qa-checklist

QA Checklist: Ship-Ready Email Standards

Run this checklist before sending ANY cold email. If any item fails, fix it before shipping.

---

1. Personalization Quality

✅ First line references a specific signal

• Custom research signal with {{variable}}, OR
• AI-generated insight based on their company, OR
• Whole-offer strategy (subject + preview = full offer)

✅ No hallucinations

• Every fact is verifiable (from research, website, LinkedIn, tools)
• If you can't verify it, remove it
• Don't invent: job titles, metrics, dates, technologies

✅ Variables are properly formatted

• Use {{double_braces}} consistently
• No typos in variable names
• Variables match your data source's column names

❌ FAIL examples:

• "I saw you recently expanded..." (when? where? prove it)
• "Your team is growing fast" (how do you know?)
• {{firstName}} (wrong format, should be {{first_name}})

---

2. Banned Phrases (Delete These)

Generic openers:

• ❌ "I hope this email finds you well"
• ❌ "I wanted to reach out"
• ❌ "I hope you're doing well"
• ❌ "Just wanted to touch base"

Weak value props:

• ❌ "We help companies..." (unless immediately followed by case study proof)
• ❌ "Our solution..."
• ❌ "I wanted to show you..."

High-pressure CTAs:

• ❌ "Would love to schedule..."
• ❌ "Let's hop on a call"
• ❌ "Can I get 15 minutes on your calendar?"

Replacements:

• ✅ Start with their situation
• ✅ "We helped [customer type] achieve [metric]"
• ✅ "Worth a quick look?" / "Worth exploring?"

---

3. Recipient:Sender Ratio

Count sentences:

• About THEM (situation, pain, their goals): ____
• About US (our product, our features, our ask): ____

Target ratio: 3:1 (them:us) minimum

• If ratio is 1:1 or worse → Rewrite to focus on them

Good example:

✅ Saw you hired 4 SEs last quarter: building custom workflows for every deal? (THEM)
✅ Most teams hit a wall at deal #30 when workflows don't scale. (INSIGHT)
✅ Worth a look? (LOW-EFFORT CTA)

Ratio: 2 sentences about them, 1 about solution = 2:1 ✅

Bad example:

❌ We help companies build custom workflows. (US)
❌ Our platform has been used by 500+ companies. (US)
❌ We'd love to show you how it works. (US)

Ratio: 0:3 = All about us ❌

---

4. Length & Punchiness Check

Target: 50-90 words (not 60-120, tighter is better)

• Count words (not including signature)
• If >90 words → Cut aggressively until under 90
• Then cut 10 more words
• Every sentence must earn its place

The 20-Second Rule:

• Read it aloud
• If it takes longer than 20 seconds → Too long
• Aim for 15 seconds

Fluff indicators (delete these):

• ❌ "I wanted to reach out because..."
• ❌ "I was wondering if..."
• ❌ "Just checking in to see..."
• ❌ Extra adjectives ("innovative solution", "cutting-edge platform")
• ❌ Explanations ("We help companies by providing...")

Punchy alternatives:

• ✅ Start with their situation
• ✅ Use 1-2 word transitions ("Curious:", "Worth exploring?")
• ✅ Cut all adjectives that don't add specificity
• ✅ Replace clauses with periods (break long sentences)

Example transformation:

Before (112 words):
"I hope this email finds you well! I wanted to reach out because I was on your website and I noticed that you seem to be selling to sales leaders and marketing executives. It looked like you're trying to help them improve their outbound processes and increase their pipeline generation. I had to assume you are probably using some outbound tactics considering I saw that John Smith is a BDR on your team based on his LinkedIn profile. I was wondering if you're thinking about how your team could be leveraging better data enrichment and GPT-4 technology to help streamline their prospecting efforts and make them more efficient?"

After (64 words):
"{{First_name}}, saw you sell to {{job_titles}}.

Noticed {{SDR_name}} is a BDR on the team. Have you figured out how they could leverage better data and GPT-4 for prospecting, or still manual?

Most teams we work with save 10 min per prospect and 3x volume without adding headcount.

Worth a look?"

What was cut:

• All pleasantries (18 words)
• All "I wanted to" phrases (12 words)
• All assumptions stated explicitly (8 words)
• Redundant explanations (10 words)
• Total: 48 words cut = 43% shorter

What was kept:

• Situation (their ICP, their SDR)
• Question (poke the bear)
• Metric (10 min, 3x volume)
• CTA (simple)

Cutting checklist:

• ☐ Remove greeting ("I hope this finds you well")
• ☐ Remove "I wanted to" phrases
• ☐ Remove redundant context
• ☐ Combine sentences where possible
• ☐ Replace long phrases with short ones
• ☐ Delete adjectives unless they're specific data

---

5. CTA Quality

✅ Low-effort reply test

• Can they reply in 5 words or less?
• Is it a yes/no question?
• Is it confirming a detail?

Good CTAs:

• ✅ "Worth a look?"
• ✅ "Is this still the case?"
• ✅ "Curious: are you already doing X?"
• ✅ "Just confirm [example] or any others"

Bad CTAs:

• ❌ "Can we schedule 15 minutes?" (high effort, requires calendar check)
• ❌ "Let me know your thoughts" (vague, what thoughts?)
• ❌ "Would you be interested in learning more?" (requires thinking)

Value-exchange CTAs (when asking for meeting):

• ✅ "...so I can [do specific thing for them]"
• ✅ "...to walk you through [specific deliverable]"
• ✅ "...so I can show you [concrete example]"

---

6. Tone & Clarity

✅ Reads naturally aloud

• Read it out loud
• Does it sound like a human wrote it?
• Or does it sound like a template/robot?

✅ Helpful, confident, conversational

• Not pushy or aggressive
• Not overly formal or stiff
• Not desperate or begging

✅ Clear value proposition

• After reading, they should know: What you do, how it helps them, what happens next
• If unclear → Simplify

✅ About THEIR situation (not your product)

• Focus: Their pain, their goals
• Not focus: Your features, your company, your awards

---

7. Punctuation & Formatting

✅ Dash usage is consistent

• Pick ONE dash style for your copy and use it everywhere
• Never mix double hyphens, en dashes and em dashes in the same email
• Recommended: avoid long dashes entirely; use commas, colons, or parentheses instead (reads more human, and long dashes are a common AI-writing tell)

✅ No double spaces

• Find/replace " " (two spaces) → " " (one space)

✅ Variables closed correctly

• {{variable_name}} ✅
• {{ variable_name }} ✅ (spaces ok)
• {variable_name} ❌ (single braces)
• {{variableName}} ❌ (camelCase usually wrong, use snake_case)

✅ Plain text (no formatting)

• No bold, italics, colors
• No bullet points (unless the campaign format specifically calls for them)
• No images or attachments

---

8. Subject Line Check

Standard (2-4 words):

• ✅ "Partnership?"
• ✅ "Quick question"
• ✅ "Competitor insights"
• ✅ "Saw your post"

Whole offer (can be longer):

• ✅ "Ever chase renters to pay on time?"
• ✅ When using this strategy, first line must complete the offer

Tests:

• Could a colleague or potential customer send this? ✅
• Does it sound like a sales pitch? ❌

Avoid:

• ❌ "Quick question about your infrastructure" (explaining, not intriguing)
• ❌ "Excited to connect!" (salesy)
• ❌ "Following up on my previous email" (Email 1 shouldn't say this)

---

9. Case Study / Social Proof Check

If using case studies:

• ✅ Include specific metric ("4.7x increase", "23% improvement")
• ✅ Include timeframe ("within 90 days", "first quarter")
• ✅ Include customer type ("Series B SaaS", "e-commerce brands")

Avoid generic claims:

• ❌ "We've helped hundreds of customers" (who? how?)
• ❌ "We've been doing this for 10 years" (so what?)

Situational social proof > Name dropping:

• ✅ "Most fintech teams hit this problem around month 3..."
• ❌ "We work with Stripe and Coinbase"

---

10. The "Would I Reply?" Test

Put yourself in recipient's shoes:

Ask honestly:

1. Do they understand MY specific situation? (not just my industry)
2. Is there a non-obvious insight I didn't know? (not just obvious claims)
3. Is it low-effort to reply? (not asking for a big commitment)
4. Is there a good reason to engage NOW? (not just "let's chat someday")

If you answer "no" to any of these → Rewrite before sending.

---

Autofix Rules

When running automated QA, apply these fixes:

Punctuation:

1. Normalize all dash characters (double hyphens, en dashes, em dashes) to your one chosen style, or replace with commas/colons/parentheses
2. Trim double spaces globally

Variables:

1. If first line lacks a variable → Insert researched signal OR flag for manual review
2. If variable format is wrong {single} → Fix to {{double}}

Banned phrases:

1. If found → Delete and rewrite surrounding sentence
2. "I hope this finds you well" → Delete, start with situation
3. "We help companies..." → Rewrite as "We helped [customer type] achieve [metric]"

Length:

1. If >120 words → Flag for manual review (cut or justify)
2. If <30 words → Flag (might be too short, unless ultra-tight variant)

CTA:

1. If asking for "15 minutes" or "30 minutes" → Replace with lower-effort
2. If no CTA → Add one (every email needs a clear next step)

---

QA Scoring Sheet

Use this to score emails before shipping:

Criteria	Pass/Fail	Notes
First line has specific signal	☐ Pass ☐ Fail
No hallucinations	☐ Pass ☐ Fail
Variables formatted correctly	☐ Pass ☐ Fail
No banned phrases	☐ Pass ☐ Fail
Recipient:sender ratio ≥ 3:1	☐ Pass ☐ Fail
50-90 words (strict)	☐ Pass ☐ Fail
CTA is low-effort	☐ Pass ☐ Fail
Reads in under 20 seconds	☐ Pass ☐ Fail
Dash usage consistent	☐ Pass ☐ Fail
Subject line 2-4 words (or whole offer)	☐ Pass ☐ Fail
"Would I reply?" test = YES	☐ Pass ☐ Fail

All must pass before shipping.

---

Quick QA Workflow

60-second check:

1. Read aloud → Sound natural?
2. Count "them" vs "us" → Ratio good?
3. Check first line → Specific signal?
4. Check CTA → Low-effort?
5. Word count 50-90? → If not, cut and re-check

---

Common QA Failures & Fixes

Failure 1: "Too generic, could send to anyone"

Fix: Add specific signal from research

• Before: "I noticed you're growing fast"
• After: "Saw you hired 4 SDRs last quarter"

Failure 2: "Too long, lost focus"

Fix: Cut ruthlessly, keep only essential info

• Before: 200-word email with background, features, benefits, case study
• After: 80-word email with situation + insight + question

Failure 3: "CTA is too high-effort"

Fix: Lower the bar

• Before: "Can we schedule 30 minutes next week?"
• After: "Worth a quick look?"

Failure 4: "Sounds like a template"

Fix: Add specific data about them

• Before: "We help companies like yours"
• After: "We helped {{case_study_customer_type}} achieve {{metric}}"

Failure 5: "No clear reason to reply"

Fix: Add insight or value-exchange

• Before: "Let me know if you're interested"
• After: "Curious if you're already doing X, or still manual?"

---

Final Checklist (Print & Use)

Campaign: _______________
Date: _______________

Pre-Send QA:
☐ First line = specific signal
☐ No hallucinations
☐ Variables formatted {{correctly}}
☐ No banned phrases
☐ Ratio check: ____ them : ____ us (need ≥ 2:1)
☐ Word count: ____ (target 60-120)
☐ CTA = low-effort
☐ Reads naturally aloud
☐ Dash usage consistent
☐ Subject line = 2-4 words OR whole offer
☐ "Would I reply?" = YES

All boxes checked? → SHIP IT
Any box unchecked? → FIX & RE-CHECK

---

Remember

Your goal is not perfection. Your goal is "would I reply to this?"

If yes → Ship it If no → Fix it

Don't overthink. Do the QA. Trust the process.