Message Purpose & Objective
What is the purpose of the email message? (why are you sending this email?)
What do you hope to accomplish by sending this campaign? (List any qualitative or
quantitative goals – the more measurable, the better):
Unique Value Proposition (UVP)
What is the message about?
Why should your subscribers care?
Does / Is your UVP:
Relevant to your audience’s problems or situation?
Demonstrate value and/or portray transformational, beneficial outcomes?
A statement you can support with specific benefits and features
State or imply how you’re different from the competition?
Clear and easy to understand?
Short enough to be read in 5 seconds or less?
Avoiding hype?
NOT your company slogan or mission statement?
Hierarchy & Organization
UVP expressed in headline, or at least visible “above the fold”? Yes No
Benefits are stated before features? Yes No
Benefits supported by features? Yes No
Know/have identified the features that kill audience pain points? Yes No
Know/have identified the features that address desired audience gains? Yes No
Approach
What is the primary way you’ll resonate with your audience?
Emotionally Intellectually
Which (if any) of the following motivational tactics will you employ?
Scarcity ( time/deadline? price? quantity?)
Worry
Alarm
Interruption
Social Proof
Story
Safety and security
Curiosity or mystery
Exclusivity (advance or exclusive notice/access)
Surprise
COPYWRITING
Subject Line
Written with UVP in mind
Relates to purpose and main body of message (legal requirement)
First two words optimized
Ideally less than 50 characters
Clear and descriptive
Concise: all unnecessary words eliminated, numbers expressed as numeric values
No unnecessary or excessive punctuation
Personalized? Yes No How?
Emojis? Yes No Which?
Testing? Yes No
Pre-Header Message
Continues main idea of subject line
Bridges between subject line and message headline; written in conjunction with both
Fewer than 100 characters
Could stand alone (or possibly be a long subject line)
Contains CTA link
Headline
Expresses/encapsulates the UVP
Pays off promise of subject line; reinforces attention generated by subject line
Short and clear (3 to 7 words)
Focused on subscriber more than sender
Benefits-forward
Body
Portrays transformational outcome from acting on offer
Expresses at least one benefit
Short sentences and paragraphs; scannable content blocks
Complicated features or content summarized and organized in bullets, boxes or lists
Written in clear, jargon-free language
Active (vs. passive) voice
Written to one person – directly to the reader – using second person voice
Hyperlinked text makes sense if read alone
Unnecessary/confusing information out (or moved downstream to landing page)
Image Copy
Each image has an ALT-tag
ALT-tag text conveys primary message of image or includes active CTA link
Short sentences and paragraphs
Scannable content blocks
Call-To-Action (CTA)
Is clear (reader knows what to do)
Is compelling
Is descriptive
If more than one, a specific link/button to each is included and clear
If only one and message is long, there are redundant links/buttons (both at top, and a
recovery module at bottom)
