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Operations8 min read

The Email Preflight Checklist: What to Check Before You Send

The concrete checks worth running on every email - and how to automate them so the checklist does not live in someone’s head.

By The Memo Team

Last updated

Quick answer

Before any send, confirm content and variables resolve, links and images work, the footer meets requirements, markup is email-safe, and plain text is coherent - ideally via automated preflight on compiled output, not a mental checklist under pressure.

Everyone has a pre-send ritual. Some of it lives in a doc nobody opens. Some of it lives in the one person who still remembers the Mailchimp merge syntax from 2019. A written checklist helps; an automated one scales.

Content and variables

  • No unresolved merge variables or raw placeholders.
  • Subject line and preview text are set and read sensibly together.
  • No leftover lorem ipsum, TODO comments, or internal notes.

Links and images

  • Every link resolves and points where it should.
  • Every image has alt text and a working source.
  • The footer includes required unsubscribe and address details.

Rendering and size

  • Markup is email-safe - not a web page squeezed into a MIME part.
  • Layout reads on narrow and wide viewports.
  • Plain-text output is coherent, not an auto-generated afterthought.

Compliance and marketing hygiene

Unsubscribe is not optional decoration. Physical address requirements depend on your jurisdiction and sender - but “we will add the footer later” is how compliance debt ships. Fix it in the Brand Kit footer block once.

Make it automatic

Checklists rot when they are optional. Memo preflight runs on compiled HTML and plain text, surfaces findings in the editor, and can gate export or approval until critical issues clear.

Frequently asked questions

What is email preflight?
An automated quality pass over compiled email output - variables, links, images, accessibility, size, and rendering - before the email moves to test send, approval, or export.
Manual checklist or automated preflight?
Both. Automation catches mechanical failures every time; humans still judge message and brand. Automation first saves review for judgment.
Does preflight guarantee deliverability?
No. It catches fixable quality issues in the asset you control. Inbox placement still depends on sender reputation, list hygiene, and content signals outside the design tool.
When should preflight run?
On every meaningful change before approval or export - not once at the end of a quarter.

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