How to send a test email

So, you have created a perfect template, configured a newsletter and are ready to click the “Activate” button. Just one click and thousands or even millions of users will see your email… However, it is still better to double check your email before sending it.

Before running a mass newsletter, send a test email to yourself or your colleagues. Thus, you make sure that your email looks like it was initially planned. We recommend that you should send these emails to the mailboxes of all popular email services.

Please note that a test newsletter is available not only for the email channel but also for SMS messages testing, push notifications or messages sent via a custom channel.

What for to test emails

A test newsletter allows you to identify the following problems:

• The layout is displayed incorrectly;
• Links do not work;
• Images do not load;
• The attached files do not upload.
• Dynamic content is displayed incorrectly (e.g. instead of «Welcome, John!» the recipient sees «Welcome, fname!»);
• The logic inside your template does not work;
• Providers block your email because of its content;
• Your email is displayed incorrectly in some email services or browsers.

How to run a campaign testing

You can test any type of campaign: broadcast, regular or trigger newsletter. When you create a campaign and save it, it is displayed in the general list. To test your campaign, find it in this list and click on the testing icon:

A new window will open. Here you see three tabs: “Campaign settings”, “Test subscribers” and “Go for a test”.

Campaign settings

This tab contains general information about your newsletter: a channel, subscriber database, a resource to which your users are subscribed and a message template. You do not need to do anything here.

Test subscribers

Specify the database that contains the customers to whom you want to send your test email. The tab will display all available test profiles. Select the necessary ones.

A test profile is a customer whose digital profile has this option activated:

You can also create a test profile directly from the campaign testing interface. To do this, click on the “Create a new test profile” button. A new window will drop out from the right side. Fill in the profile data: name, surname, email, also add a subscription to the resource you’ve chosen for this newsletter:

Click on the “Create a profile” button to complete the creation of a test subscriber.

NB! The email address that you specified should not be currently present in your database. Otherwise, the platform will report an error.

Go for a test

This tab displays all subscribers whom you have selected as your test newsletter recipients. They will receive your test email.

So, everything is ready. To start a test newsletter, click on the “Test” button in the upper right corner:

Test emails will be immediately sent to the selected customers, and you will see the test results in a new window:

Conclusion

Sending a test email is an important step on the way to a successful newsletter. It ensures you of your email to look properly in different email services and browsers. That's why we recommend that you should send your emails to yourself and your colleagues first.