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Check your work using previews and test sends

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Note

Litmus integration is only supported for real-time journeys.

Your marketing email messages will probably be seen by many potential customers, so you'll want to make sure they look just right when opened, regardless of which combination of device and email software each recipient is using. Dynamics 365 Customer Insights - Journeys provides several tools to help you test and evaluate your design before you use it in an email campaign.

Important

Previews and test sends give you a fast, convenient way to test your design. However, not all features work with previews and test sends. The following limitations apply:

To test these features, create a simple customer journey that targets a very small segment (such as one that includes a single contact with your email address) and sends the message you want to test.

Preview your message in the designer

The email designer provides two types of previews when you're designing a marketing email message:

  • Standard preview: Go to the Email designer then select the Preview and test tab to see the standard designer preview and choose between various form factors, contacts, and content settings. If your message contains personalization, you can enter sample data. Learn more: Preview personalized content
  • Inbox preview: Go to the Email designer > Preview and test > Email clients tab to see real-world inbox previews that show your design exactly as it will appear in a wide variety of target email clients and platforms.

See the next sections for details about each of these types of previews.

Note

Microsoft Outlook supports local customizations and plugins that can affect the way messages are rendered. In some cases, recipients using customized Outlook installations may see odd layouts or repeated page elements when viewing pages designed in Dynamics 365 Customer Insights - Journeys. These effects can't be simulated by the standard or inbox preview displays. If necessary, you can use test sends to see how your designs look in specific Outlook configurations.

Use the basic preview feature

Go to the Email designer then select the Preview and test tab to see an in-browser preview that simulates how your message will typically be rendered on various form factors (desktop, tablet, or phone) and orientations (portrait or landscape).

Use the form-factor icons in the right pane to switch between the available form factors for the preview. If your message contains personalization, you can enter sample data. Learn more: Preview personalized content

Use the advanced inbox preview feature

Go to the Email designer > Preview and test > Email clients tab to see real-world inbox previews that show your design exactly as it will appear in a wide variety of target email clients and platforms. This feature renders your message by using native code from each of the listed target platforms and then delivers your preview as an image file showing the precise results.

The inbox preview is provided by a Microsoft partner called Litmus Software, Inc. (litmus.com). Your Dynamics 365 Customer Insights - Journeys license includes 100 inbox previews per month, and this quota is shared by your entire organization. After your organization has used all the available previews for the month, each user must set up their own Litmus account if they want to create additional previews. Personal Litmus quotas apply to individual users, not to the entire organization. When you've used all your free previews, you'll be given the option to sign in to Litmus directly from the Inbox Preview tab in Dynamics 365 Customer Insights - Journeys. After you're signed in, the integration is seamless.

The Email clients tab displays a grid of icons, each labeled with the name of a different destination platform or email client. Initially, each preview is dimmed and shows a key (locked) icon, which means that you haven't yet generated that preview by using your current design and settings. Select one of these icons to generate that preview and unlock its icon. Each time you unlock a preview, you'll use one preview from either your organization's or your personal quota. The unlocked preview remains available for viewing until you change the design or the Properties (dynamic text) settings, at which time all existing previews will no longer be valid and will be shown as locked again.

Note

Litmus must be enabled for your instance before you can use it. More information: Configure default marketing settings

Send a test message

Select Test Send on the command bar to send your current design to one or more email addresses. This command initiates an error check, and then, provided your message passes the error check, a flyout panel opens asking you to specify the following:

  • Email address: Enter one or more target email addresses (comma-separated). You'll typically just use your own email address here.
  • Test contact: Select a contact record to supply values for dynamic content (such as a first name in the salutation). For a live message, these values come from the contact record for each individual recipient.
  • Test content settings: Select a content-settings record to supply values for dynamic content (such as a subscription-center URL or the sender's postal address). For a live message, the content-settings record is specified by the customer journey that sends the message.

Select the Save button at the bottom of the flyout panel to send the message to your specified email address(s).

Note

  • You can test-send draft and live email messages, so you don't have to go live to do a test send. In a live email message, select the three dots on the right of the command bar to see the Test send button.
  • Email analytics aren't affected by the test send feature.