Once you have created your Email Send, you will want to test the email prior to sending it to ensure it displays as you want it to in your email client.
Some mail servers and spam filters can block an email that looks like it is "From" you, yet actually originates outside of your normal mail server. For example, if you set the "From" address as me@mycompany.com, your mail server will recognize that the email is actually originating on the Click servers, not the mycompany.com mail servers.
Before you send your first test email to yourself or your colleagues, consider setting up an SPF record and whitelisting our mail servers (See the IP addresses for our mail servers here.) Doing so will help improve both internal and external email deliverability.
Test Email Addresses
A test email will be sent to the email address listed in the Test Emails field on the Email Send record. You can send a test email to multiple email addresses at once by including each desired address in the Test Emails field separated by semicolons and with no spaces between them.
Test the Email
To send a test copy of your Email Send to the email address(es) listed in the Test Email field, click the Test button at the top of the record.
There is no limit to the number of times you can Test an Email Send using the Test button.
Note: Replies to Test Emails will not be sent to the Reply To email address.
If there are no issues in your Email Send, your email will open in a browser window. In this window you will see the email content and a Spam Assassin Report. This report will provide a spam score, which will tell you how likely it is that your email will end up in the Junk folder. Any email that scores a 3 or higher will be more likely to end up in the junk folder.
If your score is greater than 3, you might want to research what the rules are that you are breaking by going to the Spam Assassin website, and/or searching on the internet for the rule name. Then use that information to edit your email and try to test again.
In addition to opening the email in a browser window, a copy is sent to the inboxes of the email addresses listed in the Test Email Address field. There are a couple of things to note when the email arrives:
1. The subject of the email will be prefaced by [TEST]: to denote that it is a test email.
2. The From Name and From Email values used for the test email will be the values set in the From Name and From Email fields on the corresponding Email Send even if From Record Owner is set to Yes.
3. The links are not tracked in a test email. That means any links that are clicked in your email will not be tracked by Click, and no tracking information will come into Click. However, the links will work, so test your links and make sure they direct you where you think they will.
Since tracking parameters are not added to links in a test email, the links in a test email are not an accurate representation of what your recipients will receive. There are some issues that can arise when links are made trackable, for example, some webpages are set to not accept parameters, so a link to the page that worked in your test email would no longer work in the official send. If you want to be certain that your links work properly, send the Email Send to yourself using the "Send" button. If all of the links work, you can then clone the Email Send and send it to your recipients.
4. FreeMarker used in the email will not populate. This is because the test email is not sent to a contact or account in CRM, so there is no record from which to query dynamic content.