Sendpath

Pre-send checklist

Priya Natarajan

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

Illustration for Pre-send checklistVerify domainSendOr export HTML

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://emailmarketing.sh/api/site.json