Test your template

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What tools are available to test your email?

Before sending your final email to all of your contacts, we strongly recommend thoroughly testing your email to avoid any errors or omissions and to eliminate any typos. Once your email has been sent, it will no longer be possible to correct its content unless you send an erratum, which we prefer to avoid. Proofread carefully and test each of your links before each send!

Several tools are available in the application and the template editor, to help you test your emails properly. Here they are:

  • Browser Preview
    This option allows you to preview the email as it would appear online. It’s a good way to see the entire template without being distracted by the editor’s tools. However, we advise you to not rely solely on this tool and instead use the Test mailing tool for a better idea of how your email will appear in an actual inbox. 

    Aperçu fureteur
  • Mobile Preview

    This tool allows you to preview how your email will appear on a phone. All our pre-designed and basic templates are "responsive", meaning they adapt to be easily readable on most mobile platforms. The blocks' layout may differ from how the email appears on a desktop. To learn more about the compatibility of our templates on mobile, click here.

Available only in the pre-designed and basic templates editor and their drafts.

In brief:

The Preview buttons give you an idea of the result, but only sending tests to different addresses (Outlook, Hotmail, Gmail, etc.) can ensure that your email displays perfectly everywhere.

One of the strengths of our pre-designed and basic templates is that they are generally very similar from one email platform to another. We still recommend thoroughly checking your email before it’s too late: once it’s in your recipients' inboxes, it will no longer be possible to modify it!

Although the Test mailing option is very effective for testing the visual appearance of your templates, some features of the email cannot be tested with this tool. To fully test all features, it’s better to perform a real mailing. See the section below to know when it’s appropriate, depending on what you want to test, to make a real mailing instead of using the Test mailing tool.

How to properly test your email: when to do a mailing test vs a real mailing?

Depending on what you want to test, it is sometimes preferable to make a real mailing rather than using the Test mailing tool.
The advantage of the Test mailing tool is that it is quick to use. So, feel free to use it on different email clients.

The table below specifies which method to use depending on the aspect you want to test.

What do you want to test? Test my mailing Real mailing to a test group
Email appearance on different email platforms ✔ ✔
Links ✔ ✔
Links with Google Analytics ✘ ✔
Consent confirmation link ✘ ✔
Unsubscribe link ✘ ✔
Link to the online version ✘ ✔
Send to a friend option ✘ ✔
Personalization variables ✔* ✔
Mailings statistics ✘ ✔
Text version ✘ ✔
Calendar event block link ✘ ✔

* Personalization variables will be available, but only with random data during a test send.

How to use theTest mailing  tool?

Use it to test the appearance and layout of your email in different email software. You can also use it to test your links, but the most reliable way is always testing them via a real mailing to a test group, especially if you want to test the addition of UTM parameters in your links for Google Analytics.

How to use it:

The Test mailing tool is available in the editor of all templates and drafts.

  1. Open your template or draft in edit mode.
  2. Click on Test mailing.

    When editing a template or draft from the pre-designed or basic templates:

    Test mailing


    When editing a template or draft created from your own HTML code:

    Test your HTML mailing
  3. Enter a subject for your test and the email addresses you want to send the test to. 
     
    You can easily add up to 10 email addresses, separated by commas, by copying and pasting them. This allows you to test how your template displays across all the email platforms you have access to. If you have professional addresses (e.g., on Outlook) and personal ones (e.g., Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo, etc.), use them to see and compare how your email appears on different email platforms, as well as on various devices (desktop, tablet, mobile).

    Test
  4. Click Send.

Emails sent via this option are "tests," and so they will have "[test]" in the subject. Many email features won’t be active. For example, email personalization (replacing variables like the first name), unsubscribe links, and consent links won’t work. To test all features of your emails, it’s better to perform a real mailing to a group with test addresses (see our section on this topic by clicking here). It’s also very important not to share these tests or send emails to subscribers using this tool.

How to differentiate a test send from a real send? When you’re in edit mode, it’s common to do several tests and sends with the same template. It can be difficult to distinguish between tests and real sends in your inbox. To tell the difference, check the subject line and footer of the email. All test email subjects start with the word [Test]. In the email footer, the mailing tests will display an email address containing a random data in the sentence Email sent to: _EMAIL_.

I am testing my mailing Email sent to: _EMAIL_

How to test your email by doing a real mailing to a test group?

Why is it better to test email personalization and links with a REAL send rather than using the Test mailing tool? If you’ve personalized your email, you’ll only see the variables in a simple test, whereas in a real send, they’ll be replaced with their real values. Similarly, links are encoded at the time of sending, which allows you to get statistics.

Do a real send to a group when you want to test:

* It’s a best practice to always test your links by doing a real send when you intend to use the Google Analytics option. If the destination websites for your links don’t support this feature, it could cause problems with link statistics or direct links to the wrong page. To test your links in the send with Google Analytics, don’t forget to check the option when preparing your send.

**If you’re testing a consent block and it shows up in your test send but not in your "REAL" mailing, check the type of consent for the address you received the test at. If that address has explicit consent, it’s normal for the block to be hidden in your test send. The consent block only appears for addresses with tacit consent. To learn how to check the consent type for an address, click here.

That’s why you shouldn’t use consent blocks for any content other than the consent request, as part of your newsletter may be missing for some of your contacts. Also, when using the consent block, it’s important to include other content in your newsletter to ensure that contacts with explicit consent don’t receive an almost empty send. Learn more about the consent block.

***If you unsubscribe while testing the unsubscribe link, there’s no problem! After clicking this link, you’ll receive a confirmation email of the unsubscription. A re-subscription option will also appear in that email, allowing you to re-subscribe.

To test your template by doing a real mailing, here’s how to do it:

  1. First, create a group that you will use for testing. To learn how, click here.
  2. Add some addresses to this group. For example: your work address (Outlook and iPhone), a Hotmail and/or Gmail address, and a colleague's address to help detect potential errors.
    If the addresses already exist in your account, click here to learn how to find them and add them to your group.
    If the addresses don't exist in your account yet, click here to learn how to add new contacts.

  3. Then, from the Mailings menu, select New mailing, plan a new mailing and select your test group.

  4. You’ll just need to check your send in your inbox. Be sure to proofread carefully and test all your links! Make sure you’ve removed any filler content (the famous "Lorem Ipsum!")

In the Mailing section, if you modify a template, the changes won’t be saved in the original template. The changes will only apply to the send/draft you’re editing. If necessary, you can reactivate a previous send to plan a new one. To learn how to do that, click here.

You haven't received your send? Don't panic. Click here for the instructions.

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