With every new email you create in Drip, you can preview and send test emails to yourself and others on your team. This allows you to troubleshoot styling, formatting, and data rendering issues that might not have been realized up to that point.
This article:
Previewing an email
While composing your email in the email editor, you can preview your email right from that view.
To preview your email, click the Preview tab located directly above the email editor.
You'll now see a formatted version which is an accurate representation of how the email will be rendered in an inbox.
Previewing dynamic subscriber data in an email
Once you're viewing the email in preview mode, you can select an individual subscriber to view the email as they will see it.
If you're using any Liquid shortcodes in your email, previewing the email in this way is the best way to troubleshoot your shortcodes.
For example, the following shortcode is used to display the first names of our subscribers.
If you want to view an email as one of your subscribers, select an individual subscriber from the list to the right of the preview window. As long as the selected subscriber has a saved value that the shortcode represents, you'll see their data rendered and displayed in the email preview.
Here's how that shortcode renders for the subscriber we've chosen from the list.
Although previewing an email from within Drip allows you to troubleshoot simple formatting and data rendering issues, we encourage you to send test emails to yourself and others on your team before it's finalized and sent to your subscribers.
Sending test emails
Test emails allow you to troubleshoot your Drip emails before you send them to your subscribers. And since test emails do not count towards email analytics, you can send as many as you'd like until you get your email just right, and not have to worry about inaccurate reporting.
Sending test emails also allow you to view and debug your email in a production environment. This means that you can open and view your test emails with different mobile devices, different web browsers, and the many different email clients that your readers commonly open your emails in.
To send a test email, click the Send Test Email button and enter the email address that you'd like to receive the test email (you can enter multiple by separating each with a comma).
Viewing test emails
After you've sent the test email, go to the email address inbox where it was sent and open it.
Here's an example of a simple test email rendered in Gmail:
Test emails and Liquid
Although test emails are a great way to troubleshoot your emails on different mobile devices and web browsers, you'll notice that Liquid does not get rendered. This is because Drip does not attach any subscriber data to test emails. The best way to troubleshoot your Liquid shortcodes is with the email preview mode.