Campaign QA
The campaign pre-send checklist
A pre-send checklist for the whole campaign, not just the email.The expensive errors don’t live inside one asset. They live between channels: the offer that changed in the email but not the SMS, the landing page that still points at last month’s promo.
This is the multichannel hub. Each channel below has the checks that actually catch errors, and the email section links to the deep-dive guides. It sits under campaign production management, because QA belongs in production, not at the end.
QA is the agency’s job, and it is not the same job as client review. The client should not be the first person to discover a broken Outlook render, a bad fallback or a dead link.
Get the multichannel pre-send checklist
The full checklist for email, SMS, WhatsApp and landing pages, as a printable PDF with a named owner per line.
What is QA responsible for, and what is not QA?
Three different questions get asked about the same asset in the same week, and running them together is how a campaign ends up with a client explaining what a merge tag is.
| Step | Question it answers | Whose job |
|---|---|---|
| QA | Is this technically correct? | The agency, before anything is shared |
| Client proofing | What does the client want changed? | The client, on a version |
| Client approval | Has the client authorized it? | The client’s named approver |
The checks, by channel
- 01Renders correctly across your real client mix: not 90 clients, the ones your open data says matter.
- 02Survives dark mode: logo visible, brand colors intact, buttons and text still legible.
- 03Every merge field has a template-level fallback, tested with rows that fake missing data.
- 04Links, UTMs and the reply-to address all resolve; the preheader isn't the last edit's leftover.
SMS
- 01Sender ID and opt-out language are correct for every destination country.
- 02The link is short, tracked and points at the live landing page, not a staging URL.
- 03Character count and encoding are checked so the message doesn't silently split or drop emoji.
- 01The template is approved and the variables map to the right data in order.
- 02Media and buttons render on both mobile apps, and the fallback copy reads on its own.
- 03The opt-in basis for each recipient is on the record before send.
Landing pages
- 01The offer, price and dates match the email and SMS that drive traffic to it: no drift between channels.
- 02The form works, fires its events, and the thank-you or redirect actually happens.
- 03It holds up on mobile and loads fast enough that the click survives.
For the email channel specifically, go deeper: what goes on an email pre-send checklist, which email clients you should actually test, why your email looks broken in dark mode, and how to set email personalization fallbacks.
FAQ
Common questions.
Why not one generic checklist for everything?
Generic QA lists fail because nobody reads item 23, and because a check that matters for email is noise for SMS. A campaign pre-send checklist is adapted by channel and by campaign type, and each item has one named owner, so the checks that apply actually get done, and the ones that don't aren't there to ignore.
When should these checks happen?
During production, and always before the work goes to the client. When QA is a gate on send day, it either gets rushed or it slips the launch. Attaching each check to the asset while it is still being built is the whole idea behind campaign production management, and it is what makes a client proof about the campaign rather than about the agency's mistakes.
Is QA the same as client review?
No. QA establishes that the asset is correct: it renders, the links resolve, the fallbacks hold. Client proofing asks a different question, which is what the client wants changed, and client approval asks a third, which is whether they authorize it. QA is the agency's responsibility and it happens first.
Catch it before the client does
LaunchSign attaches these checks to each asset while it’s still being produced, so most of the list is done long before the work goes out for a client proof. LaunchSign does not send the campaign; that stays in the platform the client already uses.