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Email Marketing · Subject lines and preheaders

Email subject lines checklist for 2026

Short answer

A complete email subject lines checklist has 4 setup items and 2 things to audit against. Work through setup in order, then schedule a quarterly review.

Setup checklist#

  • ☐ Keep subject lines under 50 characters so they survive mobile truncation.
  • ☐ Write the preheader as a continuation, not a repeat of the subject.
  • ☐ A/B test one variable at a time with a statistically meaningful sample.
  • ☐ Avoid deceptive 'Re:' or 'Fwd:' prefixes, which violate CAN-SPAM and raise complaints.

Audit checklist#

  • ☐ Confirm you are not: clickbait that produces opens but drives complaints and unsubscribes.
  • ☐ Confirm you are not: all-caps and excessive punctuation, which pattern-match to spam.

Ongoing monitoring#

  • ☐ Weekly: review provider dashboards (Postmaster Tools, SNDS) and bounce logs
  • ☐ Monthly: re-run the setup verification after any vendor or DNS change
  • ☐ Quarterly: full audit against this checklist

Frequently asked questions#

Do emojis in subject lines hurt deliverability?

Not directly. They can hurt engagement with B2B audiences and render inconsistently across clients.

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