How to Validate an Email for Sending

Your email messages must meet minimum validation requirements before you can send them. Validation helps make sure your emails are deliverable and compliant with the CAN-SPAM Act. Act-On displays a clear summary so you can see what needs to be fixed.

Quick Reference (Advanced Users) - Click to Expand

In the Email Composer, click Review & Send in the upper right.
For legacy emails, open the Legacy Email Composer, go to the Review tab and click Validate Message.
Check each category in the summary: Sender details, Subject, Recipients, Content, Anti-spam requirements, and Deliverability.
Resolve all Errors. Review Warnings, especially anything related to CAN-SPAM (address and opt-out link) and plain text content.
When all critical requirements are met, return to Review, Test and Send Your Email to send or schedule your message.

Try it like this: Open your email in Review & Send, scan the validation summary, fix any missing sender details, add your address and opt-out link to the footer and plain text version, then re-validate until only passed checks and non-critical warnings remain.

Access the validation summary

Validation is available from both the new Email Composer and the legacy email composer.

In the Email Composer, click Review & Send in the upper right. The validation summary appears below the email preview.

A validation summary appears. Validation checks cover:

Sender details (From name and address)
Subject
Recipients
Content
Anti-spam requirements:
- Sender name and address
- HTML and plain text opt-out links
Deliverability concerns

What the validation icons mean

Example in the Email Composer - this message is not ready to send:

How to Validate an Email for Sending 01.png

How to Validate an Email for Sending 02.png

Each check appears with one of these statuses:

Error - must be fixed before you can send.
Warning - recommended to review. You can still send the message.
Passed - requirement has been met.

Tip

Fix all errors first. Then review warnings for anything that could hurt deliverability or compliance, such as missing plain text content or a weak subject line.

Sender details

The sender details control who the message appears to come from.

In the Review email screen of the Email Composer, click Edit sender.

Common sender issues

You might see messages like:

"Personalized From can only be the sender for lists with Contact Owner Email and Name."

This means the list you are using does not have the Contact Owner Name and Contact Owner Email fields mapped. Edit the list and map those fields, or choose a different sender. More information: Personalized From Addresses.

"Salesforce Owner can only be the sender for Salesforce lists."

Make sure your contact list is imported from Salesforce and that ownership is correctly synced. More information: Send personalized emails on behalf of your team via Salesforce ownership.

For reply-to settings, see Use a Reply-To Address in your Emails.

Subject

Your email must have a subject line before it can be sent.

In the Review email screen of the Email Composer, click Edit subject.

For guidance on subject line best practices, see Subject Line Best Practices.

Recipients

Your email must have at least one recipient list or segment selected.

In the Email Composer, choose recipients in the Send Details tab.

If validation shows that no recipients are selected, return to the send settings and choose at least one list or segment. For help selecting and segmenting lists, see Create and Segment Test Lists and your main list segmentation guides.

Content

The message body must have content. Validation can also flag specific blocks.

Clickthrough links

Validation checks that links are valid and trackable. If links fail, check that they include http:// or https:// and that they are not to unsupported protocols. For more guidance, see Testing the Clickthrough Links in an Email Message.

Dynamic content

A blank Else condition can cause parts of your message to appear empty for some contacts. Make sure all dynamic content has a meaningful default. More information: Creating Dynamic Content in Email Messages.

RSS blocks

If you are using RSS-to-Email, validation checks that your message contains an RSS block. More information: RSS to Email.

Signature validation

If the signature in the email is not account-wide, other users may not be able to see or edit it. This warning appears when a message uses a personal signature. These are intended for one-to-one use (for example, Act-On Anywhere) rather than broad marketing campaigns. To address the warning, update the message to use an Account signature if needed. More information: Using Email Signatures.

Anti-spam requirements: sender name and address

Your message must include your company name and a physical mailing address. Validation will show specific errors when something is missing.

Address is undefined

This indicates the account setup is incomplete and the default account address has not been configured yet. See Setting Profile and Account Information.

Cannot identify address

Your company address is configured on the account but is not present in the message content.

Review your message footer and ensure it contains the address personalization:
```
{{Account.BIZ_ADDRESS}}
```
Update the plain text version of your footer to include the same address. More instructions: Editing the Plain Text Version of an Email Message.
Re-open validation to confirm the error is resolved.

For more detail on address issues, see Error message: Cannot identify your address in your message.

Anti-spam requirements: opt-out links (HTML and plain text)

Act-On's opt-out link is required in all outbound messages unless you are using Transactional Email. If you suppress the footer, you must still include your company name, physical mailing address, and a clearly marked opt-out link in the body of your message.

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