I have been helping clients send out a lot of broadcasts lately.  So I thought I would share my broadcast checklist.  I will admit, I sometimes skip the checklist when I’m in a hurry but there are certain items I never skip (like the test broadcast).  Feel free to share any tips or “checks” to enhance the checklist.

Email Marketing & Broadcast Checklist

  1. Email Broadcast ChecklistSpelling & Grammar Check: Sounds like a no-brainer, right?  After all, most word processing programs have spell check functionality built in.  Believe it or not, the spell check isn’t infallible.  It does get things wrong on occasion.  Read your broadcast before hitting send.  Simple.  If reading s-l-o-w-l-y isn’t your strong suit (I tend to glance at things quickly and read what I think should be there rather than what is there, especially when I get busy) have a second (or third) set of eyes on the broadcast before hitting send.  If spelling and grammar mistakes don’t bother you (and there are many well-known business coaches for whom this is the case) then skip this step.  For the rest of us, a good spell and grammar check is advisable… especially if you tend to write your broadcasts directly into the broadcast window.
  2. Formatting Check: Is your spacing consistent? Are your fonts the right size and the same font-family? Are your images aligned correctly and displaying properly?  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve received a broadcast where the spacing has been wonky or there have been issues with mismatched fonts. A well designed template can help you avoid formatting errors.
  3. Content Check: I know you might think this is a repeat of #1 but what I’m referring to here is checking things like your links (do they go where they’re supposed to go?) and bridge line and PIN numbers.  A note about PINs: Make sure you send out the guest PIN, not the host PIN.  It’s an easy mistake to make so be sure to triple-check the PIN to make sure you’re not sending out the wrong one.
  4. Do a SPAM Check: Systems like 1ShoppingCart have a built in SPAM checker that you can run your broadcast through to score it on a scale (usually 0-5) of the likelihood your broadcast is going to be tagged as SPAM.  It takes seconds to do and can help increase the chance of hitting someone’s inbox.
  5. Send a Test Broadcast: Before you send it out to your list, send yourself a copy first to ensure that you don’t have any formatting issues and can check your links.  I usually send a broadcast to my regular e-mail account and a Gmail account as there can be a difference in the way Outlook and Gmail interprets my HTML code.  I used to work with a client who also wanted their broadcasts verified in Yahoo, AOL and Hotmail.  I find that most of my clients have readers who have regular email accounts (in Outlook or Mac Mail) and Gmail so those are the formats I check. aWeber makes it super simple to schedule a test – they have a button that opens a window where you can input the test name and email address. 1ShoppingCart also has a test feature and you can set up the email accounts you want to use for the test messages.