The pre-send review
The embarrassing mistakes, caught before thousands of people see them.
Run it from the send panel on any campaign. It mixes checks that are simply true or false with Penny’s reading of the copy — and it’s the cheapest thirty seconds in the product, because email can’t be recalled.
What it checks exactly
These are measured, not judged, so they’re never wrong and never vague:
- A subject that’s too long — it’ll be cut off in the inbox list.
- Images with no alt text — most clients block images by default, so alt text is what many people see.
- Buttons still pointing at a placeholder — the classic, and the most expensive.
- Empty image blocks left in the design.
- Editable regions from a template that are still blank or look untouched.
- A missing postal address — legally required on bulk mail.
- An email large enough for Gmail to clip, which hides your footer and unsubscribe link behind a “view entire message” link.
- Words on your avoid list — matched literally, so nothing slips through.
And what it judges
Penny then reads the campaign as a recipient would: does the subject match the content, is the call to action clear, is anything confusing or overclaiming.
That half is advice. The exact checks are facts. Keeping them separate is deliberate — a model asked to count characters will occasionally get it wrong, and a check you can’t trust is worse than no check.
It still works without the AI
If the AI is unavailable, the exact checks run anyway. The half that catches a placeholder link doesn’t need a model.
It's advice, not a gate
Nothing here blocks a send. You know things it doesn’t — a subject may be long on purpose, an image may be decorative.
The one thing worth never overriding is a placeholder link. A button going to https://example.com in twenty thousand inboxes cannot be fixed afterwards.
Common issues
It flags a word I want to use
It’s on your avoid list in the brand profile. Remove it there — the match is literal.
It says my email might be clipped
Gmail truncates long messages. Shorten the copy or move some of it behind a link — otherwise the end of your email, including the unsubscribe link, hides behind an extra click.
It wants a postal address I've already set
Set it on the campaign as well as the brand profile — older campaigns created before you filled the profile don’t pick it up retrospectively.
Penny's advice contradicts what I want
Ignore it. It’s a reader’s opinion, and you know your audience.
FAQs
Does it run automatically?+
No — you press it. Some deterministic warnings do appear on the send panel by themselves, like a missing postal address.
Does it check my links work?+
It catches obvious placeholders, but it doesn’t visit your links. Send yourself a test and click them — still the best check there is.
Is there an equivalent for automations?+
Yes — Second opinion on a flow, which looks for things that would run perfectly well and still be a mistake. More on that.