Test a saved campaign before you send it to your audience. Review the message, send one copy to an address you control, and check the received email on desktop and mobile.
A test send is a real email to the address you specify. It does not send to the campaign's audience, schedule the campaign, or confirm that the audience is eligible. Keep the campaign as a draft until the message and audience are ready.
Prepare the saved draft
Open Campaigns and identify the exact campaign you want to test. If you are creating it now, follow Sending your first email campaign.
- Choose Keep as a draft under Schedule. New campaigns default to Send at a set time, so check this before saving.
- Save your changes and reopen the campaign. Confirm its status is Draft. Test sends are available only for draft campaigns.
- Check the saved subject, preview text, message body, From name, From email, and Reply-to. Use a reply address your team monitors.
- Choose an address you control for the test. Confirm that you can open its inbox and identify the new message.
Campaign preview and readiness checks require campaign editing access; sending a test requires send permission. If the assistant cannot perform an action, ask your administrator to check your access and the site's enabled assistant actions. See Why can't I see or use a feature?.
Your site also needs outbound email enabled, an active sending provider, a sender verified for that provider, working public email URLs, and unsubscribe-link configuration. Have your email administrator resolve setup errors before testing.
You can test a draft before choosing its audience. An audience-related failure in the full send checks does not necessarily prevent a test, but it must be resolved before sending to the audience.
Preview the campaign you will actually send
Use the Cedros assistant to preview the saved campaign, including its HTML and plain-text versions. For example:
Preview the draft campaign “October customer update.” Show its saved subject, preview text, From name, From email, Reply-to, HTML, and plain text. Run preflight and explain whether it is ready for a test send. Show any rendering errors or warnings. Do not send or schedule it.
Check the returned message and sender details. Resolve rendering errors, unsupported personalization, missing content, and public-link warnings. A warning that the HTML body is empty can be expected for an intentional plain-text message; verify that the fallback contains the complete email.
The campaign builder's Preview shows the selected template. A saved-campaign preview checks the campaign's stored content. Templates supply a copy when a campaign is created; editing a template or snippet later does not automatically rewrite that campaign. See Creating reusable email templates if the saved message differs from your latest template.
Without a selected contact, the campaign preview uses sample recipient details such as “Reader” and “Reader Example.” Ask the assistant to preview with a specific saved contact when you need to inspect that contact's personalization. This renders a preview; it does not send to the contact.
Check the message with and without a name. {{first_name}} falls back to “there” when no first name is available. {{full_name}} falls back to the first name, or “there” when neither name is available. For example, “Hi {{first_name}}” remains readable as “Hi there.” Check subjects and plain text as well as the HTML body.
A preview using one contact does not prove that every recipient's details are complete or that the contact is eligible for the campaign.
Send one test to your own address
After reviewing the saved draft:
- Ask the assistant for a test of that exact campaign to one explicit address you control. Replace the bracketed address in the example below with your actual destination.
- Check the campaign name and complete destination address before confirming the test action. If several campaigns have the same name, resolve the ambiguity first.
- Read the detailed send result. Sent means the provider accepted the test; suppressed means the test was withheld. Do not rely only on a general completion message.
- Open the destination inbox and find the message with [Test] at the start of its subject. Check spam or junk if it is not in the inbox.
- Keep the campaign in Draft while you inspect it. Sending a test does not authorize the audience send.
For example:
Send one test of the draft campaign “October customer update” to [my email address]. Do not send to the audience or schedule the campaign.
Use a separate, deliberate request for each additional test address. Do not create a test by sending the campaign to its full audience or by forwarding a customer's personalized campaign email.
The received test uses contact details associated with the test email address when available. Selecting a contact for the earlier preview does not make the test impersonate that contact. If your test address has no saved name, you may see the fallback greeting instead.
Inspect the received email
Open the same test message on the devices and email apps you use to review campaigns. Check these parts:
- Sender and reply address: the displayed name and address identify the intended sender. Open a reply draft to inspect its destination, then discard it if you do not intend to send a reply.
- Subject and preview text: the subject is accurate, the preview text adds useful context, and neither contains leftover tokens or draft wording. The [Test] prefix is added for testing; it is not part of the saved campaign subject.
- Message and personalization: names, dates, prices, offers, and the main action read correctly. Look for sample content and awkward fallback greetings.
- Layout: text fits the screen, headings and spacing are clear, buttons are usable, and the message remains understandable when images are not displayed. Check light and dark appearance where your email app offers them.
- Images and ordinary content links: images load, and buttons and links reach the intended live pages. Check the actual destination and any visitor access requirements. Opening an email successfully does not prove its booking page, product, or download is ready.
- Plain text: ask for the saved campaign's rendered plain-text version if your email app does not expose it. Confirm that the message and essential URLs are present; linked HTML text can lose its destination during automatic text conversion.
- Footer: the organization, contact details, address, and subscription wording are correct for your site. Avoid duplicating the site's automatically added footer in the template.
Use the received email to check real inbox presentation. The browser preview and an email app can display the same HTML differently, and one successful test does not guarantee the same appearance or inbox placement for everyone.
Know which features need a separate check
Campaign test emails omit the campaign open-tracking pixel and do not apply the normal campaign click-tracking rewrite. Opening and clicking the test is therefore not a reliable check of audience engagement reporting.
Test sends also do not generate preference-center or web-version URLs. Those token values can be empty, and the corresponding automatic footer links are absent. A custom button using one of those tokens can consequently be unusable in the test. Check the saved campaign's preview and launch readiness to confirm the required settings before the audience send; do not delete a required production link just because the test cannot supply it.
The saved preview uses demonstration unsubscribe and preference links. The test email includes an unsubscribe link for its test address, but it does not verify a real audience recipient's unsubscribe flow. If you need an end-to-end subscription test, ask your email administrator to arrange it with a dedicated test recipient. Do not use a customer's preference link to experiment.
A successful test also does not establish audience consent, final recipient counts, bulk-send readiness, or available sending capacity. Follow Choosing and checking your campaign audience and review launch readiness separately.
Correct the saved message and retest
When you find a problem, make the correction in the content the campaign will actually use.
- Keep the campaign as a draft and identify whether the problem belongs to the saved campaign, its source template, or the site's email settings.
- Update the saved campaign deliberately through the assistant, or create a fresh draft from the corrected template. If you replace the draft, identify the replacement clearly so your team does not schedule both versions.
- Preview the saved result again. Check both body formats, sender details, and any changed links or personalization.
- Send another test when the changes affect what recipients will receive. Review the new message rather than the earlier test still open in your inbox.
After the final test, recheck the saved audience and launch readiness before scheduling. Testing and scheduling are separate actions. Save changes can schedule a campaign when Send at a set time is selected, so leave Keep as a draft selected until you intend to authorize delivery.
For a sequence, testing the parent campaign does not test every follow-up's content or timing. Review each follow-up template and arrange separate draft tests for messages you need to inspect.
Resolve test-send problems
The campaign is scheduled, queued, or already sent. Test sends require Draft status. Do not change a live campaign casually to make a test available. Prepare a separate draft for content testing, and handle any intended schedule change or cancellation as its own action.
The test is suppressed. Ask your administrator to inspect the test address's consent, preferences, and suppression state. Do not clear a genuine opt-out or suppression simply to force delivery. See Managing unsubscribed and suppressed recipients.
The result says sent, but the inbox is empty. Confirm the exact destination and check spam, filtering, and any provider delivery feedback. Provider acceptance is not proof of inbox delivery. Ask your email administrator to trace the attempt before repeatedly sending another copy.
Provider acceptance is unknown. The provider may already have accepted the message. Check its delivery record before retrying. A repeated test request is a new send attempt and can produce another email.
Too many test sends this hour. Cedros limits campaign test-send requests to 20 per site per hour. Failed or suppressed attempts can consume that allowance too. Coordinate with other editors and wait before requesting another test.
The email still shows old copy. Check which saved campaign was tested. Updating the reusable template alone does not update an existing campaign. Compare the saved subject and both body versions with the newest received test.
A preview works, but the test fails. Rendering a preview does not establish provider access, sender verification, unsubscribe signing, or delivery eligibility for the test address. Use the exact error to resolve the failing part; do not schedule the audience send as a workaround.
For help, provide the campaign name and status, test time, detailed result or exact error, and provider message or recipient-job reference if available. Share a redacted screenshot when useful rather than forwarding private recipient links or a full customer export. See Getting help with your Cedros site.