There are quite a few ways that you can test a mailing prior to sending it. In this article, we'll dive into everything you can accomplish using the Mailing Designer's Test tab.

NOTE: To improve your mailing creation process, use the Reviewer feature to easily facilitate the review and approval of a pending mailing.

NOTE: If you're creating a new mailing, you'll need to complete the Set-Up and Design tabs before accessing the Test tab.

Sending a Test Mailing

Before sending your mailing, you should always test it first - it's a great way to catch any rendering issues before your mailing arrives in a subscriber's inbox.

1. Navigate to Mailings > View > select a mailing > Modify > Test tab.
2. Click Send Test.

3. Configure the test's Method:

1. Select a Delivery Format (HTML, Both, or Text).
2. Select an Email Test Type from the menu. Options include:

• Email all Stories - Users receive all stories in the mailing.
• Email based on profile of recipient - Users receive an email for each active subscriber entered.
• Email all versions of mailing - Users receive all versions of this mailing.

4. Define the test's Recipients:

1. To send to a customized list of recipients, select the Enter a list of email addresses option and enter them in the available field.
2. To send to a previously created test group, select Choose a Test Group. Click the menu to select a mailing test group.

5. Now, you need to configure the test's Options:

1. Prepend to Subject - Enter any text to add to your mailing subject line (e.g., noting that this is a test mailing).
2. Prepend to Content - Enter any desired text to the mailing body.
3. Send test replies to - Enter an email address to receive any test replies. Click Use Mailing Reply-To to add the mailing's Reply-To email for this address.

6. When ready, click Send.

Preview Test

You can preview your mailings before they're sent to ensure you know exactly what your recipients will see when it arrives in their inbox.

1. Navigate to Mailings > View > select a mailing > Modify > Test tab.
2. Click Preview Test.

3. Select HTML, Text, or Online Version. Higher Logic Thrive Marketing Professional (Thrive Marketing Professional) displays a preview based on your selected version.

Hyperlink Test

The Hyperlink Test is a great way to ensure the links in your mailings are working properly prior to sending them. This is an important step, because fixing an incorrect or broken link is much easier to do before a mailing is sent than after.

NOTE: If you forget to run the test and discover a broken link after the fact, check out the Emergency Link Change feature. You can read more about it in the Emergency Link Change section of the Send Tab article.

1. Navigate to Mailings > View > select a mailing > Modify > Test tab.
2. Click Hyperlink Test.

1. A green checkmark indicates a link is working properly.
2. A red X indicates a link may be broken. Update the URL in the white box, and click Test to re-test the corrected link.

Personalization Test

Using personalizations in your mailings enables you to easily, and automatically, personalize specific aspects of your mailings to each individual subscriber.

NOTE: When using personalization, make sure everyone has that field completed in Thrive Marketing Professional. If any records have that field blank, they'll show up when you click Personalization Test. In this case, make sure a default value is set.

1. Navigate to Mailings > View > select a mailing > Modify > Test tab.
2. Click Personalization Test.

3. Any subscribers who are missing any of the personalization fields are displayed in the results.

4. Click Set Personalizations Default to set a default value for these subscribers.

5. Click Save Defaults.

Anyone who didn't complete the personalization field will see the default value instead. In the above example, anyone with an incomplete First Name field sees the default "Valued Member" instead.

Targeted Subject Lines Test

Use a targeted subject line to tailor your content to each individual subscriber. Use this feature to send a different subject line to a smaller subset of the larger list (as long as the subscribers in the smaller list also exist within the larger list).

1. Navigate to Mailings > View > select a mailing > Modify > Test tab.
2. Click Targeted Subject Line.

3. Here, you can view the Subject, Target Group Name, and Count. This confirms the subject lines you're testing, to whom you're sending them, and how many people you can expect to receive each version.

Virtual Inbox Test

The Virtual Inbox provides insight on how your mailing may render in different email clients, and how your mailing may be classified by ISPs and spam filters when published.

NOTE: This tool is a test and does not guarantee your mailing will perform the same way when it is actually published. There are many other factors outside of this test that can affect the outcome of a mailing, including how your audience is reacting to your message (e.g., opens, clicks, deleting, moving, flagging, etc.), fluctuating mail server/spam filter rules, your publish IP's reputation (our test IP is used), etc.

1. Navigate to Mailings > View > select a mailing > Modify > Test tab.
2. Click Virtual Inbox.

3. Click Run this test now. The results populate after 10—20 minutes.

You'll see screenshots of what the mailing looks like in different browsers and devices.

The spam filter test results display whether or not your mailing may pass or fail with major ISPs and spam filters when published.

• Passed indicates there were no issues found during the test.
• Failed indicates that there is likely a deliverability issue that needs to be addressed. Check details like your DKIM authentication, cover exposed URLs, look for typical spam triggers in the subject line and body, avoid using 3rd-party short links, and make sure you have a decent amount of text along with your images.

Social Test

Using the social feature will increase your outreach through social media. Just like your mailings, though, you should always double-check how your social posts look using the Social Test.

1. Navigate to Mailings > View > select a mailing > Modify > Test tab.
2. Click Social Test.

You'll see a preview of how the social post will look when published to social media.

Sending a mailing for Review

It can be difficult to sort through and organize the comments and feedback people submit about an upcoming mailing. Sometimes, they reply to your test in Outlook; sometimes, they leave a piece of paper on your desk; and sometimes, they walk over to your desk and talk to you personally.

For a more organized and efficient solution, use the Reviewer tool to collect suggestions and comments about your mailings. In addition, you'll have a built-in audit trail of changes, and an easy way to make those changes in your mailing.

NOTE: See Reviewer Tool Overview to learn how to use the Reviewer tool.

Before you begin...

The Reviewer tool is great, but its success ultimately depends upon your team using it properly. With this in mind, we recommend not initially using the Include test mailing in invitation option when configuring your reviews. Why? Because, sending test mailings will likely result in your reviewers creating a reply in Outlook or Gmail and emailing you their edits. This is precisely what you don't want.

The goal of this tool is to create a new and more efficient review method for your mailings. By having all of the comments in one place, and having them visible to all reviewers, you will not only reduce duplicate comments but also allow your reviewers to discuss their comments directly via the tool. This enables you, the person responsible for putting the mailing together but not necessarily the subject matter expert, to sidestep the back-and-forth discussions and simply wait for the final results.

Who Can Review?

As a general rule, only people you invite can add comments. However, this does not apply to all authorized users (e.g., an admin user who was not part of the review invitation cannot add comments or edit the mailing.

1. Navigate to Mailings > View > select a mailing > Modify > Test tab.
2. Click Send for Review.

3. Define the mailing's reviewers:

1. To send to a customized list of recipients, select the Enter a list of email addresses option and enter them in the available field.
2. To send to a previously created test group, select Choose a Test Group. Click the menu to select a mailing test group.

NOTE: A reviewer does not have to be an authorized user of Thrive Marketing Professional; they simply require a valid email address.

4. Configure the mailing's Review Options:

1. Click the Due Date field to set a due date from the calendar pop-up. Drag the Hour and Minute sliders to set the time reviews are due. Always consider your publishing timelines to give your reviewers enough time to thoroughly review (and to give yourself enough time to make any changes and send the mailing on time).

2. If needed, add a message in the Instructions field to be sent with the invitation. It's often helpful to point out specific sections you want reviewers to focus on or changes you've made you'd like reviewed.
3. Check the Include test mailing in invitation box to include a test mailing with the invitation (see below for more details). We recommend not doing this initially (refer to the Before you begin... section above for more information).
4. Click the Email Comments to the Author menu to choose how comments are emailed to the author (after each comment, once per day, or never).
5. Click the Send an Email to the Reviewer menu to select whether an email is sent to the reviewer each time someone replies to his or her comment.
6. Click the Send a Due Date Reminder to each Reviewer menu to select a time to send a reminder to the reviewers about an approaching due date.

5. Click Send.