Your email campaign checklist - 20 vital questions.

by Michelle Keegan,  Constant Contact Email Marketing Expert

Perhaps you have an email campaign sitting in draft form, notes jotted down on napkins and scraps of paper or just a clever email marketing idea or two in your head.

What are you waiting for?

The rewards of adding email to your marketing mix are within your reach. So, revisit that draft, go back to those notes and refine those ideas. Then, before you hit the send button, use this checklist to make sure your campaign is ready for "prime time."

1. Define your goals.
   Are you trying to motivate purchases, reinforce your brand, bring visitors back to visit your site or store, cue the reading of an article, prompt requests for more information, appointments or sign ups for a service?
2. Define your audience.
   Are you targeting a segment of your customer base, your entire house list, a rental list of targeted prospects? What are their interests? What is important to them?
3. Define your message.
   Engage your audience and use what you know to determine how, and in what order, to describe the benefits of your offer.
4. Define your vehicle.
   Now that you understand your goal and your audience, how can you best communicate? Think about what kinds of campaigns you may use. You have many options including newsletters, holiday or seasonal promotions, preferred customer sales, new product or service announcements, press releases and more.
5. Define your delivery timing.
   When is your audience most likely to open and read your message? While audiences vary, we have found that mid-day delivery is better than mornings or evenings. Choosing the right day of the week is also important. Often Tuesday and Wednesday achieve better results than the beginning or the end of the week.

Answer the following questions:

Your From and Subject Lines:

6. Does your "From:" line include your company name or brand?
7. Is your "Subject" line the right length? (5-8 words, 40 characters including spaces)
8. Does your "Subject" line incorporate a specific benefit?
9. Does your "Subject" line include your brand (if for some reason your "From" line does not)?
10. Does your "Subject" line accurately reflect your offer?
11. Does your "Subject" line create a sense of urgency?

Your Email Copy:

12. Is your email personalized with the recipient's first name last name or both, if appropriate?
13. Is your email copy clear and concise?
14. Does it contain a strong call to action?
15. Does it focus on benefits?
16. Does it create a sense of urgency?

Important Details:

17. Have you used appropriate graphics while also making good use of white space?
18. Have you proofread the "From:" line, "Subject:" line and email copy thoroughly?
19. Have you checked all links to be sure they work properly?
20. Have you previewed and sent yourself a test in HTML, aol and text?

When you can answer "yes" to these questions, you're ready to hit the send button. Congratulations! Now, sit back and enjoy the results!

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