Pre-send checklist
Verify identity, content, audience, and measurement before you hit send. Most incidents are boring misses: wrong segment, broken link, or missing unsubscribe.
Audience: Anyone shipping a commercial or lifecycle email
Identity and authentication
- From name and address match the expected brand identity
- Sending domain passes SPF, DKIM, and DMARC alignment
- Reply-to is monitored
Content and rendering
- Subject and preheader are accurate, not bait
- Primary CTA link works on mobile and desktop
- Images have alt text; email still makes sense image-off
- Dark-mode spot-checked in one major client
Audience and compliance
- Segment excludes suppressions, role accounts, and recent hard bounces
- One-click unsubscribe present on commercial mail
- Legal footer and physical address requirements met for your regions
Measurement
- UTM or equivalent conventions applied
- Template or version id recorded
- Success metric named before send
Related lessons: html email and mjml, transactional vs marketing
Courses: templating and design, sending from code
Machine-readable site index: https://sendemails.dev/api/site.json