CATEGORY: Designs

Message preview

In e-shot you are able to make use of our built-in preview function that helps to make email proofing faster and more reliable. This tool provides you with several capabilities.  

 

Previewing your design   

The preview page of a design firstly lets you preview what your email will look like on desktop and mobile for both the HTML and text versions of your email. This can be done by switching between the toggles at the top of the preview page.  

Pro tip: 

It is always good to ensure your design is accessible across various types of devices, for example, a horizontal scroll bar appearing for a mobile view makes it harder for users to engage with all of the content, since there is a chance, they might miss details as a result. 

 

Summary tab 

On the right-hand side of the preview page, you will see a snapshot of some key information including what your subject line and preview text currently is set to, the name of the design and your sender address, name and reply address. 

Under the summary section when previewing a design, you will see a section labelled ‘Public URL’. This link is very useful for sharing your design and viewing it in a browser. This link can be shared with anyone, internal and external and even if changes are then made to the design, the design will automatically update, and you won't need to provide a new link, making it easier to share and collaborate designs. 

Testing  

From the preview page, users can send test emails to their inbox, this feature allows you to view what your email will look like in an actual inbox.   

If you click ‘Send’ without selecting a test contact this will bring up a pop-up box for you to enter the email you want to send the test to and whether you want the HTML or text version of the email.   

There is also an option on the bottom left-hand side to select a preference form to test with. If you use e-shot preference centres, this is a way to test the form without having to send a live campaign. If you have an active preference form in your e-shot account, it will be available from the dropdown. Then when you receive the test email you will be able to test the preference form by clicking on the manage profile or unsubscribe link within the email.  

 

 

Personalisation   

If a test contact is selected from the dropdown, under this section you will see all the dynamic content values associated with this contact. Any elements of your email design that use dynamic content will also preview with the relevant value associated with the selected contact.  

Links   

In this section you can make sure that your email design contains the correct links. This is useful for spotting elements, such as buttons and images that may contain inaccurate or out of date links.   

By hovering over a link, it will highlight where this link is in your email, enabling you to make sure it is in the right place. You can also click onto the links to ensure they are working correctly and take you to the intended destination.  

Accessibility 

Within this tab, you will be able to see, if applicable, all of your accessibility issues. It is important to address these to ensure everyone can engage with your email. Furthermore, using the ‘Highlight’ button will show you exactly where the accessibility issue has been flagged up.  

This feature allows you to proactively fix any colour contrast issues within your design before sending it out.  

We offer regular accessibility training sessions which touches on these tools more in greater depth, you can view our latest sessions here. 

 

To conclude 

By combining all the above functions, users can thoroughly check their email design in one place. The Message Preview function offers the best of both worlds – better accuracy and increased speed.