Siebel Marketing Installation and Administration Guide > Installing and Configuring Email Marketing > Process of Testing the Email Marketing Components with Siebel Marketing >

Sending the Test Email Template to Test Contacts

Send the test email template as described in the following procedure.

This task is a step in Process of Testing the Email Marketing Components with Siebel Marketing.

To send the test email template

1. Determine the contacts to whom the test email template is sent, create an email offer from it, and send it to these contacts.

   Whether you use a list or a segment to generate your target contacts for this test, make sure the following three contact types are included:

   • Invalid contact email address within the corporate domain. This tests communication from the Email Sending Daemon to the Marketing Component Group. The Email Sending Daemon reports synchronous bounces to the Marketing Component Group. An invalid email address within the corporate domain generates a synchronous bounce from the Mail Transfer Agent.

     NOTE:  The administrator must make sure that the Mail Transfer Agent is configured to handle synchronous bounces and confirm that the contact's email address generates a synchronous bounce. This is desirable even if the Mail Transfer Agent is normally not configured to handle synchronous bounces. The reason for this is to make sure that if the normal Mail Transfer Agent configuration changes and starts performing synchronous bounces, then your server can properly record them. After testing, the administrator can return the Mail Transfer Agent to its normal configuration.

   • Invalid contact email address outside of the corporate domain. This tests the corporate firewall and Internet DNS configuration of the Bounce Handler Daemon. This also tests communication between the Bounce Handler Daemon and the Marketing Component Group. An invalid email address for a domain other than the corporate domain generates an asynchronous bounce. The Bounce Handler Daemon must be able to receive bounced emails, process bounced emails, and send the bounce details to the Marketing Component Group.

     Be aware that some email domains (such as aol.com) do not generate bounces. Also, be aware that email bounces are not guaranteed to be returned. It can take some research to determine whether the problem is actually the Bounce Handler Daemon or one of a number issues not related to the installation and configuration of the Email Marketing components.

   • Valid contact email address for an email account accessible outside of the corporate firewall. This tests the corporate firewall and Internet DNS configuration with the Click Through Daemon, Web Server, and Event Server. This tests communication between the Click Through Daemon and the Marketing Server. The email sent to a valid contact contains a One-Click Unsub Response Form, a Web Offer link, and an Event link. The tester must access this account and email from a computer outside the corporate firewall to correctly execute this test.
2. Launch a campaign using a list or segment including the described types of contacts.
3. Monitor the campaign to make sure that it succeeds without any errors. One example of an error is an error message in the log containing the word SOAP. This indicates that the Siebel Marketing application is not correctly configured to communicate with the Email Sending Daemon.