Don’t launch any email without extensive proofing and editing. Typographic tools like Grammarly](https://app.grammarly.com/) and [Hemingway help polish your writing.
Key features include:
- Checking for grammar and spelling errors
- Highlighting hard-to-read or complex sentences
- Offering suggestions to tighten wording
- Analyzing vocabulary and readability
Use these apps to refine email copy, simplify language, and catch pesky typos. Just remember to always manually review as well—automated tools are imperfect.
Rendering Testers
Previewing your email design is only half the battle—you need to see how it actually renders across inboxes. Services like Mail-Tester](https://www.mail-tester.com/) and [Litmus help by:
- Generating screenshots on major email clients
- Identifying rendering issues with images, fonts, and CSS
- Testing mobile responsiveness across iPhone, Android, and Webmail
- Evaluating spam test scores
Fix formatting flaws and inconsistencies before mangled emails reach subscribers’ inboxes.
Email Analytics Software
Analytics provide the data you need to refine and optimize your email approach over time. Solutions like Mailchimp](https://mailchimp.com/features/reports/) and [Omnisend offer robust reporting on:
- Open, click, and conversion rates
- Unsubscribes and spam complaints
- Engagement trends across campaigns
- Email activity by subscriber segments
- Popular links, messages, and assets
Pro tip: Select an ESP with built-in analytics to simplify your tech stack. Or use a dedicated tool like Mixpanel for advanced data manipulation.
Supporting Tools and Software
Round out your email toolkit with applications that support specific use cases:
- A/B testing platforms like Optimizely help you experiment and refine email components like subject lines.
- CRM and marketing automation systems like HubSpot](https://www.hubspot.com/) and [Marketo integrate with your ESP to combine email with other channels.
- Email validation APIs like ZeroBounce](https://www.zerobounce.net/) and [Mailcheck.ai maintain your list hygiene.
- Customer data platforms aggregate data from across systems to better personalize emails.
Build a robust martech stack with the right complementary tools for your program’s size and scope.
Speaking of Stacks…Try a Marketing Stack
Managing multiple disparate tools can be challenging. Consider a marketing stack that combines applications through seamless integrations.
For example, solutions like Sendinblue](https://www.sendinblue.com/) and [Omnisend offer ESP capabilities coupled with lead generation, SMS marketing, landing pages, and more—all on one connected platform.
Consolidating systems streamlines your workflows and reduces complexity. Though you may sacrifice some customization or advanced functionality compared to standalone apps.
Don’t Forget Your Team
Software and systems don’t operate themselves. The right email marketing people are just as crucial.
Build a skilled team to manage your tech stack and execute checklist processes. At minimum, you’ll want:
- Designers to create aesthetically pleasing, brand-aligned emails
- Writers to craft compelling copy and content
- Developers to handle custom coding and complex integrations
- Data analysts to derive insights from email performance analytics
- Quality assurance specialists to rigorously test and optimize campaigns
- Delivery experts to manage reputations and deliverability
- Strategists to map subscriber journeys and set KPIs
Technology transforms tactics into strategy—but people transform strategy into reality. Invest in both for email success.
Let Tools Take You from Checklist to Completion
Don’t look at your detailed email marketing checklist and get overwhelmed. Look at it as an opportunity to assemble a dream team of tools and talent.
With the right solutions and staff, your checklist serves as the blueprint for executing seamless email campaigns again and again. It provides helpful guardrails to keep your efforts on track.
So embrace the details. Let checklists and tools take you from initial ideas to final sends—where your subscribers are thoroughly delighted.
Benefits of Using an Email Checklist
If you’re still not fully convinced about creating an email checklist, perhaps pondering the benefits will win you over.
Implementing a standardized checklist pays dividends across your email program and team. Let’s explore some of the top perks.
Higher Open and Click-Through Rates
Thorough planning and testing means your emails show up looking flawless in subscribers’ inboxes. And flawless emails garner attention instead of instant deletes.
Checklists prompt you to perfect details like:
- On-brand designs
- Engaging subject lines
- Preview text that builds curiosity
- Accurate personalization and segmentation
- Relevant, valuable content
Get these elements right, and your open rates will impress.
And once opened, your email content needs to entice readers to click CTAs and links. Here again, checklist-driven tasks like refining copy, ensuring mobile responsiveness, and highlighting your call-to-action boost click-through rates.
Don’t leave email performance to guesswork or chance. Follow an optimized checklist, and watch your open and click-through metrics rise.
Improved Subscriber Satisfaction
Beyond vanity metrics, checklists also directly improve subscriber experiences. Steps that enhance satisfaction include:
- Extensive quality checks and testing to avoid mistakes
- Managing deliverability for reliable inbox delivery
- Providing easy unsubscribe options
- Giving subscribers content tailored to their interests
- Ensuring your emails are accessible across devices
Respect your subscribers’ time and attention. Use your checklist to consistently send emails they actually want to receive, open, and act on.
Increased Sales and Conversions
For ecommerce brands, the proof lies in the profits. here again, adopting an email checklist pays dividends.
Perfecting your subject lines, CTAs, and designs directly lifts click-through rates we discussed above. More clicks and lower exit rates further funnel visitors towards your desired conversions.
Take it from the stats:
- Email generates $44 in revenue for every $1 spent
- 70% of email recipients made a purchase based on a marketing email
- Email marketing yields ROI as high as 3200%
Set your campaigns up for success with an email checklist, and watch your conversions climb.
Better Team Alignment and Processes
Your checklist doesn’t just help campaigns—it also aligns your team for collective victory.
Documenting consistent processes gets everyone on the same page. New hires can get up to speed quicker by learning your standardized systems. And team members avoid duplicating efforts or having misalignments.
Checklists also facilitate collaboration. Different people can own specific sections based on their strengths while still moving the campaign forward together.
With your checklist, email marketing transforms from a solo effort into a team sport. Align your talent and start passing the ball.
More Than a To-Do List
Hopefully you now see an email marketing checklist as far more than a simple to-do list. Yes, it’s an enumeration of required steps—but steps proven to lift performance.
Don’t look at your checklist as a chore. Look at it as a competitive advantage. These best practices—when actually put into practice—elevate your email game.
What other business functions have detailed processes and checklists? Medical clinics? Legal firms? Financial auditors? Flight crews? Special ops units? Elite sports teams?
They all rely on standardized systems because checklists work. Your emails are no different. Put your checklist procedures into play, and achieve elite email marketing status.
Monitor and Improve Your Process
To truly maximize your checklist, never view it as complete. Continuously monitor campaign performance and refine your processes.
With each send, note what checklistprompted actions led to wins (or challenges). Ask questions like:
- Did our new subject line formula boost opens?
- Are more people unsubscribing since we moved the link?
- Does our improved testing process reduce rendering glitches?
Tweak your checklist to double down on what converts. Eliminate ineffective steps. Upgrade based on new technologies or strategies.
Evolving your checklist over time is key to sustaining success long term. A checklist is only as good as your willingness to perfect it.
Simplify with Email Marketing Software
Attempting to manually complete each checklist task would drive even the most dedicated marketer mad. The good news? You have software to help.
Solutions like email service providers, proofing tools, and testing apps eliminate tedious grunt work. Let technology handle the heavy lifting while your team focuses on strategy and creativity.
The savviest marketers use checklists as the roadmap and software as the vehicle to reach their email goals faster. Don’t just work hard—work smart.
And speaking of working smart…want us to just create your checklist for you?
Download Our Email Marketing Checklist Template
Hopefully by now, you’re thoroughly convinced of the value of using an email checklist. So what’s next?
We recommend downloading our pre-made email marketing checklist template. Having a complete framework in place makes it easy to customize and use for your specific needs.
Download the checklist template here.
We’ll send you an adaptable checklist PDF covering all the critical email campaign steps from start to send. Copy, paste, and tweak it to match your own workflows and brand voice.
Give your email program an upgrade. Level up your team. And get ready to reap the revenue-boosting benefits of a standardized email marketing checklist.
Customizing a Checklist for Your Needs
Our journey has led us to this point. You’re convinced of the power of checklists and have a complete template ready to go. But resist the urge to rigidly implement that generic framework as-is.
The key is customizing your checklist to match your unique brand, voice, goals, and quirks. This personalization is what elevates a checklist from good to great.
Start With Your Goals
Remember right back in the first section when we emphasized starting every campaign by defining your goals? That same strategic mindset needs to shape your checklist.
Review your KPIs and pinpoint which tasks on our template will move those specific needles. Prioritize and expand on relevant sections based on your targets.
For example, if increasing revenue is your main goal, focus checklist efforts on proven profit drivers:
- Writing killer subject lines
- Segmenting and personalizing
- Testing and optimizing calls to action
- Ensuring mobile responsiveness
Or if reducing unsubscribes is your aim, build out checklist sections focused on:
- Targeting and segmentation
- Managing list hygiene
- Sending at optimal times
- Following anti-spam regulations
Customize your checklist categories and details based on which objectives you want to achieve. Remove unrelated items and expand areas that impact your unique goals.
Tweak for Different Campaign Types
Do you only send one type of email campaign? Neither do we. Create checklist variations to match your diverse content needs.
Your promotional newsletter, product announcements, user onboarding drips, and weekly internal memos all need slightly different approaches.
For sales-focused campaigns, checklist emphasis might include:
- Highlighting promotions in the subject
- Testing urgency and scarcity tactics
- Reviewing analytics around revenue metrics
While for a subscriber welcome series, key checklist elements could be:
- Personalizing subject lines with first names
- Confirming double opt-in
- Linking directly to account portals
- Adding educational content to nurture
Build a unique template for each of your core email types or audiences. Shared foundational checklist items remain, but customize top layers for tailored optimization.
Maintain as a Living Document
The most effective checklists evolve over time as skills improve. Don’t create a rigid list once and assume you’ve reached the pinnacle.
Continuously refine your checklist as your expertise and mail environment changes. Expand sections needing more detail. Strike unnecessary or outdated steps. Reorganize priorities or flows.
Set reminders to revisit your checklist templates quarterly or semi-annually. But also review and update dynamically after each campaign:
- What new lessons emerged from this send?
- Should we add or remove any checklist items based on performance?
- Do open and click rates indicate our sequence needs restructuring?
- Do subscriber complaints suggest proofing gaps to address?
Keep your checklist a living document that grows along with your email program. Let it be your compass pointing to further optimization horizons.
Build a Style Guide for Your Brand Voice
Yes, even your checklist should align to your brand voice and stylistic standards. After all, this document guides your client-facing emails—it’s an ambassador for your brand.
For example, if your company writes in a:
- Friendly, conversational tone, maintain that in checklist language. Avoid overly formal words. Use contractions, first-person pronouns, and fun asides.
- Professional, corporate style, take an authoritative stance. Limit asides and humor. Prioritize clarity through focused language.
- Witty, humorous voice, inject your checklist with light-hearted jokes and pop culture references. Make it memorable even if a tad quirky.
Add a style guide summary to your checklist template outlining your target voice, word choices, descriptive language, formatting, and terminology. Keep it on-brand, down to the details.
Collaborate With Your Team
Customizing your checklist is the perfect opportunity to boost team participation. Actively involve your staff in enhancing these shared processes.
Schedule a kick-off where designers, writers, analysts, and other specialists review the draft checklist. Gather their perspectives on what’s missing based on their expertise.
Collect ongoing feedback by keeping the checklist template in a shared workspace. Let team members adjust items or propose changes over time based on campaign experiences.
Executing your checklist is a group effort—so empower all contributors to perfect it. Collaborative checklists inspire engagement and ownership.
Ongoing Checklist Optimization
Hopefully these tips provide ideas to start shaping your checklist uniquely for your brand and objectives. But don’t ever consider the customization truly complete.
Continually enhance your checklist by learning lessons from each campaign, regularly revisiting it, and inviting team participation. Let it evolve continually, just like your expertise.
The companies experiencing the most email success don’t follow rigid, generic checklists—they craft optimized, living checklists that flex and adapt over time.
Follow their lead. Make the checklist your own. And keep refining it as you continue on your path to email excellence.
Key Takeaways
If you only remember three things from this extensive guide, make it these:
1. Document your process.
An email marketing checklist ensures you execute all best practices, every time. It’s easy to forget steps when managing complex campaigns alone. A checklist safeguards your strategy.
2. Customize the checklist to your unique needs.
Don’t implement a generic framework rigidly. Tweak sections and tasks to match your goals, brand voice, campaign types, and team. Personalization is key.
3. Continuously improve your checklist.
The best checklists evolve continually. Update yours after each campaign based on insights and feedback. Refine over time as skills progress. Keep it a living document.
Follow these three principles, and your checklist will guide your program to the next level.
Now that you have a complete content framework, customize and fill in details using your expertise. Make the advice practical and actionable.
And don’t forget to download our pre-made template to accelerate creating your own email marketing checklist. Just click here [link] to get started.
Frequently Asked Questions
Still have some lingering questions around email marketing checklists? These common FAQs should eliminate any remaining doubts:
How detailed should my checklist be?
Find a balance between concise and comprehensive. Include all critical steps but avoid an overly lengthy document. Stick to key tasks only—you can create separate standard operating procedures (SOPs) for elaborating on specifics.
When should I create my checklist?
Ideally build your checklist before launching any campaigns. But it’s never too late to start. Documenting your process will still help organize and optimize future emails.
Should every campaign follow the exact same checklist?
Consistency is good but flexibility is also key. Tweak your checklist across different campaign types or audiences. Just keep foundational elements stable.
Who should have input on the checklist?
Involve your entire email team in shaping checklist processes. Designers, writers, QA specialists, and strategists all bring helpful perspectives. But assign an owner to manage final updates.
How often should I review and update the checklist?
Revisit your checklist regularly—at least quarterly, if not after every major campaign. Look to optimize and refine continuously. Let it evolve with your skills and lessons learned.
Can software automate completing checklist tasks?
Absolutely. Leverage purpose-built applications to execute repetitive QA, testing, proofing, analytics, and design tasks. Let your talented team focus on strategy while tech handles tactics.
What if my team isn’t following every checklist step?
Compliance takes time. Provide checklist training and enforce usage through manager reviews. Publicly celebrate checklist “wins.” Peer accountability helps cement habits.