Mailings - Sending out newsletters > Create, edit and send mailings > Testing and sending a mailing > Preview - For in-depth checking

Preview - For in-depth checking

For quick and easy checking of mailings before sending them out, the OpenEMM offers a preview function. With this function, you can check newsletter quality, find any errors and correct them.

This preview function offers additional advantages. The OpenEMM being able to create customized mailings, you can decide to preview e-mails for individual recipients. This allows you to check whether customizing contents for various target groups of recipients has been done in exactly the way you wanted and if recipients are being sent the right newsletters.

Let us take an example. You have decided to send mailings with different contents to defined subscriber target groups. Target group A will receive a special software offer, target group B a special hardware offer. By selecting a recipient from target group A, you can check whether the relevant newsletter does, in fact, contain software-related texts.

Proceed as follows: As soon as you have created your mailing, defined contents and selected target groups, you can check the mailing by using the preview function.

1.Select the mailing you want to check. Clicking on the Mailings button will display the mailings overview. Select the relevant mailing. You can access the preview function by clicking on the Send mailing tab.
2.The first sub-menu of the Send mailing screen is the preview function. Click on Preview.
Fig. 3.40: Ready for sending, but not yet sent out. Call up the preview function by clicking on the link.

Fig. 3.40: Ready for sending, but not yet sent out. Call up the preview function by clicking on the link.

3.The preview dialog features three drop-down lists for you to specify the contents of the preview. In the Recipient drop-down list, select a recipient.
Please note: The list only contains administrators and test recipients who subscribe to that mailing. You may have to create a special recipient for your preview test. Further information can be found in the next chapter on test mailings.
Alternatively, you can also show the preview for a specific recipient. To do so, enter the recipient's e-mail address in the field next to Or input e-mail. This e-mail address must be active in the set-up mailing list of the mailing. Otherwise, OpenEMM displays an error message. The preview is subsequently shown for exactly this recipient – the setting for the recipient is ignored during this. To display the mailing preview again for the selected recipients, delete the e-mail address from the Or input e-mail field again.
Almost nothing is worse for recipients than being unable to open a web link in your mailing, for example because a spelling mistake has slipped in, or when the web page referenced perhaps no longer exists. OpenEMM helps here by checking all web links given in your mailing. Therefore click on the button Check next to Check links. This check may last for some time.
Are all the web links contained in your mailing correct? As soon as you checked the weblinks, OpenEMM points out possible problems. Invalid links appear as a warning message in red lettering. An example can be seen in the illustration below.
Fig. 3.41: The OpenEMM has found an invalid link.

Fig. 3.41: The OpenEMM has found an invalid link.

In addition, OpenEMM shows you through a description placed in front whether the invalid web link is a conventional web link or a trackable link.
Please note: In spite of the warning messages, you can still send your mailing. Before moving on from a test transmission to the final transmission to your recipients however, you should check the web links singled out by OpenEMM.
Fig. 3.42: Select a recipient, format and size for the preview.

Fig. 3.42: Select a recipient, format and size for the preview.

4.The Format drop-down list allows you to select whether to preview your mailing as an HTML or an Offline-HTML version.
Please note: Only options set by you when creating the mailing will be displayed.
5.The Size drop-down list allows you to select which screen size the preview function should simulate.
6.The checkbox No images offers a preview with suppressed images. With this features you see how e-mail clients and webmailer display your mailing if images have to be loaded manually. So you can optimize the mailing to look good in this case.
7.Once you have entered your selections, click on the Preview button. The OpenEMM will now generate the email for your selected recipient.
Fig. 3.43: The preview at the bottom of the display allows you to check what the e-mail would look like on the recipient’s screen.

Fig. 3.43: The preview at the bottom of the display allows you to check what the e-mail would look like on the recipient’s screen.

8.To return to the mailing overview, click on the Send mailing tab.

If there is anything else you want to change, use the navigation bar and the Content tab to go back, for instance to edit your text modules.