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WHITEPAPER
EMAIL SUCCESS TOOLKIT
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Before you hit the send button on yet another “oops” message, use this toolkit to prevent mistakes.
Included are a Project Brief to help with your process, a Quality Assurance Checklist you can use to
organize your email testing, a Mitigate the Impact Checklist to remind you what to do if a mistake does slip
through, and examples of “Oops” campaigns for inspiration.
CONTENTS
1 PROJECT BRIEF
3 PROBLEM? MITIGATE THE
IMPACT CHECKLIST
2 QUALITY ASSURANCE
CHECKLIST
4 EXAMPLE GALLERY
©2014 Digital River, Inc.
5 OTHER RESOURCES
bluehornet.com
PROJECT BRIEF
Below is an example of an email project brief. Depending on your specific situation and needs, the
contents may vary, but this should give you a great starting point to put some structure and clarity into
your process.
PROJECT OVERVIEW
Template / Campaign Name:
Review / Approval Owner:
Creative Due Date:
Tested HTML Due Date:
Email Launch Date:
TEMPLATE / STARTING POINT
Design new email from scratch
Create new email from existing HTML/Template
• If creating from existing assets, please describe:
BACKGROUND / BRAND DIRECTION
Goal / Objective of this campaign?
Who is the primary audience?
Tone / Image of template?
What are your KPIs / Success Metrics?
Specific elements to incorporate into template?
OK to Share to Social? If so, which channels?
Copy Deck location?
©2014 Digital River, Inc.
Make sure your
entire team is on the
same page before
you begin. When
everyone understands
the bigger picture
– the project goals,
audience, success
metrics – it empowers
everyone to make the
right decisions during
the process.
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MAKE SURE COPY DECK INCLUDES
Headlines and Sub-headlines and CTA button names
Body Copy
Call-To-Action button names and URLs
Links (full URL paths including navigation, social, body links,
CTAs, privacy policy, etc.)
Snippet
View Online / Mobile Verbiage
The more revisions
there are, and the
more back and forth
there is, the greater
the likelihood of
miscommunication
and mistakes slipping
through. Iron out all
of the content before it
you get it to the design
phase.
Address Book Verbiage ( if applicable )
LAUNCH INFORMATION
Substitute Name (for personalization)
From Name
From Email
Reply Email
Subject Line
Footer
Campaign (if applicable)
Bill Code (if applicable)
Attributes (if applicable)
Test List Email Addresses
Segments to Send to
Segments to Exclude (if applicable)
Send Date (Month/Day/Year)
Send Time (Hour : Minutes AM/PM)
Although it may sound
counter-intuitive,
conducting A/B
split tests on your
campaigns can actually
help prevent mistakes.
With an extra layer
of variables in play,
people are more
cautious and thorough
when setting up the
email. If a mistake
does get through,
it may only affect a
small percentage
of recipients. And,
of course, you are
gathering insight and
data to make your
future emails more
successful.
A/B Test Details (if applicable)
©2014 Digital River, Inc.
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QUALITY ASSURANCE CHECKLIST
After your email is designed and programmed, QA is your last line of defense against mistakes. This
checklist will help give you an idea of how to keep track of all the elements that need to be tested and
where the email should be previewed before the send button gets pushed. Whenever possible, have
someone other than the creator of the copy and design available for testing. A fresh pair of eyes can do
wonders.
DESIGN AND TEMPLATE
Confirm final creative matches creative brief, tone, design,
and assets specified.
Confirm correct template is being used.
TEST MESSAGE RENDERING IN EMAIL CLIENTS
AND BROWSERS
Outlook 365
Outlook 2013
Outlook 2010
Outlook 2007
Outlook.com, formerly Hotmail / Windows Live (IE, Firefox,
Chrome, Safari)
Yahoo! Mail (IE, Firefox, Chrome, Safari)
Gmail (IE, Firefox, Chrome, Safari)
AOL
Apple Mail 6
Apple Mail 5
iPhone
Android
Remember that HTML
for email is very
different than HTML
for websites. If your
design looks good
when you preview it
in your browser, that
doesn’t necessarily
mean that it will look
good when it gets to
the end user. Mobile
emails have a bigger
audience than ever.
Take advantage of
email rendering tools
or third parties like
Email On Acid and
Litmus to streamline
the testing process on
multiple devices.
BlackBerry
©2014 Digital River, Inc.
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SPECIFIC RENDERING CHECKS
Overall layout/readability of message
Placement holding of all components: images,
paragraphs and spacing, indentations, etc.
Font accuracy - style, size, placement, formatting
Rendering of special characters
Link underlining/color consistency
Check View Online version to make sure all content displays
correctly
Check to ensure Text version mirrors the HTML version with
offered links and content
View email outside of company firewall to ensure
images are publicly viewable
CONTENT ACCURACY
From name
From/reply email
Substitute name
Subject line
Link underlining / color consistency
Snippet copy
Headline
Sub-headline
Body copy
Offer (Discount, expiration, disclaimer / fine print, etc)
CTA / Button
Checking for spelling
and grammar at the
same time you are
reviewing for message
tone and clarity is
difficult. Instead, read
through the email
a few times, with a
different objective
each time. Remember
that yspell check won’t
catch everything. A
great trick is to read
the copy backwards...
it forces you to ignore
the message and lets
you focus on individual
words.
Disclaimer
Custom fields populated correctly
Call any listed phone numbers
Double check every date (Events, releases, number
versus day of the week, etc)
©2014 Digital River, Inc.
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CONFIRM LINKS
Correct path
All links are tracked
Functionality
Links open in new window
Variable for duplicate link paths in HTML (if applicable)
ALT TAGS
Accuracy
Landing pages are
often created at the
same time as the
email, so be sure
you don’t overlook a
placeholder link or a
URL intended to go
to a specific interior
web page that’s
temporarily directed at
the home page.
One for each image
CAN-SPAM COMPLIANCE
Includes physical mailing address
Unsubscribe link is working
©2014 Digital River, Inc.
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PROBLEM? MITIGATE THE IMPACT CHECKLIST
First you need to truly define what type of error it is. For example, is it revenue impacting or not? There
was a big box retailer last holiday season that sent out a message that was selling iPads for the absolutely
wrong price. The price was so off that they really couldn’t even honor the pricing in the offer – so that is a
BIG error. But if it is a broken link in the navigation to the contact us page…or the view in browser link – it
probably isn’t so monumental. Use this checklist as a guide to help keep your cool and make sure you are
thinking everything through under pressure.
WHAT TO DO WHEN SOMETHING GOES WRONG
Stay calm and assess the situation
Will this impact revenue?
Identify who you need to involve to address
the mistake
Determine IF you want to send an Oops message at all. And
to whom.
IF YOU NEED TO SEND A FOLLOW-UP “OOPS”
EMAIL, REMEMBER…
Be timely
Maintain your brand voice
Be transparent
Don’t blame anyone else
Learn something
©2014 Digital River, Inc.
You can’t change any
code that’s in the sent
email, but you might
be able to change
what’s on your server
that the email is
pointing to.
Depending on how the
mistake was made and
how your server is set
up, you might be able
to fix images or links
with broken paths.
It can be as simple
as posting a new file
with the mis-spelled
name. Or if there’s a
typo in the image, you
can repost an updated
image.
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EXAMPLE GALLERY
The proper “Oops” email response is entirely dependent on the actual mistake that was made, but here
are a few examples to give you some ideas should you ever find yourself in need of sending one.
FROM:
KATE SPACE
SUBJECT LINE:
THANK YOU FOR YOUR
PATIENCE.... HERE’S A
SWEET TREAT
FROM:
PACSUN
SUBJECT LINE:
OOPS, OUR SITE WAS DOWN.
LET’S TRY THIS AGAIN!
©2014 Digital River, Inc.
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ORIGINAL EMAIL
FROM:
WHICH WICH?
SUBJECT LINE:
CELEBRATE OUR BIRTHDAY
WITH $3 WICHES!
FOLLOW UP OOPS EMAIL
FROM:
WHICH WICH?
SUBJECT LINE:
OOPS . . .
©2014 Digital River, Inc.
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FROM:
THREADLESS
SUBJECT LINE:
WE SCREWED UP!
FROM:
THINKGEEK
SUBJECT LINE:
OOPS! THINKGEEK’S IN THE DOGHOUSE
FROM:
STELLA & DOT
SUBJECT LINE:
OOPS! PLEASE DISREGARD OUR
CONGRATULATIONS EMAIL
©2014 Digital River, Inc.
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OTHER RESOURCES
On-Demand Webinar
Did you miss our “Preventing the ‘Oops!’ Email” presentation? Kara Trivunovic, VP of Strategic Services
for BlueHornet discusses how to avoid the “oops”, how to mitigate its impact, and discusses ways to get
creative with “oops” emails. Watch it online now...
www.bluehornet.com/form/preventing-the-oops-email-on-demand-webinar
Editable Checklists
Would you like an editable Microsoft Word version of any of these checklists to build from? Just email
bluehornetcommunications@bluehornet.com with your request and we’ll send you the file.
BlueHornet
2355 Northside Drive
Suite B250
San Diego, CA 92108
(866) 586-3755
www.bluehornet.com
sales@bluehornet.com
Twitter: @bluehornetemail
©2014 Digital River, Inc.
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