Sending test emails

Sending test emails can help verify that there are no issues with an email before adding it to a campaign. Test emails appear in an inbox with "*TEST*" prepended to the subject line.

Before you begin:

• You must resolve all draft errors before you can send the email. Draft errors appear until you have completed all the email settings. Click the error indicator to view a list of all validation errors.

  

• For emails developed in the Design Editor, review any notifications about potential responsive issues. Notification errors appear when the email content might not adjust to all screen sizes. Click the notification icon to view a list of all validation errors.
• You can only send test emails to contacts in your contact database.
• Activity associated to the test email (for example email opens and clickthroughs) will appear in the email operational reports. Insight reports will not show test email activity. The activity is also captured on the recipient's contact record.

To send a test email:

1. Navigate to Assets , then click Emails.
2. Open an existing email, or create a new one.
3. Choose an option:
   • If you are using the Design Editor, click Actions > Send Test. 

     Important: The Classic Design Editor is sunset, and all classic assets are in view-only mode. Users can create and edit emails and landing pages with the Design Editor or Source Editor. Learn More.

   • If you are using the Source Editor, click Actions, then click Test Content.

4. Fill out the fields in the email checker as follows:

   • Step 1. Select an email to test: The email that you have open will automatically be populated in this field.
   • Step 2. Select a User from whom to send: You can choose not to send the email from a particular user (the default) and no signature rules will be processed. Or, you can select a user from the drop-down list, the email will appear to have been sent from this user. This is useful if your email contains a signature and you would like to see how the email will be generated with a specific user's signature.
   • Step 3. Select a testing Email Address: This is the email address to which the test email will be sent. Choose from recent contacts or enter a new email in the To: section. You can also use the Find Contactand Preview Contact icons to search for and preview contacts respectively.
   • Step 4. Select Test: Select the type of test you wish to perform. Typically you will want to use the Email Checker option.
     • Email Checker: Checks all the links in your email to ensure they are in the correct format. This checker also scans the content to ensure compliance (Unsubscribe link is included and web version is available, for example) and verify certain formatting (headers and footers are applied properly, for example).
     • HTML Email: Sends the test email in HTML format.
     • Text Email Sends the test email in plain text.
5. Click Perform Test .

   The email is sent and the bottom pane shows the results of the test depending on the test type you selected.

6. Review the test results for potential issues. If the email was sent successfully, the test recipients can verify the email content from their inbox.

Learn more

Emails

Previewing emails