Test your template

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In this article:

What are the tools offered to test your email?

Before you send out your email to your contacts, it is recommended to test your email to prevent you from making a mistake or forgetting to add something that will be impossible to correct once the mailing is all sent out.

Read your email with attention and test your links before every mailing!

Many tools are available in the application, in the page “Customize your template” to test your emails:

 

  • The button “Mobile preview” to preview your email as seen on a mobile screen (this tool is not available for templates created in the HTML mode. Templates and mailings created in the HTML mode have this icon next to their name:) To know more about the compatibility of our templates on mobile platforms, click here.
     
  • The button “Preview in browser” to preview your email as seen in a standard email software


     
  • “ Test mailing” tool that allows you to preview your email in your inbox.


     

The “Preview” buttons can give you an idea of the result but only a mailing test sent at different email addresses ( Outlook, Hotmail, Gmail, etc.) can assure you that your email will look great everywhere.

A strength of our premade and basic templates is that they are generally very similar from one mailbox to another. Regardless, we suggest you to test your mailing thoroughly before it is too late: once in your contact's inbox, it can’t be changed!

Some features in your email can not be tested with the "Test mailing" tool. To test in depth all features, it is better to send a complete mailing.

How to test your email: when to use “test mailing” vs send a real mailing?


"Test Mailing" VS "Real" mailing


Depending on what feature you would like to test, it is sometimes recommended to do a complete mailing over using the “Test mailing” tool.

The advantage of the “Test mailing” tool is that it is quick to use and that emails sent with it are real emails and gives you a solid preview of how it will look in your contact's inbox. Do not hesitate to use it to test your mailing on different email softwares.

On the other hand, a lot of features such as the personalized mailings variables, "View in browser" link, dynamic consent link, unsubscribe and the “Send to a friend” option will not be active in a mailing test. To test them, you will have to send a complete mailing to a group. A group containing three or four addresses will assure you that everything is just perfect with your mailing before you send it to your contacts. As goes the saying: Better safe than sorry!

The “test mailing” tool should be used to test:

  •  The display and layout of your email in different email softwares

The “Test mailing” tool is available in every new template and existing templates as well as drafts. To use it:

  1. When you are editing a template or a draft, get on the bottom of the page. You will find the tool above the “Save” button.
  2. Enter your email address in the empty field.
  3. Click “Send”
  4. Enter an object for your test and click “Send”

To differentiate a “test mailing” from a “real mailing”, look at the bottom of the received email. If you see “Your email address is: __EMAIL__” in the footer, it is a mailing test!

 

Why is it best to test personalized emails and links by doing a “real” mailing rather than a “test mailing”?
If you have personalized your email, in a basic test, you will only see the variables as opposed to being replaced by their true value in a real mailing. The same applies to the links being encoded at the time the email is sent to allow you to obtain statistics.

Do a “real” mailing to a group if you want to test:

*It is considered good practice to always test your links by doing a real mailing when you will be using the Google Analytics option.  If the (destination websites of your links) are not supporting that feature, it could create problems with your link statistics or direct your links on incorrect web pages, To test your links with Google Analytics in your mailing, don’t forget to select the option while preparing your mailing. Know more

**If you are testing a consent block and it appears in your test but not in your real mailing, verify the type of consent for the email address where you received the test. If this address already has an express consent, it is normal that this block does not appear in the mailing received. The consent block only appears for addresses with an implied consent. To learn how to see your contact’s consent status, click here.

This is why you should never put other content in a consent block. It could cause some of your newsletter to be missing for some of your contacts. It is also important to put other content in your newsletter so that contacts with an express consent don’t receive an empty email. Know more about the Consent blocks.

***If you unsubscribe by testing the unsubscribe link, there is no problem! After you clicked on the link, you will receive an email confirming your unsubscription. A subscription option will be displayed in this email allowing you to subscribe again.

Here is how to test your template with a real mailing:

 

  1. Create a group you will use only for tests. To learn how to do it, click here.
     
  2. Add a few addresses in the group. For example : your professional address (outlook and Iphone), a Hotmail or Gmail address and the address of a colleague who could help you to detect problems and mistakes.

    If the addresses already exist in your group, click here to learn how to retrieve them and add them to your group.
    If the addresses do not exist in your account already, click here to learn how to add new contacts.
     
  3. From the “Mailing” menu, “New mailing”, plan a new mailing and select your test group.
     
  4. All you have to do is verify your mailing in your inbox. Don’t forget to proofread your text and test your links! Make sure you have removed all the filler content (our famous “Lorem Ipsum”!)

Important note: If you would like to edit a template in the “mailing” section, the changes will not be saved in the original template. The changes will only be effective for the mailing/draft that you are editing. If need be, you can duplicate a previous mailing to plan a new one. To know how, click here.

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