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Testing a Mailing

Before you can actually send out or schedule the Mailing, you must first test it.

Before you begin

  • To test a Mailing, you need Mailing Execution rights and Read permissions for the Outbound E-mail Folder.
  • You need to have created a Mailing and have a valid test e-mail address to send e-mail messages to.

About this task

You can send the test Mailing to a specific e-mail address (for example your own e-mail address) or to a list of Contacts in a static Distribution List. It is recommended to create a static Distribution List for testing purposes in which you add Contacts representing all possible variations of e-mails. For example, add a Contact for each Target Group used, add Contacts who prefer HTML or plain text, send to Contacts with different mail providers, and so on.

It is important to realize that Outbound E-mail always sends the last tested Mailing: if you make a change to a Mailing and send it out without testing it, the changes will not be reflected in the sent e-mail.

Procedure

  1. Open the Content Manager Explorer.
  2. Navigate to the Publication > Outbound E-mail node.
  3. Select the Outbound E-mail Folder in which your Mailings are stored and in the list view select the Mailing you want to test and click the Test Mailing icon in the toolbar.
    The Test Mailing window appears.
  4. In Mailing details, you can click Preview to verify that the e-mail message looks the way you want it to look.
  5. In Send test Mailing to,
    • Select A specific e-mail address and follow the steps below.
    • Select All members of a Distribution List and follow the steps described in step 6.
    If you chose to send the test Mailing to a A specific e-mail address:
    1. Enter an E-mail Address specifying to whom you want to send the test e-mail (separate multiple e-mail addresses with a comma).
    2. Specify the E-mail Formats you want to send the e-mails in Mailing (Outbound E-mail sends a test e-mail for each format chosen):
      • Select HTML—to send an HTML version of the E-mail Page in your message
      • Select Text—to send a plain text version of the E-mail Page.
      • Select Multi-part—to send a multi-part e-mail. A multi-part e-mail appears as HTML if the recipient has an e-mail application that supports HTML; otherwise, it appears as plain text.
  6. If you chose to send the test Mailing to All members of a Distribution List:
    1. Select a Distribution List from the list.
    2. Click OK.
    3. Click Test.
  7. In Profiling, you can test what the e-mail looks like to a member of a specific Target Group:
    1. Select the Profile the e-mail with a selection of Target Groups: option.
    2. Select one or more Target Groups from the list (use the Shift key to select multiple adjacent Target Groups, and the Ctrl key to select multiple non-adjacent Target Groups).
    3. Select Include the Target Group selection in the e-mail subject if you want the subject of the e-mail message to contain text specifying the Target Group or Target Groups for whom this e-mail message is intended.
  8. Click Test.
  9. Review the sent e-mail.

Results

  • The Mailing is now tested and this is indicated by the icon which changes from to
  • If you chose to test the Mailing by sending it to specific e-mail address, Outbound E-mail sends a test e-mail for each format chosen to the address using the chosen profile (Target Groups).
  • If you chose to test the Mailing by sending it to a Distribution List, Outbound E-mail sends a personalized test e-mail to each Contact in the list in a format specified in each Contacts details.