Email Marketing Checklist: Before Every Send

With Apple Mail Privacy Protection (MPP) inflating open rates since 2021, industry "open rates" now average 40–60% but include bot opens. Focus on click-through rate (real engagement indicator) rather than open rate alone. Target CTR of 2–5% as a more reliable engagement metric. For unaffected segments, 20–30% open rate remains the benchmark.

Email deliverability is the ability of your emails to reach the inbox (not spam folder) of your recipients. Key factors: (1) Authentication — SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records must be correctly configured on your sending domain; check at mail-tester.com, (2) Sender reputation — your domain and IP develop a reputation based on engagement (opens, clicks) and complaint rates (spam reports); maintain below 0.08% spam rate, (3) List hygiene — remove hard bounces immediately, suppress unengaged contacts (no opens in 6+ months), never purchase email lists, (4) Content — avoid spam trigger words (FREE, GUARANTEED, $$$), keep text-to-image ratio at least 60:40, avoid URL shorteners, (5) Sending volume — warm up new domains gradually (start at 50 emails/day, double weekly). Check your deliverability score at mail-tester.com before every major send.

Essential email automation sequences for most businesses: (1) Welcome sequence (2–5 emails over 7–10 days) — introduce your brand, deliver the lead magnet, share your best content, make a soft offer; this is your highest-engagement sequence with 40–60% open rates, (2) Abandoned cart sequence (e-commerce: 3 emails over 48 hours) — first email within 1 hour reminds and shows product, second email within 24 hours adds social proof, third within 48 hours offers a small discount, (3) Post-purchase follow-up — thank you, onboarding instructions, request for review at day 7–14, (4) Re-engagement sequence for inactive subscribers — "We miss you" with your best content, last chance to confirm subscription. Platform recommendations: Klaviyo for e-commerce, Mailchimp or ActiveCampaign for service businesses and SaaS.

Segmentation increases email revenue by up to 760% versus blasting the whole list. Key segmentation criteria: Engagement-based (most important): segment by open/click activity in last 30/60/90 days — highly engaged subscribers get all emails, low-engagement get fewer, very inactive go into re-engagement flow. Behavioral: purchased vs non-purchased, specific pages visited, lead magnet downloaded, webinar attended. Demographic: industry, company size, job title (B2B). Geographic: city/region for local event or location-specific promotions. Purchase history: category purchased, spend level, purchase frequency. Start with engagement segmentation (easiest to implement with most immediate deliverability benefit) before building complex behavioral segments.

Email marketing in India is governed by the Information Technology (Reasonable Security Practices) Rules and the upcoming Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act 2023. Key requirements: (1) Consent: you must have verifiable consent before sending marketing emails — no purchased lists or pre-ticked consent boxes, (2) Identification: clearly identify the sender (business name) in From and footer, (3) Opt-out: every commercial email must include an easy unsubscribe mechanism that is honored within 10 business days, (4) Physical address: include your registered business address in every email footer, (5) No deceptive subject lines: subject lines must not mislead recipients. For businesses sending to EU contacts, GDPR applies with stricter requirements. Use double opt-in to build a defensible consent record for all new subscribers.