What should you check before sending a newsletter?

One issue we worked on went out with every button rendered as a small black square.

Why isn't the preview enough?

Because the preview isn't the inbox. Things look different in the builder than they do when you're done. After that send, my ops lead and I agreed the final QA step before scheduling has to be a full test email, every time. Not optional. Systematized.

Before the test send, flip the preview to mobile. Mobile and desktop can look different, and most people read email on their phone.

The checklist

1. Preview on mobile and desktop in the builder.
2. Send a real test email to yourself and open it on your phone.
3. Read the subject and preview text as they appear in the inbox.
4. Scroll to the bottom and make sure Gmail didn't clip it.
5. Check image sizes on the phone screen.
6. Tap the buttons and graphics. Do they render, and do they link where they should?
7. Check the listings. No canceled events, sold homes or rentals in the wrong section.
8. Read it once for robot tells.

How long should the subject line be?

One line in the inbox, two at most. Never four. The subject and preview have one job: get the open. If that's all they see before opening, anything that doesn't fit is wasted.

Why is my newsletter getting clipped in Gmail?

Usually links, not images or text.

"I was working with a guy whose newsletter was half as long as yours and was getting cut off because he just had link, link, link, link."

You have roughly a hundred kilobytes to use, and links take up a ton of it. Watch the link-heavy sections.

How many links is too many?

It's a curve. Two links won't get you many clicks. Thirty or forty is too many. Find the happy medium.

One issue I reviewed kept getting clipped with about 20 to 25 links. My read was that cutting down to around 20 might fix it, so they only had to take out a little. That was my diagnosis of one issue, not a test.

How big should images be?

Smaller than you think. On a phone, one image can take up your entire screen. Shrink them so people can keep scrolling.

For calls to action, I like a graphic made in Canva where the whole image is clickable. Some people don't realize they can click an image, so make anywhere they tap work.

Does it look like yours?

When I review a first issue, these are the design fixes I usually suggest. They're my opinions:

• A light background color. Almost every other email is white. A very light color lets someone know it's yours before reading a word.
• A bigger logo. Beehiiv's default logo size is really small, and it's not obvious you can make it bigger. Mine was small for a while until we figured that out.
• A border around the poll so it pops. In Beehiiv: the six dots, visual settings, border. You can add a color too.
• Content breaks between sections. Hit slash, then content break, to put a line between them.
• A signature image at the bottom, made in Canva with your picture in it. It looks way more professional than a plain photo.

Is everything in the issue honest?

Check two kinds of stale content:

• Events: I've caught canceled Eventbrite events still sitting in an issue.
• Real estate: no homes already sold, no land, no whole-complex listings, no rentals.

And make sure the issue delivers what your marketing promised. If your ads say you'll keep people up to date on events, there had better be events in it.

Does it sound like a robot?

Last read. An em dash in every line is the fastest way to look AI-written. Anyone savvy sees a bunch of em dashes and is already annoyed.

What if a mistake gets through anyway?

Usually, don't worry about it. One operator I talked with sent a broken link. If only a few people clicked it, that's probably not worth worrying about at all.

If it really bugs you, own it in the next issue's editorial: sorry, last week there was a bad link in the events, I'm still figuring this out. That can actually help. People respect someone who makes a mistake, owns it and tries to make it better. You've heard about servers who mess things up on purpose because they get bigger tips when they fix it the right way.