To be able to thoroughly test your messages, a test message can be sent. Test messages can be sent for emails, templates, SMS and mobile messages.
This option is available from the toolbar when Preview and Test is selected:
Emails and templates
Test emails can be sent to one or more test-users. These test-users can be used to thoroughly test the message for personalization, content, constraints, language, and other features in line with the test-user’s profile. The language of the test-user defines the language in which the content is sent.
All test-users in the linked Audience List are available and one or more can be selected to send the test email to.
Note: The Send testmail button is disabled when a real contact is selected.
To select several test-users, either :
- hold down the CTRL button on your keyboard and left-click with the mouse on each desired test-user
- hold down the SHIFT button on your keyboard and left-click with the mouse to select a range of test-users
The option Hide users that cannot be targeted lets you filter the list of test-users to only display those with an email address. 
When Custom Events are available for the selected test-user, the user has the option to select a Custom Events record for the selected test-user and send a test message personalized with this Custom Events data.
Click the button Send testmail to start sending the emails to the selected contacts. When the test email is sent, the user is notified.
Click the arrow next to the button Send testmail and select the option Send to e-mail address(es), to access a dialog where email addresses can be entered manually.
When multiple email addresses need to be filled out, use the semicolon as a separator.
You can also multi-select different test-users (by using CTRL or SHIFT and left-click, as mentioned above) and send them to one or more email addresses that you enter manually.
This can be a handy tool to send different versions of a message to your own inbox.
Example :
I have an Engage message in two languages, for which the designed content looks like this :
- English :
- French :
I'd like to see how both versions of the message look like, once they're delivered to an inbox.
So I select two test-users, one with language EN and another one with language FR.
I then click on the arrow next to Send testmail and select Send to e-mail address(es).
In the pop-up, I enter a single email address, which is my own.
After clicking Ok, a confirmation is shown one or more testmails are scheduled to be sent out.
The two versions of the same message (EN and FR) are then delivered to my inbox as if they were sent to the selected EN and FR contacts.
I can validate if they both look fine or if additional message design is needed.
Note: A preview of the content is displayed if the language of the selected contact corresponds to the language of the content.
Mobile Push messages
A preview of the mobile message is displayed. For push notification, you can toggle between the push notification and the notification center by clicking the preview.
Use the Android/IOS icons at the top to preview the message on the corresponding devices.
Mobile push test messages can be sent to one or more users. The option Exclude users that can not be targeted lets you filter the list of test users to display only those with a linked device. Select the test-users in the Audience List by holding down the CTRL button.
Click Send test push to send the push message to the selected devices.
Preview and test Journey data
When your message contains personalized content coming from a 1:N linked list, which is only loaded in the Single Batch or Recurring Batch entry component inside a Custom Journey (more info about the use of 1:N data for personalization can be found here), personalized content becomes available when the Custom Journey is launched and the message is sent out.
When you preview your message, containing that personalized content, you can see and select a Journey bulk data record on the right, which loads the corresponding journey data, and shows it in the preview on the left.
You can also send out test mails with the personalized content.
Additionally, you can click on the 'Generate record' button.
With this button, you can have the system generate such a Journey data record without needing to launch the journey (for each applicable test-user).
The newly created record can then be used to test the personalized content by previewing and sending test mails.
Note: The journey needs to published though, to generate Journey bulk data records.
Also, if the journey has a filter defined on the Journey data, this filter is also applied when generating records. When the 1:N record does not match this filter, no data will be available.
While this feature is intended to help you preview the content you're creating, it's also a great tool to validate if your data configuration itself is giving you the expected output.
Note:
When your journey, that loads 1:N data for personalization, has never been launched before, the list containing the bulk data records on the right will initially be empty.
Clicking the 'Generate record' button will then create a first record (per applicable test-user) which can be used for previewing and sending test mails.
When your journey, that loads 1:N data for personalization, has already been launched before, the list is already pre-filled with all bulk data records from the start.
You can always click on the refresh icon to check if the records have been changed (because of journey execution with changed data, while your message preview screen remained open).
If no journey data can be loaded (because it doesn't exist), no bulk data list is shown on the right in the message preview screen.
Technical note: All Journey data records coming from the 1:N linked list, are shown as a single bulk data record (per test user) in the preview screen.
For example :
Test user with ID 1, has the following 3 linked data records.
The preview shows this data as a single record.
The data is in JSON format, containing the 3 data records:
{
"APPOINTMENTS": [{
"MOMENT": "20/12/2023",
"LOCATION": "Brussels",
"STATUS": "Confirmed"
}, {
"MOMENT": "06/01/2024",
"LOCATION": "London",
"STATUS": "Pending"
}, {
"MOMENT": "27/01/2024",
"LOCATION": "New York",
"STATUS": "Confirmed"
}]
}
SMS messages
SMS messages can be sent to users in the test audience. The field that is currently used to send the SMS to is the MOBILE field in an Audience List.
A preview of the SMS message is displayed:
You can preview the SMS on an iPhone or Android device.
The option Exclude users that cannot be targeted lets you filter the list of test users to include only those with a linked mobile phone number.
Select one or more users to send the SMS to and click Send test SMS.
