# Email Automation Pre-Launch Audit Checklist: 20 Things to Verify Before You Go Live

> A practical pre-launch audit checklist for email automation — covering deliverability, compliance, trigger logic, and content before your first send.

- **Published:** 2025-08-09
- **Author:** Clixo
- **Reading time:** 4 min read
- **Tags:** email-automation, checklist, deliverability, compliance
- **Canonical URL:** https://clixo.sh/blog/email-automation-prelaunch-audit-checklist

You have built the sequences, written the copy, and wired up the triggers. The temptation is to flip the switch and start sending. The problem is that email automation errors compound fast — a misconfigured trigger can send the wrong email to thousands of users before anyone notices, and a deliverability mistake on a new domain can create a reputation problem that takes weeks to recover from.

A deliberate pre-launch audit takes a few hours and catches the categories of mistakes that are very expensive to fix after the fact.

```mermaid
flowchart LR
  A[Authentication] --> B["List & Consent"]
  B --> C["Trigger Logic"]
  C --> D["Content & Rendering"]
  D --> E[Launch]
  E --> F["48h Monitoring"]
```

## Authentication and Infrastructure

- **SPF record is published and valid** — Verify it with a DNS lookup tool. Check that you have not exceeded ten DNS lookups (a common issue when using multiple sending services).
- **DKIM is configured for every sending service** — If you send through your product backend, your ESP, and a transactional provider, each service needs its own DKIM selector configured in DNS.
- **DMARC record is published** — Start at `p=none` with `rua` (aggregate reporting) enabled. Confirm reports are flowing before you move to a stricter policy.
- **Transactional and marketing sending are on separate subdomains** — Verify that your sending infrastructure routes each type through the correct subdomain.
- **Custom tracking domain is configured** — If your ESP uses a click-tracking redirect, that redirect should be on your own subdomain, not a shared ESP domain. Shared tracking domains carry shared reputation risk.

## List and Consent

- **Entry points capture consent appropriately** — Every list entry point (signup form, checkout, content download) should record the timestamp, source, and consent language shown to the user at that moment.
- **Unsubscribe links are present and functional in all marketing emails** — Click every unsubscribe link in a test send and confirm it processes correctly.
- **Suppression list is connected** — Unsubscribes, bounces, and complaint records from any previous sends should be loaded into your suppression list before the first campaign goes out.
- **Purchased or third-party list segments are excluded** — If any portion of your list came from a source other than direct opt-in, exclude it. Full stop.
- **Double opt-in is enabled where required** — Some jurisdictions require confirmed opt-in. Know your obligations and configure accordingly.

## Trigger Logic and Sequence Flow

- **Entry conditions are tested end to end** — Manually trigger each entry condition with a test user account and confirm the correct sequence starts.
- **Exit conditions remove users correctly** — If a user converts, cancels, or unsubscribes, they should exit active sequences immediately. Test this with a test account that triggers the exit condition mid-sequence.
- **Duplicate enrollment is prevented** — A user should not be able to enroll in the same sequence twice simultaneously. Confirm your automation tool has deduplication logic in place.
- **Time zone handling is correct for time-based sends** — If you are sending at a specific local time, verify that your tool is using the subscriber's time zone, not a fixed UTC offset.
- **Branching conditions are tested for each path** — Every if/else branch in your automation should be manually tested to confirm it routes users to the correct next step.

## Content and Rendering

- **All emails render correctly on mobile** — Test on both iOS and Android mail clients. Over half of email opens happen on mobile; a layout that breaks on small screens kills engagement.
- **All links resolve correctly** — Click every link in every email in your test send. This includes CTAs, footer links, unsubscribe links, and any conditional links.
- **Sender name and reply-to address are correct** — Confirm these match your expected brand presentation and that replies will go somewhere monitored.
- **Subject lines are under 50 characters** — Longer subject lines are truncated on most mobile clients. Preview your subject lines on mobile before launch.
- **Plain-text version is present** — Most ESPs generate a plain-text version automatically, but verify it is readable and not full of HTML artifacts.

## After Launch Monitoring

Even a clean launch requires monitoring for the first 48 hours. Watch your:

- Bounce rate per campaign (should stay below 2%)
- Spam complaint rate (flag anything above 0.08%)
- Delivery errors in your ESP logs
- Google Postmaster Tools for any domain reputation changes

The goal of a pre-launch audit is not perfection — it is eliminating the class of mistakes that are difficult to reverse. Everything else can be iterated.

If you need a team that can build, audit, and operate your lifecycle automation stack with this level of rigor, [talk to Clixo](https://clixo.sh/#contact).

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