Testing Before You Send
Testing e-mail properly takes a few minutes and prevents the class of problem that is impossible to take back.
Where to find it
Architect Panel → Layout & Pages:
- E-mail Templates — the template under test
Architect Panel → Activity:
- E-mail Log — every message sent, with its result
Architect Panel → Commercial:
- Campaign Manager — where a bulk send is paused if it goes wrong
A preview is not a test
It shows the template rendering in your browser. It does not exercise the design, the account, the merge fields against a real record, or any mail client's interpretation.
Nearly every e-mail problem worth catching is invisible in a preview.
Send a real one
Through the actual account, using a real record, to a real mailbox. That single step catches the design not applying, the from name being wrong, merge fields empty, and the message landing in spam.
Check it on a phone
Most mail is read on one. A layout that works on a laptop and breaks on a handset is the common case, not the exception — and the subject line truncates far earlier than you expect.
Check more than one client
At minimum a desktop client, a webmail service and a phone. Mail clients differ enormously, and a message that looks right in one can be unreadable in another.
Test the awkward record
Blank optional fields, a long name, an apostrophe, an accent. A template tested only against tidy data will meet all of those immediately.
Check where it landed
Not just that it arrived — whether it reached the inbox or the spam folder. A message the log records as sent successfully can be filed as junk, and that is invisible from your side.
Read it as the recipient
Does the from name identify you? Does the subject say what it is? Does the first line make sense without the subject? Is it obvious what to do next?
This is the check most likely to improve the message rather than merely confirm it works.
For a bulk send, go in stages
- Test to yourself.
- Send to a small internal group.
- Only then to the audience, throttled.
And know where the pause control is before you start. The moment you need it is not the moment to be looking for it.
Test again after any change
Including a change to the design, which affects every template at once. A design edit is a change to all of your outgoing mail and deserves testing as such.
Worked example
A team tests every template change by sending one real message to four mailboxes including two phones, using a deliberately sparse record. A campaign goes to three colleagues before its audience. The one time a link was wrong, it was found by the second colleague rather than by 4,000 customers.
Recommendations
- Always send a real message — a preview proves nothing.
- Check a phone and more than one client.
- Use a sparse record for the test.
- Stage bulk sends, and find the pause control first.