Have you ever sent out a marketing email only to find errors in it after you hit ‘send’? No worries, it’s a common mistake that happens to many. The easiest way to avoid an issue like this is to send a test email. This can let you review before sending out the real email to your list of contacts. However, even before sending your test email you need to check for any errors. Below, we pulled together a list of 5 things you need to check before hitting ‘send’ on your next marketing email. 

Broken and Forgotten Links

It’s very important that you check to make sure that all of the links in your email are there and working. This should be the first thing that you check when going over a marketing email. You need to make sure that each link is there and loads the correct page. You also need to make sure that none of the links give you a 404 error. With forgotten links, you need to make sure that everything that’s supposed to be linked is actually linked. This includes anchor text, call-to-action, social media icons, and images. 

Spelling/Grammatical Errors

After you’ve looked through your email, you need to have a second set of eyes go over it. Spelling and grammar are extremely important when it comes to marketing. Whether it’s an email, blog post, or ebook, no one wants to see any spelling or grammar errors. While you should spell check anyways, having a second set of eyes can help you find any of the small mistakes.

Distorted Images

How do your images look? Are they stretched out or squished? Overwhelmingly large or too small? You need to check and make sure that all of your images are displaying correctly. If they aren’t, you need to adjust them accordingly. 

Sender Name/Subject Line

Can those who receive your email tell that it’s coming from you? You need to make sure that the ‘from’ name is your identity and that it’s recognizable to your contacts. If they don’t know who the email is from, the chances of them opening and reading your email are very slim. 

Along with this, you need to watch out for the length of your subject line. You want to make sure it doesn’t get cut off. The easiest way to avoid this issue is to keep it as brief as possible. You want as much of it as possible to display in the email pane, especially on mobile devices. 

Lastly, make sure that you avoid common phrases that trigger spam filters. You want your contacts to see your email, and they most likely won’t ever see it if it ends up in their spam folder. Words like ‘free’ and ‘guarantee’ often end up in the spam folder. Along with this, subject lines with all capital letters and excessive punctuation marks end up there as well. 

Accessibility Across Devices and Browsers

The best way to understand how different browsers and devices interpret your email is to see it for yourself. To save yourself the trouble of testing every single email to every single option, test a few options once across the most popular devices and browsers. Then, you can create a template for you to use for each email you send out. While it might take you some to create the template, in the long run you will save yourself a lot of time and stress.