This process uses the email campaign brief, the marketing campaign brief, the three naming conventions, the UTM standards, the email copy template, the email creative specs, and the email pre-send checklist.
What you’ll end up with
Three things that point at each other:- A completed email campaign brief, filed in the campaign library under the Email folder.
- A sent campaign or a live sequence, named per the three naming conventions, tagged with UTMs that distinguish each send, driving a conversion action defined in the event tracking plan.
- Links back from the marketing campaign brief to this campaign’s brief and finished copy.
Before you start
Every input below has to exist, or be deliberately marked as not applicable, before the build starts.The process at a glance
1
Confirm the campaign has a parent
Every email campaign belongs to a marketing campaign brief.
2
Gather the inputs
Work the table above. Pick what exists, brief what doesn’t.
3
Fill in the email campaign brief
Send type, objective, conversion action, audience, content, send settings, deliverability.
4
Build the segment and its suppressions
From the written definition, not from memory at send time.
5
Write the copy and build the email
Copy from the copy brief into the email copy template, then into the platform.
6
Assemble names and UTMs
All three naming levels, with utm_content distinguishing each send.
7
Send test emails and render-check
Real inboxes, real devices, light and dark mode.
8
Run the pre-send checklist
The last pass before it goes out.
9
Send, then link back
Send or activate, then link the finished copy into the marketing campaign brief.
10
File the brief and set a review date
Into the campaign library. Sequences get a recurring review date.
1. Confirm the campaign has a parent
Open the marketing campaign brief this send belongs to and confirm email is listed in its channels table with a reason.2. Gather the inputs
Work down the table in Before you start. Segment. Write the segment as a definition in the brief before building it in the platform. A written query can be checked by someone else; a segment built at send time usually cannot, and that is where wrong-audience sends come from. Suppressions. List them explicitly, including other campaigns sending in the same window. Overlapping sends are a deliverability problem as much as an experience one. Consent. Confirm every contact in the segment has a recorded basis for receiving marketing email. This is not a step to take on trust. Destination. Check the landing page library for a page that already serves this offer. The page has to carry the same offer and the same call-to-action wording as the email, or the click is wasted.3. Fill in the email campaign brief
Copy the email campaign brief and work down it. Every campaign or sequence gets its own. If this is an automated sequence, pay particular attention to the trigger, the timing, and the exit condition. A sequence with no exit condition keeps asking a contact to do something they have already done.4. Build the segment and its suppressions
Build the segment from the written definition. Then check the count against the estimate in the brief. A count that differs sharply from the estimate means the query does not say what you thought it said. Resolve that before sending rather than after.5. Write the copy and build the email
Copy comes from the copy brief, drafted into the email copy template, and only then into the platform. Write the subject line and preview text together, since they are read together in the inbox. Design has to meet the email creative specs: body width, image weight, dark mode behavior, and the total HTML size that keeps the message from being clipped.6. Assemble names and UTMs
Write all three names and the tagged URLs into the brief. Useutm_content to distinguish each send in a sequence. Without it, three touches collapse into one line in reporting and you cannot tell which one did the work.
7. Send test emails and render-check
Send a real test to real inboxes, not just the platform’s preview.- Check at least one webmail client, one mobile app, and one desktop client.
- Check light and dark mode. Dark mode handling varies sharply between clients, and a logo that disappears against an inverted background is the most common failure.
- Click every link in the test, including the unsubscribe link and any link inside an image.
- Confirm personalization tokens resolve, and that the fallback is sensible when a field is empty.
- Confirm the email is not clipped. See the email creative specs for the size threshold.
8. Run the pre-send checklist
Run the email pre-send checklist.9. Send, then link back
Send the broadcast or activate the sequence, then:- Paste the finished copy link into the marketing campaign brief and file it in the copy drive.
- Confirm the first conversions are attributing correctly rather than assuming they will.
- Record the send date in the brief.
10. File the brief and set a review date
File the completed email campaign brief in the campaign library, under the Email folder, named per the file naming conventions. For an automated sequence, set a recurring review date. A sequence keeps sending to new contacts long after the campaign closes, and an unreviewed one is the most common way an expired offer stays in circulation.Exceptions
- The send is transactional. Order confirmations and account messages are not marketing sends and do not need a marketing consent basis. They still need correct authentication, working links, and a recorded owner.
- The send is a small internal or list-hygiene message. It still gets a brief, but sections like creative, experiment, and KPI targets may not apply.
- The campaign is cancelled before sending. File the brief with a short note on why it stopped. The segment definition and copy usually get reused.
Related resources
- Email campaign brief The workbook this process runs on.
- Email pre-send checklist The pass before it goes out.
- Email creative specs Width, image weight, dark mode, and clipping.
- Email copy template Where the copy is drafted.
- Campaign brief process The parent process, one level up.