Where To Start:

QA is more than just the same person skimming through an email or SMS before deployment, but starts the moment you begin working on the email or SMS. From copy, design, building, and deployment, checks should be done along the way.

What We QA:

So what should we be QA’ing? Great question - here’s a rundown:

• Copy - To ensure you’re typo-free. While the ideal way to do this would be with another person reading through and a grammar/spelling platform check, using something like Grammarly can also be sufficient at this step.

• Designs - Having another set of eyes on a design can help catch not only missed typos, but also ensure the email makes sense and flows as it should. It’s easy to look at a design and say, “looks good,” but another person may be able to point out something you hadn’t thought of.

• Building - When an email or SMS is built, a thorough QA should be done by whoever built it, which should include a live test of the email to yourself, testing links, dark mode vs light mode, UTMs, alt text, and overall that the email is rendering correctly. You also want to ensure that the subject line and preview text fit the email.

After this is done and you’ve done your QA, it should go on to another person to QA, repeating all the steps above.

• Scheduling of emails - Once the email is scheduled, it’s a good idea to have someone confirm it’s scheduled correctly, on the right day and time, and to the right audience. We’ve all been there at least once, where an email didn’t go out as planned.

Quality assurance is a key part of a successful program, even though it may seem miniscule compared to the bigger picture. This shows you’re putting your best foot forward to put a strong email/SMS out into the world, that is free of mistakes and is consistent with the brand.

Want to take more QA? Reach out now.