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:
Preview an Email
The Preview function is the easiest way to view an email as it will look to your subscribers.
If you’re designing an email using the Visual Builder, click Preview in the upper right toolbar to render the email and see a preview of how it will look to your subscribers.
If you’re creating a plain text email using the Text Builder, click the Preview tab:
While previewing an email, you can select an individual subscriber to view the email as. Since Liquid renders while previewing as a subscriber, this is the best method for testing any liquid you might be using in the email.
Note: If you're using links in your emails, it’s important to note that link clicks do get applied to the previewed subscriber. It will also trigger automation configured with that link. If you plan to test links while previewing an email, we suggest creating a test subscriber using your own email address.
Previewing dynamic subscriber data in an email
If you're using Liquid in your email, the preview mode is the best way to troubleshoot and make sure your Liquid renders properly.
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.
Send 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:
Features that do not render in test emails:
Because test emails do not reference any individual subscriber properties, the following features will not render inside of test emails:
- Trigger Links
- Liquid