Check your email design by sending a test copy to yourself and colleagues. Sending a test email is an easy way to check and ensure that your content has a consistent appearance across multiple email clients, as well as get stakeholder approval for your email messages before they are sent out.

Essentials to Get Started

• You have the email addresses of the recipients of your test email. If using a Test List (as you need to with legacy emails), ensure it has at least one email address. See Create and Segment Test Lists.
• Your email has been reviewed & is ready to send. See How to Validate an Email for Sending.

Instructions

In the new Email Composer:

1. In the upper right corner, click  Test email.
2. In the Add recipients... box, enter the email addresses you want to send your test email to. Type in or paste in the email addresses, separating each email address with a comma.
3. To use emails or segments from your Test List, click + Add Test List recipients:
   • Select the Test list or a segment & click Next (If you want to view & edit your Test List, click Manage Test List).
   • Select or remove the contacts you want & click Add recipients.
4. Open the Test email options:
   • Edit the Subject line prefix in the box (up to 20 characters). This can help identify test emails from live messages. An example of what will be sent appears below. The default is "TEST-", however, if edited the previously used prefix is saved for use here.
   • Type Optional instructions or comments in the box (up to 600 characters). This will appear above the email & for example, can be used to request checks on personalization, dynamic content, design for mobile, formatting, etc.
5. If you want to Send plain text version only, select the check box at the bottom.

6. When you have finished, click Send. A confirmation message appears.

For emails created in the legacy email composer:

1. In the upper right corner, click  Test.
2. Select the Version to Send: HTML or Text.
3. If you want, update the Subject Line Prefix, then click Save New Prefix.
   
   • This will appear in front of the subject line of your test email. This helps you identify test emails from live messages in your inbox.
   • The default prefix is "TEST-"
4. Select Test Recipients from the available options:
   • Yourself (signed-in user).
   • Select Test Message Recipients... to select multiple contacts from your test list.
   • Your entire Test List, or any of its segments:

5. In the browser pop-up, click OK to send the test message. 

Test messages will appear in the recipient's inboxes within a minute or two.

When sending out a test message, consider opening it in different browsers, email clients, & devices such as Chrome, Edge, Gmail, Outlook, mobile phones, & tablets so you can see how your images and text are being rendered and interpreted. Each can interpret your HTML code differently, and you'll want to see what the result will be.

If you are having trouble receiving a test message, see: Fixing Test Emails That Were Not Delivered