Test List allows you to send a copy of your content to any email address in order to ensure your message is correctly formatted and no errors exist before deploying a campaign.
Before a template is sent to a contact list, it should first be sent to a test recipient or a group of test recipients to check the content and rendering of the template. Test messages can be sent to email addresses that are not subscribed to a specific list. These messages will appear with the same formatting and tracking links as a campaign, but will not collect tracking data or send to contacts.
While the Test List feature is useful for checking the formatting and layout of your message, not all features of the message will work. FTAF, Display Message, and Preference Management links require an encoded string with campaign details and do not work in Test List messages. To test these links, deploy a campaign with a segmentation rule to select email addresses only.
However, if you click the unsubscribe links, any contact associate with the email address sent will be unsubscribed. This is only an issue if you send to recipients who also are subscribed to the selected test list.
To Send a Test Message
- Go to TASKS > TEST LIST.
- Select a List.
- Select a Template.
- Select an Account Profile to use when filling the Account Profile tags in your content. The Account Profile defined in the List is selected by default. If no Account Profile tags are defined in your content, you can skip this step.
- Enter one or more email addresses as Recipients. Separate multiple addresses with space, comma, or semi-colon. You may use any email address, including those not subscribed to the list. However, if Contact or Custom data exists within your Template, it will appear empty for any non-Contacts.
- Select the content Formats to send: Multipart MIME, Plain Text, HTML.
- You may enter an optional string to add to the template subject line by selecting Prepend “Testing” to the subject line. Text defined in the textbox will appear at the beginning of the subject line in the test message.
- Click Send Test.
Each recipient will receive a copy of each format selected. If all three formats are selected, a recipient will receive three messages, one of each type.