Before you press send

A few minutes' check before an email goes catches what would cost you: a dead link, an empty name, a wrong price, a footer clipped out of sight. The check is for what's broken, never for the words you chose.

The short version

1. 1

   Every link opens the right page, and none points at a draft or a test page.

2. 2

   The unsubscribe link works.

3. 3

   Every personal field has a fallback, so nobody gets "Hi ,".

4. 4

   The from name, subject line and preview are right.

5. 5

   Prices, dates, codes and end dates match your own terms.

6. 6

   Nothing broken shows: no placeholder, no code showing as text, no missing picture, the right logo.

7. 7

   It reads on a phone, in dark mode and with pictures off.

8. 8

   It's under Gmail's 102 KB clip.

9. 9

   The landing page matches the button.

10. 10

    A test send reaches real inboxes at the providers your list uses.

What's working

1. Links. Click every one: the button, the pictures, the text links, the footer. Each should open the page it promises, and none should open a draft, a test page or a page that needs a login. Where you can name links for the report, name each one ("hero button", "monstera card"), so afterwards you can tell which link earned each click.

2. The unsubscribe. Click it in your test and see that it works. Gmail and Yahoo also require the one-click unsubscribe in the email's hidden headers, honoured within two days: Email marketing and the law.

3. Personal fields. Every field that fills in a name, a town or a last order needs a fallback for the people it's missing for. "Hi [First name]," is caught before sending and given one: "Hi there,". Look for empty brackets, sample text and a greeting with no name.

4. The envelope. The from name is one people know, the subject line is the one you meant, and the preview text is set. Without preview text, the inbox shows whatever comes first in the email, often stray code or "View in browser": From name, subject line and preview.

5. Your terms. Every price, discount, code, date and time matches what you're actually offering, in the email, on the button and on the page it opens. An end date carries its time zone: "ends midnight Sunday, UK time".

6. Nothing broken. Galleries of sent emails show what this check exists for: a fragment of code printed as text, a greeting with an empty name, a price row with no figure. Look for each, and check the logo is your own.

How it looks

7. A phone, dark mode and pictures off.

• A phone first. Phones are the biggest single place email is read, so look at the test on a real phone, not a narrowed computer window: the first screen should carry the point and the button.
• Dark mode. About a third of readers use it. In dark mode, can you still see the logo, read every line and find the button? A dark logo on a see-through background vanishes; give it a thin light outline: Phones, dark mode and accessibility.
• Pictures off. Some mail apps hold pictures back until the reader allows them. The headline, the offer, the prices, the end date and the button must all be real text, and every picture that says something needs alt text that says it.

Fern & Fig's sale, read with pictures off:

`` 25% OFF EVERY HOUSEPLANT Until Sunday, midnight UK time [ Shop the winter sale ] [A 30 cm monstera in its pot] Monstera £18 was £24 Shop → ``

8. Gmail's clip. Gmail cuts an email larger than 102 KB behind a "View entire message" link. The size counts the code, the text and the link addresses, not the picture files. Everything below the cut stays hidden until the reader clicks, often including the footer and its unsubscribe link, and the open stops being counted. Keep it well under: shorter items with a link to the full piece, fewer blocks, nothing pasted from a word processor. To check, send a test to a Gmail inbox and look for "View entire message" at the bottom: Email design and layout.

A five-minute accessibility pass: one main heading and headings in order; alt text on every picture that says something; every link says where it goes, never "click here"; text contrast of at least 4.5 to 1; colour never the only signal; body text 16 px or more, left-aligned; nothing flashing more than three times a second.

Where the click lands

9. The landing page. The page's headline repeats the button's promise, its offer, prices and end match the email, and it asks for one thing. Open it on a phone before you send.

`` Button: Save my place Page headline: Save your place: Gentle Start, Sat 13 March, 10 am Page: name, email address, pay NZ$25, [ Book my place ] ``

From the page's first screen, would the reader know they're in the right place? Get the click.

The test send

10. Real inboxes. Send the test to mailboxes at the providers your list uses. Apple, Gmail and Outlook together make up about 96% of recorded opens (Litmus, September 2026: 76.56% + 16.10% + 3.48%). Preview tools such as Litmus and Email on Acid show many more mail apps at once.

In each one, look at:

• the inbox line: from name, subject line, preview;
• the first screen;
• dark mode;
• the footer, and that nothing is clipped;
• every link, clicked once.

What the check never does

The check fixes what's broken: links, placeholders, code showing as text, the logo, and your terms. It never questions the stories, examples, quotes or figures in your copy. Those are yours.

Doing it here

• On the Review step, preview each email before you launch, at phone and desktop width, and click anything in it to change it: How your emails are written.
• Send Test Email, on the same step, sends every version to the address you choose, each subject line labelled, and can save that address as your default test address.
• Every email carries a footer with your business name, your postal address and an unsubscribe link, and the one-click unsubscribe headers. Before launch, a campaign checks that your brand has a postal address: Unsubscribes, honoured everywhere.
• Every list is checked before anything sends, so only real, working addresses are mailed: Why every list is cleaned.
• Yours to check: the links, your prices and dates, the landing page, and how the email looks in your readers' own mail apps.