From blank page to first send

1. Who are you really writing to

Not 'my customers.' A specific person, with a specific problem. If you can't say out loud who will open your letter on a Tuesday morning, you'll write for everyone — which means for no one.

A list of forty people who know you is worth more than a list of ten thousand collected addresses. The number isn't the point: it's the reason they have to read you.

And never buy a list. It's illegal in Europe, and your first campaign will damage your sending reputation for months.

2. One promise, kept every time

'Every month, three things that are actually useful for your work.' That's a promise. It gives a rhythm, a quantity, and a benefit.

Write it on your signup form, and honor it. A subscriber who gets something other than what they signed up for will unsubscribe — and that unsubscription is permanent.

3. A schedule you'll hold in January

The classic mistake is to promise weekly in September and stop in November. Monthly and consistent beats weekly and abandoned.

Set the dates before you have the content. A calendar with twelve dated appointments is what will make you write; good intentions won't.

4. The subject line matters more than anything else

It decides whether your email gets opened — and therefore the fate of everything that follows. Fewer than sixty characters, so it doesn't get cut off on mobile.

It should only promise what the email delivers. A clickbait subject line gets opened once and unsubscribed after.

Don't forget the preview text — the line shown right after the subject line. Without it, the email client displays 'Hello {{firstname}}', which gives no one a reason to open.

In the editor, the assistant can suggest three based on what you've already written. These are starting points, not answers: the one that works is almost always the one you edit.

5. The three most costly mistakes

Sending from a Gmail or free email address. Since 2024, Gmail and Yahoo almost systematically reject bulk sends from free addresses. You need a domain you own, authenticated.

Putting a hundred people in BCC. No way to unsubscribe, near-certain spam classification, and the list exposed to the first 'reply all'.

Not proofreading in a real inbox. An editor's preview always lies a little. In the editor: Test and verify, then Send yourself a test. Read the email on your phone, and click the button.

6. What gets checked for you

Before sending, Mailcheer reviews twelve points: the subject line, the content, the sender, the domain, the targeted segment, the recipients, buttons without links, images without descriptions, unknown variables, dates that don't work out, bracketed placeholders left to fill in, the postal address.

Six block the send: no subject, no content, no sender, domain not verified, targeted segment deleted, no recipients. The other six warn you and let you decide — it's your email, not ours.

7. After you've sent

Watch the click rate more than the open rate: the first is a real measurement; the second has been approximate since Apple started pre-loading images.

Don't draw any conclusions from a single send. It's the third email that starts telling you something.