Testing campaigns

Send a test version of your campaign to yourself (or a colleague) before it goes out to the real audience. Catches broken links, wrong personalisation, layout breaks, and obvious typos.

A test send delivers the exact email a recipient would receive — same HTML, same merge tag substitution, same tracking rewrite of links. The only difference is that the test goes to an address you type in, not to your real audience.

How to send a test

1. On the campaigns overview, open the row's actions menu and choose "Test campaign".
2. Type one or more email addresses to send the test to — typically yourself, a colleague, and an address on a different mailbox provider (Gmail, Outlook) to spot rendering differences.
3. Click send. The test arrives within a few seconds — if it doesn't, check your spam folder first before assuming something is wrong.

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What to check in the test

Read the subject line and pre-header in the inbox view first — those are the only thing most recipients see. Then open the email and click every link, confirm images load, confirm merge tags resolved to real values (not literal "%%firstname%%"), and scroll on mobile to make sure the layout reflows.

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Test renders are not real recipients

Merge tags in a test substitute against your own contact record, not the real audience. If your record is missing a value the placeholder renders as empty — and the real audience can have different gaps. There is no inline fallback syntax, so write the surrounding copy to read naturally even when a tag is empty (e.g. "Hi there%%firstname%%," instead of "Hi %%firstname%%,").

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Test across mailbox providers

Outlook, Gmail, and Apple Mail can render the same HTML quite differently. Sending one test to each catches surprises like fonts being substituted, padding collapsing, or dark mode inverting your colours. A few seconds now saves a regretted send later.

Do test sends affect my campaign statistics?

No — tests are isolated from the real send. They don't count toward open/click stats and don't appear in the per-recipient breakdown of the campaign.

Why do my merge tags render as empty in the test?

The test sends against your own contact record; if your record is missing the value the tag renders empty. There is no inline fallback syntax, so write the surrounding copy so it still reads naturally even when the tag is empty — or only send to contacts you know have the value filled in.

Is there a limit on test sends?

No hard limit for normal use, but each test consumes one send credit from your usage quota. Sending half a dozen tests is fine; sending hundreds will eat into your monthly allowance.

Should I test on mobile too?

Yes. Many recipients open email on a phone, and layouts that look fine on desktop sometimes break on narrow screens. Send to an address you can open in Gmail mobile and Outlook desktop at minimum.

See also

• What is a campaign
• Merge tags and personalisation
• Scheduling campaigns