Email marketing effectiveness is usually measured after the email has been sent and opens, clickthroughs, etc. have been measured. The problem is your results are often skewed by the effectiveness of the subject line, message, call to action and design. With proper planning and lessons learned you can ensure that your emails are as effective as possible.
Once you’ve developed your copy and laid out your design, it’s tempting to forgo all email testing and just send it out – especially when you’re crunched for time. However, testing, editing and proofing your email on a regular basis helps to ensure a successful campaign. Here are some easy-to-implement email testing tips that’ll take your email campaigns to a new level of success.
Email Testing for Accuracy
Once you’ve added images and links to your draft email, you need to send out a test email. Send one to yourself as well as a few coworkers or eagle eyed friends to proofread and click your links, as it can be easy to miss something when you’ve been looking at it for a while. When you get the test, do a quick check of the following:
- Is the subject line attention-grabbing and typo free?
- Do the images render correctly?
- Is there alternative text for images? (Most email clients block images by default, however the alt text will appear)
- Do your links go to the right places?
- Is your font easy to read and consistent throughout the email?
- Are there any typos in the content?
- Is there a clear call-to-action (or calls-to-action)?
Testing Email Clients
Because emails consist of HTML code, each email client has its own rules that determine how your email will look in a recipient’s inbox. Outlook, Apple Mail, Hotmail, Yahoo and Gmail are all commonly used email clients that you may want to test. We recommend sending a test email to a few of these email clients to ensure your bases are covered.
