Newsletter checklist for professional mailing

• What is the goal of your newsletter or campaign?
  Do you want to inform, do you want to activate, do you pursue a purchase intention, etc.? Depending on this, the structure of the mailing will be determined later.
  
• Who is the target group?
  Think carefully about who you want to reach with the content. This will help you with the argumentation and the right approach.
  
• Is the planned content relevant to the target group?
  Newsletters are often sent out in a scattergun fashion. Avoid this and rather limit your target group accordingly. If a recipient receives content that is irrelevant to him or her too often, he or she will not read future newsletters.

• Check your templates regularly.
  Are they still up to date and do they correspond to your own Corperate Design? In order to keep up with the trend, a functioning dark mode, for example, is currently important.
• The design should be implemented with HTML if possible.
  CSS can cause problems with some mailboxes. Also think about a plain text version of your mail, this increases deliverability. A missing text version is a spam signal.
• A well-functioning mobile display should be standard by now.
  Tip: The inbox preview in the EMM helps you check the display for different devices.
• Use a meaningful sender address with recognition value.
  The sender address is important so that your recipients can identify you and do not delete the mailing immediately.
• A legally compliant registration process with double opt-in procedure is a prerequisite.
  The newsletter also includes a distribution list. To ensure that this is filled as well as possible, a good registration process is important, which also includes the double opt-in and thus the authorization to send a mailing to the corresponding recipient in the first place.
• Does your newsletter include an imprint and an unsubscribe link?
  As a company, your newsletters must also contain an imprint and an unsubscribe link in the footer for legal reasons.
• Check your unsubscribe process every now and then.
  You are obliged to offer a functioning unsubscribe process. Check it occasionally so that the unsubscribe link does not lead to an empty space and there are no complaints or even cease-and-desist letters from dissatisfied recipients.
• Good e-mail-marketing also includes professional bounce management.
  This removes faulty or abandoned mailboxes, but also preserves addresses for your own mailing list that were supposedly unreachable.
• Have a Blacklist.
  This prevents known spammers, unwelcome customers and other troublemakers from being added to your mailing list in the first place.
• A fixed IP address is helpful for good deliverability.
  A fixed IP address reduces the risk of being classified as spam.
• Build accessible newsletters.
  When designing newsletters, think about readers for whom access to content is difficult. For example, make sure you use meaningful alt texts or simple language for certain target groups.

• Think about a reasonable structure.
  First, plan what content and elements your mailing should contain and develop the structure from these.
  
• A linked table of contents facilitates the overview.
  Does your newsletter deal with only one topic or does it contain several articles? A linked table of contents can make sense for a longer newsletter.
  
• The text length should not be too long.
  Newsletters usually only get a short attention span, so keep it short and formulate your content as concisely as possible.
  
• The subject line is the door opener.
  It should arouse curiosity and not be too long (about 45 characters). Avoid spam signals such as fully capitalized words or multiple question marks or exclamation points.
  
• Do not forget the pre-header.
  If possible, coordinate it with the subject line – and add to it to arouse interest in the mailbox.
  
• Make sure the newsletter text is easy to read.
  In particular, it is important that the contrast between text and background is sufficient and that the font size is not too small.
  
• Place images in the right size.
  Save the images in the right size before placing them in the mailing. Although there is an option to scale them small in the template, unfortunately, in some email clients they are displayed in their original size and thus destroy your layout.
  
• Think of a meaningful call-to-action.
  The button should have a prompting or activating effect and be placed in a highly visible position. It is also important here that the button stands out from the background.
  
• Are you also active in social media?
  Then integrate your channels into your template and offer the possibility to like and share products or posts.
  

• Use the preview function.
  With the help of the preview that the email tool offers you, you can check in advance whether everything is in the right place. In the best case, you can fall back on an inbox preview that still shows you the mailing in the different email clients and end devices.
  
• Four eyes are better than two.
  Therefore, always have a second person look over the newsletter. Especially if you have created things yourself, it is easy to overlook something.
  
• Carry out a test mailing.
  Use the test mailing before the regular mailing. On the one hand, to let at least one other person look over it and on the other hand, errors can still be found during the test mailing, which were not visible in the preview.
  
• Teste all links.
  An automated link check can help find incorrect URLs quickly. A manual check ensures that your recipients get to the desired destination.
  
• Also check content specific to your target audience.
  If your mailing contains personalized elements or is created in multiple languages, randomly test that as well.
  
• Check the recipient list and target group.
  Before sending, also double-check that the recipient list and target group are set up correctly. Nothing is more embarrassing than sending content to the wrong recipients.
  
• Regular A/B tests make sense.
  By testing, you can find out what resonates better with the respective target group. This will improve your metrics and results in the long run.
  
• Regular analysis of newsletter key figures
  After the mailing has been sent out, the mailing should still be analyzed for the most important key figures so that subsequent newsletters can be optimized accordingly.
  

The short version of these points is available here as a checklist to tick off – downloadable as a PDF.