This article...

• Details essential pre-send tasks, including testing and reviewing.
• Discusses deliverability best practices to maximize successful inbox placement and minimize spam filtering risks.
• Explains how to perform a deliverability test, interpret its results, and make necessary message adjustments.
• Describes the process for sending messages, from setup and group selection to scheduling and final review.
• Highlights options for scheduling messages and managing deliveries using the Message Queue feature.

There's more to sending a message than simply configuring a few options and selecting a group of Contacts. There are numerous deliverability best practices and pre-send tasks to consider before clicking Send, such as:

• sending your message to yourself and/or your colleagues for review and testing;
• performing a deliverability test to check your message's deliverability score.

Only after performing these tasks do we recommend sending a message to your Contacts. In this article, we'll walk through these pre-send tasks, as well as the process to send a message to a group of Contacts, so you feel comfortable with the overall methodology and process of having your messages delivered successfully.

Access your messages

You can send your messages from the Messages List.

To access your list of messages:

1. Access the Admin interface.
2. Navigate to Messages > List.

NOTE: You can also send a message directly from Message Designer while editing it. However, you cannot perform a deliverability test while editing; deliverability tests are possible only from the Admin interface, as outlined below.

Send options

On the Messages List, select a message and click the Send dropdown to access the following options:

• To an individual - Send your message to one or more individuals. Use this option to send a message for internal testing and review.
• To a group - Send your message to one or more groups. Use this option to send a message externally to a group of Contacts.
• A deliverability test - This action sends the message to our deliverability system, which performs a number of tests to check for spam triggers. These results are provided to you in an easy-to-understand format, and you have the opportunity to make any necessary changes prior to sending the message.

TIP: Before sending your message, you should test it to confirm that it will be successfully delivered.

NOTE: These processes are described in Best Practices: Prior to sending to Contacts, below.

Best practices: Deliverability

Email service providers employ a spam filter to evaluate whether incoming messages meet a set of standards. This evaluation is performed prior to any email message landing in an inbox.

Below are some best practices that you should employ when creating and sending messages. These recommendations give your messages the best chance of being delivered to the intended recipients.

• Avoid excessive punctuation, caps, hyphens, etc. in the body and subject line of your message.
• Avoid using third-party link-shortening tools such as bit.ly or tinyurl. Because a lot of spammers use these free tools in an attempt to hide their spam links, many email clients now flag these types of links.
• Avoid "exposed" URLs (i.e., simply pasting a full link in the message); instead, "embed" your URLs in text and images. 
• Avoid common spam trigger words/phrases in the body and subject line. While this is fairly nuanced in practice, you should avoid words like "free!" and phrases like "work from home"; ultimately, if it sounds like something a spammer or scammer would say, try to keep it out of your messages. With that said, there is some flexibility here, and simply including the word "free" doesn't automatically mean your message won't be delivered.
• Avoid too little text in the body of your message. A common reason this occurs is the use of excessive images. Spam filters flag emails with too little text, so messages that comprise mostly images tend to be flagged. This can be tricky, as many organization employ graphic designers who produce wonderful images for use in their email campaigns, and while we support (and encourage) the use of high-quality imagery to bolster your messages, it's important to have a balance of images and text.
• Include alt-text for all of your images. This is especially important if you plan to include a lot of images. This not only helps you comply with accessibility standards but also gives spam filters additional text to evaluate.
• Avoid dangerous HTML elements like JavaScript, iFrames, and embedded content. If you want to share this type of content, provide a link to it instead. For example, a lot of marketers want to embed a video directly in their message, which is a huge red flag for spam filters. Instead, we recommend taking a screenshot of the video and link that image to the video.

Best practices: Prior to sending to Contacts

Let's examine the pre-send tasks you should perform before sending a message to a group of Contacts.

Step 1 - Send to self

Before sending your message to peers for review, it's a good idea to send a copy to yourself to make sure you're happy with the overall layout and design, and to look for smaller issues like typos.

1. On the Messages List page, click Send > To an individual.

2. In the Send To field, specify your email address.
3. Complete the remaining fields as appropriate.
4. Click Send.

After a minute or so, the message should appear in your inbox.

Review the message and make any changes that you think are necessary; then, move on to Step 2.

Step 2 - Send internally to peers

This is an important step because your peers and colleagues can often provide critical feedback – perhaps one of your peers is a subject matter expert on the message's topic – or catch something that you have missed.

1. On the Messages List page, click Send > To an individual.

2. In the Send To field, specify the email addresses of the people whom you want to review the message. There are a few ways you can do so:

1. Manually enter each address in a comma-separated list (format: john@higherlogic.com, bill@higherlogic.com, erica@higherlogic.com). This method is recommended only if there are only a few addresses.
2. Click Find Recipients and use the available filters to locate and select your colleagues.
3. Click AdHoc Groups and select one to auto-populate the addresses. Many organizations create AdHoc Groups for test/review purposes, as it's a quick and efficient way to populate the Send To field with multiple addresses with the click of a button.

See Ad Hoc Lists to learn more.

3. Complete the remaining fields as appropriate.
4. Click Send.

Review the feedback from your reviewers and make any changes that you think are necessary; then, move on to Step 3.

Step 3 - Deliverability test

NOTE: If this option does not display, it might not be enabled in your account. Create a case with our Support team and request that it be enabled.

TIP: Refer to Deliverability test results explained below.

1. On the Messages List page, click Send > A deliverability test.

2. In the Send To field, specify your email address.
3. Complete the remaining fields as appropriate.
4. Click Send.

When you click Send, the message is sent to our deliverability system (a copy is also sent to the specified email address).

After the indicated amount of time has passed, click Track Deliverability Results.

• Some initial results will display after just a few minutes, but it may take up to 15 minutes for the full set of deliverability results. 

NOTE: You don't have to wait on this page to view the results. You can:

- Leave this tab open and continue working in a new one until the full set of deliverability results is ready.
- View the results on the Messages List page by selecting the message, followed by the Track > Deliverability Test option.

Deliverability test results explained

A deliverability test is recommended prior to sending any message to a group of Contacts. The test examines and "grades" your message's Links, Images, Size, and HTML Tags.

The grades appear at the top of the page and display as pass (thumbs up) and fail (exclamation point) icons.

Spam Assassin

This part of the deliverability test evaluates your message for various spam standards. Ultimately, you want to pass; if you do, you'll see a checkmark, along with a breakdown of your score and more details. And remember, just because some aspects of your email are flagged doesn't mean it won't pass. As long as your overall score is below the spam threshold, it will pass and likely not encounter any deliverability issues.

If your message doesn't pass

If your message contains too many spam risks, its Spam Assassin score will be above the threshold; instead of a checkmark, like you see above, you'll see a caution icon like you see below. The associated table will provide a breakdown of your score, and you should focus on resolving the listed issues.

Making adjustments

Your Spam Assassin results may prompt you to make some adjustments to ensure your spam score is low enough to result in delivery. For example, your message may be flagged as having too little text, so you may want to reduce the number of images or replace a few images with text to achieve a better balance.

TIP: After making any changes, be sure to re-run the deliverability test to see if your changes positively impacted the score. We only recommend sending messages that pass this test.

Message Previews

This part of the deliverability test evaluates your message's design. It enables you to view your message across three email environments (Desktop, Webmail, and Mobile) and many clients (e.g., Gmail and Outlook).

NOTE: The previews of the various email clients are not an exact representation but a simulated preview; they are provided merely to give you a general idea how your message may look, and to help pinpoint large design and layout issues.

Take a moment to check the Desktop, Webmail, and Mobile versions, as well as the various email clients, to see if any display issues exist.

TIP: We recommend evaluating your message analytics to see how the majority of your audience is viewing your messages. For example, if 60% of your audience is viewing your messages on a specific type of iPhone, you can pinpoint that device here to see how your message looks on it.

Send message to Contacts

Only after having followed our best practices above should you send a message to a group of Contacts.

• On the Messages List page, click Send > To a group.

The process to send a message to a group of Contacts comprises three primary steps:

NOTE: If our optional Social tool has been enabled in your account, an additional step, Social Articles, might display in the task row of your message designer. This step is not described below, but information about this tool and how to configure it, is available in Social (Accounts Dashboard).

• Each of these steps has a dedicated page.

1. Setup Job

This page has several fields and options, grouped in three sections.

Send Details

• From Field - The best practice is to format your From Field in the "vanity" or "friendly" format.

EXAMPLE: I want the From Address to display to recipients as "Higher Logic Education" instead of as the email address, so I specify: Higher Logic Education <education@higherlogic.com>

• Reply To - If left blank, any replies will default to the From Field address. While a different Reply To address is optional, there may be times when you don't want replies going to the From address. TIP: You can employ the same "vanity" / "friendly" format here as in the From Field. 

EXAMPLE: You're sending a message on behalf of your organization's CEO. In this case, you likely don't want your CEO inundated with replies, so you instead provide the email address for the CEO's administrative assistant. 

• Subject Line - This is arguably the most important field, as it's often the first content seen by recipients. Because of this, you want your subject to be a "home run." One way to make your Subject Line grab their attention is through Personalization (click the people icon).

EXAMPLE: Inserting the First Name Personalization field will pull each recipient's first name from your account so it's automatically personalized to each recipient when the message is sent. 

• Preheader - This is the text that displays in an inbox before someone opens an email message; it's typically next to the subject. By default, an email client will display the first line of text from a message, but the best practice is to customize this preheader text to display something more meaningful and impactful.

EXAMPLE:

• Add Recipients - In addition to the Contacts you'll choose during during step 2 (Select Groups), you can add other recipients here by manually entering email addresses or via ad-hoc groups. This is like CC'ing people on a message.

Message Notifications

• Notify me when the job starts - You can choose to have a notification email sent to you (or someone else) when the message is processed to be sent. Select when you'd like the notification sent (now or when the message is scheduled).
• Send me a tracking report - You can also choose to have a tracking report containing data about this message sent to you (or someone else). This is a great (and automated) way to stay on top of your message statistics, especially if you're sending a lot of messages. After entering the desired email address, select how long to wait after the message is sent before generating and sending the tracking report. A best practice is to wait at least 24 to 48 hours.  

Administrative

• Billing Code - If billing codes are applicable to your organization, you can enter one here.

2. Select Group

This is where you select the group(s) of Contacts to which to send your message.

NOTE: You can select more than one group, and the best part is if an individual Contact belongs to multiple groups, they'll automatically be deduplicated so they only receive a single email.

• Use the Search field at the top right to quickly find specific groups by name (employing smart naming conventions for your groups makes this search all the more useful).
• If you'd like to prevent specific groups from receiving your message, check the Filter out groups box at the bottom of the page and select them.

EXAMPLE: You have one or more groups of Contacts you've identified as "disengaged," meaning they haven't been opening or engaging with any of your recent marketing emails. Rather than bombarding them with additional emails and risking them unsubscribing permanently, you can filter them out with this option. You may want to then strategize how best to reach out to these Contacts in a more nuanced fashion, perhaps by sending them more targeted emails that better suit their interests.   

3. Review & Send

Let's take a look at this page's two sections.

Schedule Send

At the top of the page, go ahead and choose when to send your message: either immediately or by scheduling a day/time.

NOTE: Your account may include additional options to optimize send time. To learn more, see Send Time Optimization.

Review

This section gives you one last opportunity to double-check your message details, like it's From Field and Reply To addresses, subject and preheader, selected Groups, etc.

In addition, at the top of the section you'll notice the Preview Message link. A best practice is to click this to preview your message one last time before sending.

Schedule/send message

After you've verified these details, click Schedule / Send to perform the associated action.

• If you chose to send immediately, the message will immediately be processed and sent.

TIP: Unless a message has to be sent immediately, you should schedule it in order to take advantage of the Message Queue feature. Messages that are queued can be managed prior to sending; this gives you the chance to make updates or to cancel the send job, should you find it necessary to do so.

• If you schedule your message, the Message Queued! confirmation displays, indicating that your message has been sent to the Message Queue, where it will be processed and sent at the designated time. You can click Cancel/Message Queue to visit the Message Queue immediately or visit it in the future on the Messages > Queue page.

Related articles

• Sending a Message More Than Once