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May/June 2008

Ask the Expert: How Can I Avoid Mistakes or Errors in Email Communications?

by Sally Heaven, Senior Account Manager, Convio

Q: How can I avoid mistakes or errors in an email communications?

A: Errors happen when too few people in the mix are working on an urgent deadline in a medium that is designed for instant publication. Errors stand out to members, and it's a good idea to put some formal guardrails on the process.

Here are some helpful tips from one of our partner agencies, Adams Hussey & Associates, which uses a Quality Control (QC) checklist for their messages:

• Formalize and standardize a QC checklist that is filled out for each unique email and Web page.
• Fill out the QC check list each and every time — even for cloned messages.
• Have an outside person (someone other than the person responsible for setup) complete the final QC check list.
• The new pair of eyes will always see things in a fresh light.
• Test emails in the various email clients. But remember when you make a code change to fix an issue in one email client, you must go back and check to see that this didn't change the way it appears in all the others.

It is critical to check the personalized data with as many different email addresses and unique records as possible. For those with a direct mail background, this is the equivalent of checking data setups.

This topic spotlights a recent Connection Café blog post that got some great feedback. Please share your blooper, blunder or "oops moment" or comment on this post. That way we can all learn from our mistakes; after all, we’re all experts at making those!