Email Review, Test, & Send

Review, Test and Send Your Email

Use Review & Send in the Email Composer to check your message for issues, send test copies, and choose how and when the final email will send.Quick Reference (Advanced Users) - Click to Expand Open your email in the Email Composer, then click Review & Send. Fix all critical validation errors and review warnings for sender details, subject, recipients, content, and anti-spam requirements. Click ...
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Preview Mode

Use Preview Mode in the Email Composer to see how your message will appear across devices and with different personalization values applied. This helps you confirm layout, styling, images, and dynamic content before sending your campaign.Quick Reference (Advanced Users) – Click to Expand In the Email Composer, click Review & Send. Select Preview in the top-right corner. Switch between Desktop a...
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Dark Mode Preview

Many email clients now offer Dark Mode, which may automatically adjust colors in your message when the recipient views it in a dark-themed inbox. Use Dark Mode Preview in the Email Composer to see how your message adapts, ensuring your design stays readable and on-brand.Quick Reference (Advanced Users) – Click to Expand Open your email in the Email Composer. Go to Review & Send → Preview. Use t...
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The Plain Text Version of an HTML Email Design

Most people receive and view their email messages in an HTML format, however, there are still email clients and mail servers configured to accept only plain text content. When a message is sent from Act-On, two versions are sent within the same message: an HTML version and a plain text version. The recipient's email client will render either the HTML or plain text versions based on their prefer...
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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 Legac...
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Send a Test Email

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 ...
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Testing the Clickthrough Links in an Email Message

View all the links contained in your email, along with the associate anchor text. Act-On tests the links in both the HTML and text versions of your message and will tell you if the links are valid and if any are broken. To Test Your Links: In the Email Composer: Open the email or email template you want. At the upper right, click Preview to enter Preview Mode. In the Check for errors tab on th...
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Testing an Email Message with Litmus

The Litmus integration for Act-On lets you preview your email messages across many different email clients and devices so you can confirm your message looks correct wherever it is opened.Once you connect your Litmus account to Act-On, you can access Litmus previews directly from the Email Composer.We are aware of possible issues with Litmus previewing emails, specifically column stacking based ...
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Choosing an Email Send Method

Choose how and when to send your email once it has been designed, reviewed, and validated for sending. You can send immediately or schedule your message using methods that match your timing, audience, and campaign goals.Quick Reference (Advanced Users) - Click to Expand Go to Review & Send in the new Email Composer. In Send Details, choose your send method: Start sending to recipients right awa...
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Add Recipients & Resend

You can add recipients, specify the send method & resend a previously sent email created in the Email Composer. Opens and clicks for all recipients are grouped into the email report. Go to Outbound > Sent Messages. Select the sent message you want (help finding sent messages). From the menu on the right, select Add Recipients & Resend: Click OK to confirm that you want delivery and response...
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How to Send Emails to Subscription Categories

Use Subscription Management to let contacts opt in or out of specific email categories. Once you have enough subscribed contacts in a category, you can begin sending targeted messages based on those preferences.If you have not set up Subscription Management yet, follow How to Set Up Subscription Management first.Choose a Subscription Category Open the email or email template you want to use, or...
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Sending or Suppressing a List or Segment in an Email

When you send an email, you can choose exactly who should receive it and who should be excluded. Use the Send Details tab in the Email Composer to select your recipient lists and segments, and optionally suppress contacts you do not want to include.Quick Reference (Advanced Users) – Click to Expand Open your email in the Email Composer → Send Details. Select Recipients: choose one or more lists...
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Adaptive Sending

Adaptive Sending helps improve engagement by delivering your message to each contact at the time they are most likely to open or click. Act-On analyzes historical engagement patterns and sends your email within a defined delivery window based on when each contact typically interacts with your messages.Quick Reference (Advanced Users) – Click to ExpandOpen your message → Send Details.Select your...
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Email Launch Requests and Approval

Act-On Administrators can set permissions for specific users to approve messages to be sent. By default, all Act-On users have the privilege to send outbound messages. When an Act-On user has an approver assigned, they have the option to submit a message for Approval. This sends the message to the approver's queue, which must be approved before launching. For more information on configuring thi...
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A/B Email Testing

Test multiple email variations and automatically launch the best-performing one with A/B email testing. For example, you can test: Two different subject lines Two different calls to action Combinations of these (for example, 2 subject lines × 2 calls to action = 4 variations to test) You can add up to five email messages to a single A/B email test.Set Up an A/B Test Go to Outbound > A/B Test Me...
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How to Add Google Analytics or Coremetrics Parameters to Act-On Email Links

To track overall website traffic and campaign attribution from Act-On, add Google Analytics or Coremetrics (IBM Digital Analytics) parameters to Act-On email links. When enabled, links from Act-On emails will have UTM parameters added to them with information on the source, campaign, etc., that led the contact to your web page. Data is not passed between accounts – instead, URL parameters are a...
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Use Advanced Custom Analytics to add UTM Parameters on Act-On Email Links

The Advanced Custom Analytics feature adds custom UTM parameters to all tracked links sent with your Act-On emails. Advanced Custom Analytics also supports personalization, providing the flexibility to track the data you need most. This feature works separately from Coremetrics or Google Analytics. For more information on those integrations, see How To Add Google Analytics/Coremetrics parameter...
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Set up Recipient's Time Zone for Sending Email

Use Time Zone Send to deliver an email at the same local time for every recipient. This article walks through the All Contacts workflow first, followed by the Marketing Lists workflow. The example schedules delivery for 1:30 PM in each contact’s local time. Quick Reference (Advanced Users) – Click to Expand Settings → Data Management → ...
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Sending a Text-Only Email Message

You can create an email with only a text version without HTML. While most email clients can display HTML (rich text) messages, Act-On also automatically includes a text-only version that can be displayed by older email programs when you send an HTML message. A message in this two-in-one format is commonly called a multipart message. To create an email that includes only a text version without a...
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How to Check Account Limits when Sending an Email Message

Get an approximation of whether the contacts in an email you are sending fall within your monthly Active Contacts limits. You must have recipients selected before using this feature. In the new Email Composer: In the Send Details tab, the Recipients area shows how many contacts have been selected to send to & a warning message appears above if the email send will be impacted by your monthly se...
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Canceling an Act-On Email Send

You may be able to cancel a scheduled message send or stop the launch of a message send in progress, depending on the launch request you've selected, such as Adaptive Sending, Send over time, and Send in recipient's time zone (see Choosing an Email Send Method). Instructions The Stop Launch button will not appear until your message has completed initial processing. If your message was already...
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Recalling a Sent Message

Once you've sent an email with Act-On, it has left our server. This action cannot be undone. However, it's possible to edit the clickthrough links in your Sent Message Report once your message has been sent. You can also take steps to stop a scheduled email send, or cancel an in-progress email send, if you've changed your mind. Learn how to stop an email send here.
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Editing Links in a Sent Email

You can edit clickthrough links on a previously sent email to update or replace where the links go. Editing a clickthrough link will immediately change the link in your previously sent messages, even for customers who have already opened them. Click Outbound > Sent Messages. Hover over the email you want, on the right click the down arrow & select Report: Click the Clickthrough Links tab. R...
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Download the HTML Version of an Email

You can copy an HTML version of an email. If you need to export the design generated in Act-On outside the application, this is the method to use. This feature is accessed from the email composer: For a draft message: Go to Outbound > Drafts. Find the email you want & from the menu on the right, choose Resume Edit. For a sent message: Go to Outbound > Sent Messages. Find the email you want ...
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Printing an Email or Saving as a PDF

You can print a message and/or save it as a PDF directly from within the Email Composer. This can be useful for visually laying out your customer journey or keeping saved copies of emails outside of Act-On. Instructions In the Email Composer: Open the email or email template you want. At the upper right, click Preview to enter Preview Mode. At the top right, click & select Print.Skip to s...
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Global BCC - Controlled Feature

The Global BCC feature is a compliance-focused product setting that can be enabled upon request. When enabled, a blind copy of every message will be sent to a BCC email address. This results in one emailed copy of every single personalized message sent to that address. Example: If you send one email to 10,000 people, you will receive 10,000 emails via BCC. If you send to 1,000,000 contacts, yo...
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