Testing and sending a campaign

In this article

 

Before sending a campaign, it's essential to test delivery to see it live in your inbox.

 

 

How does campaign testing and sending work?

These are key steps when you create a campaign in E-goi.  Testing delivery allows you to check the message in your inbox before sending it out and ensure all is good and ready to send.

Sending is actually "getting-it-out-the-door" to your contacts, which you should do with particular care so your message is sent exactly how you want it.

 

 

Before you begin

 

Requirements

To test and send a campaign, you need:

  • A campaign with send-ready content.
  • A contact list with the contacts you'll be sending the campaign to, properly segmented if necessary.

 

 

Costs

The cost for each delivery is the same as a standard send.

If you're testing email delivery and your E-goi plan includes unlimited sends, you can do any amount of tests.

If you're testing email delivery, but your E-goi plan doesn't have unlimited sends, each test will be deducted from your send quota.

If you're testing SMS, SmartSMS, voice or push delivery, each test will be deducted from your send quota.

 

 

Step by step

 

Testing delivery

Before sending a campaign, you can test delivery to see it live in your inbox.

A delivery test does just that. If you want to test your campaign engagement, go for an A/B test.

 

Testing delivery for email campaigns

1) Go to the Engage menu, head over to Email and click View all.

2) Hit Edit on your email campaign. When editing the campaign content, go to Testing and choose Test delivery. Type in the email address the test will be delivered to (you can add mutiple emails) and hit Send.

 

Testing delivery for SMS, Smart SMS, push or voice campaigns

1)  Go to the Engage menu, head over to the type of campaign you'll testing and click View all.

2) Hit Edit on your campaign. When editing the campaign content (eg. an SMS campaign), go to Test delivery and choose Send test. Type in the mobile number the test will be delivered to (you can add mutiple numbers) and hit Send.

 

 

Testing delivery for a group of people

Instead of typing out multiple emails or mobile numbers every time you do a test, you can add them to a group and just pick it for testing.

To create a group, choose the Send to a test group when testing delivery and add the people you need.

 

 

Sending out the campaign for real

1) Go to the Engage menu, head over to the type of campaign you'll be sending and click View all.

2) Hit Edit on your campaign. If the content is done, move on to Setup.

3) Choose whether to send it now or schedule it for later.

4) Select the contact list (and its segments, if necessary) that your campaign will be sent to.

Important: If you don't pick a segment, the campaign will be sent out to the whole list!

5) Move on to Checklist. Confirm each of the pre-send checks and hit Send campaign. It'll be queued for a short while until sending begins.

 

 

Publishing an email campaign on Facebook or X

Quando o E-goi envia o seu email, pode ao mesmo tempo publicá-lo automaticamente no Facebook ou X (antigo Twitter). É uma boa forma de divulgar a sua mensagem aos seguidores que tem nestas redes sociais:

1) Comece por criar a sua campanha de email. Quando estiver pronta a enviar, avance para o passo do envio.

2) No passo do envio, clique em "Outras opções" (no fundo da página) e marque "Publicar no Facebook depois do envio".

3) Se ainda não integrou a sua conta E-goi com o Facebook, vai aparecer uma janela que pede para autorizar o E-goi a fazer a publicação. Dê essa autorização.

4) É tudo. Confirme que a opção "Publicar no Facebook depois do envio" está marcada e publique então a campanha de email normalmente.

5) Depois de o email ter sido enviado, o E-goi publicará esse mesma campanha de email no perfil ou página Facebook que escolheu na integração.

6) Se tiver perfil no Twitter, basta seguir os mesmos passos acima, mas escolher "Publicar no Twitter depois do envio".

 

 

IP warm-up

Any time you send out an email across the Internet, it relies on an IP address to reach its destination. E-goi allows you to use a shared IP for your sends (assigned to other E-goi accounts as well) or go for a dedicated IP (which is yours only and hence much faster and safer).

A dedicated IP is usually "cold", as it was allocated specifically to you and has never been used. This is why almost all ISPs (such as Gmail, Outlook.com, Yahoo, etc.) will put it on a temporary watch list to make sure you're sending engaging emails and not spam. Proving to them that you are good sender is what warming up your IP is all about.

A warm-up will usually take about 30 days and this is how you should perform it:

1) Start by segmenting your contact list to single out those folks who signed up in the last 3 months. You'll be using these recently subscribed contacts for the entire warm-up - they should be extra receptive to your messages (especially if they signed up via double opt-in form) and much less likely to have bouncing email addresses or, worse, report you for spam.

2) During your 30-day warm-up periodnone of your mailings can exceed a 5% bounce rate or a 0,1% spam complaint rate! If any of them does, you'll need to restart the whole warm-up from scratch. That's why it's so important to mail your most recent and most engaged contacts only.

3) Before getting your emails out the door, be sure to authenticate your senderadd our CNAME to it and set up DMARC. Done? Now let's carefully throttle up your email traffic over the next 30 days. Say you send daily emails and you've got one hundred thousand (100K) recent contacts. This would be your warm-up schedule:

  • First 5 days: send only 10K emails per day
  • Next 5 days: send 20K emails per day
  • Next 5 days: send 40K emails per day
  • Next 5 days: send 60K emails per day
  • Next 5 days: send 80K emails per day
  • Next 5 days: send 100K emails per day

After 30 days, if you've followed this schedule like clockwork, your IP should be fully warmed up and ready to email your entire contact list.

Warming an IP up is a complex task which should not be taken ligthly! We'll be on hand to guide you through the whole thing.

 

 

Frequently asked questions

 

Will people receiving the test be added to my E-goi contact list??

No. Delivery tests are just meant for you (and anyone else you need) to check the message live. This is also why they don't include reports or fully working links.

 

What's the send time recommendation in my email campaigns?

It's E-goi's AI-powered automatic suggestion based on your previous email sends. See how it works.

 

I've sent my campaign just now. Can I still cancel it?

Only if your send is still in progress. As soon as you send your campaign, E-goi will take you to the in-progress sends page. Click your send's options button (right-hand side of the page) and choose "Cancel". Keep in mind that once messages have been sent, you can't get them back, as they'll have been delivered straight to ISPs or network operators, which E-goi has no control over!

 

Can I send my campaign to multiple lists simultaneously?

Yes, although we'd recommend against it! You should always use a single contact list split into segments (you can have as many segments as you need).

If you'd still like to send your campaign to more than one list at the same time, just select those lists on the campaign Setup page.

However, be aware that:

  • Your campaign should has no advanced personalisation (ie. contents which change dynamically for each contact).
  • By activating the "Mail duplicate contacts only once" option, there will be an independent validation to each list. Since each list works independently, there's no verification about crossed data between them.
    Possible scenarios:
    - If a contact is duplicated in List 1 and also exists in List 2, they will receive your campaign twice.
    - If a contact is duplicated in List 1 and does not exist in List 2, they will receive your campaign once.
    - If a contact exists in List 1 and also exists in List 2, they will receive your campaign twice.

 

My list has duplicated contacts. Can I still send the campaign?

A nicely mantained list won't usually contain duplicated contacts. If you use the list's unique fields in the list, dupes are unlikely to creep up, as E-goi will automatically prevent duplicated data from being added.

Example: If the "email" field in your contact list is a unique field, E-goi won't allow you to add or import duped email addresses.

Still, if you 've got dupes in your list and really need to send out the campaign:

1) Under your campaign's Setup stage (where you set sending options), scroll down to the To whom? section, open Advanced options (or More options) and enable the Mail duplicate contacts only once option.

2) Proceed with sending the campaign as usual.

Important! The "Mail duplicate contacts only once" option applies to the list you selected only. If you choose to send the campaign to more than one list (which we do not recommend), E-goi won't check for duplicated contacts across the lists you selected.

 

 

What do my anti-spam test results mean?

One of the tests you can have E-goi run on your email campaign is the anti-spam breakdown. It's based on SpamAssassin, a popular spam filter used by many corporate networks.

SpamAssassin screens your email for spammy-looking content. The rules and scores it uses are SpamAssassin's own (we have no say over them), but this is how you can fix some of the most frequent warnings:
 

Warning How you can fix it
HTML_90_100 Your email has too much HTML code for so little text content (90_100 means a 90% to 100% HTML-to-text ratio). Try to add some text to even things out.
HTML_TAG_EXIST_TBODY Your HTML code contains a "tbody" tag, which is not meant to be used in emails. Simply remove it.
SUBJ_ALL_CAPS Your email subject is in all caps. Try not to do that, as it looks like you're shouting :)
HTML_IMAGE_RATIO_02 The images in your email are too large for the amount of text provided. Try to add some text or reduce the image dimensions to even things out.
HTML_IMAGE_ONLY_08 You have one or more images in your email but too little text to go with it. Try not to design image-only emails, as those are often seen as spam.
FUZZY_CREDIT SpamAssassin thinks you're trying to hide a spammy word ("credit" in this case) in your email text. This can happen if, say, you have a sentence such as "crediting your source". Just reword it to take out the offending word.
URIBL_BLACK A domain in your email or sender address has been included in the URIBL blacklist. Make sure to ask URIBL why the domain has been listed and request a de-list.
MIME_QP_LONG_LINE Your email probably contains a link with more than 76 characters. Email links shouldn't be this long, even though most servers accept them.

 

Why don't my links open straight away on the email preview and delivery test?

If you click on any link in your email while previewing it (either using the online preview or E-goi's delivery test feature), the link won't open immediately. E-goi will first let you know which link you'll be taken to and only then can you click through.

This is to prevent links from affecting your preview, so it remains consistent at all times. Besides, E-goi's own special links (such as unsubscribe, view online or share on social) will obviously only work on your live email.

No worries, though! This only happens in your email preview and delivery test. When people click through your actual, live email, they'll be taken to the link's destination right away

 

Why does Gmail says my email was sent via 1-hostingservice.com?

Your contacts using Gmail may sometimes notice it has been sent "via 1-hostingservice.com".

1-hostingservice.com is an E-goi domain designed to boost your deliverability. If your own domain reputation in E-goi is not quite perfect yet (this is par for the course in your first sends and will improve as you keep sending out relevant, targeted emails to your audience), Gmail will deliver your email via our 1-hostingservice.com domain to ensure the best possible inbox placement.

 

Gmail is clipping my emails

Gmail clips emails that are over 102 KB in size and it shows a link where you can go and see the complete message.

  • Don't copy and paste content directly from a text editor or from a website. If you do so, choose the "match destination formatting" option. Otherwise, you may be adding extra and unnecessary formatting code and that will increase the email's size.

  • Make a content selection for the email. It's easy to reach 102 KB when creating an email, actually. So you should keep the content as short and relevant as possible. If you have a lot of content to be sent in a campaign, you can split it in multiple emails. Another idea could be selecting the most relevant topics and add in links that lead the user to a deeper reading landing page or to an action.

  • What if I reduce the image size? Will it help? Unfortunately not. When you insert an image in your email, it's hosted externally on a server. That's why its weight doesn't make any difference in the email's size. On the other hand, when you insert an image in your email, it'll generate a URL in the HTML code which increases the email's size. If you delete the image, that line of code disappears and the message's size is reduced as well.

  • Don't forget to test the campaign! There are some online tools where you can test how the email will look on different platforms. However, you should send a campaign test to a Gmail account before actually sending the campaign to your contact list.

 

E-goi says my sending domain is recent

A sending domain is the bit right after the "@" symbol in the email address you use as your email campaign sender.

Example: If you used me@example.com as your email sender, its sending domain would be example.com.

However, if you registered your domain a short while ago, it'll be given the stink eye from Gmail, Outlook.com and other email providers, as they tend to see lots of spam coming from recently registered domains.

If you get this warning, drop us a line (use the Help widget in your E-goi account). We'll check your domain age and try to help you out.

 

Black lists

Blacklisted campaign link

If you add one or more links to your email campaign containing a blacklisted domain (ie, a domain which email providers have tagged as a spam source), E-goi won't get your campaign out the door in order to protect your sending reputation.

Consider using an alternative link. Otherwise:

 

Blacklisted IP

If your email's sending IP or domain has been blacklisted, your deliverability may be affected.

Depending on the blacklist, the impact across some of your emails may be unnoticeable (eg. slight delivery delay) or significant (hard-bouncing messages).

The impact of a listing can be made less severe if you always abide by email marketing best practices.

What you can do:

  • If your E-goi account has no dedicated IP: No need to do anything. We work directly with blacklist services to remove and mitigate any IP listing so it doesn't impact your sends.
    Our IP pool is shared by multiple E-goi accounts, which may cause occasional listings due to different account behaviours. A dedicated IP is available as an extra for your E-goi account.
  • If you purchased a dedicated IP extra: Delisting should be done by you, as you're in full control of your IP. You can use MXToolBox or MultiRBL to try pinpointing what caused your IP to be listed and request a removal. Your E-goi account manager is available to help if needed.
    Important! Be sure any behaviour on your side that caused your listing is fully sorted out. Always abide by email marketing best practices.

 

Can I attach files or images to my emails?

Not for email marketing sends, não, as it goes against email marketing standards and best practices. For transactional 1-on-1 sends, attachments are allowed though. 

 

How fast does E-goi send my emails?

E-goi will always get your emails out the door at the maximum speed allowed by four things:

  • Your account's sending reputation: The higher the reputation of your E-goi account (which mostly depends on your list import hygiene and how well your campaigns have been performing), the quicker your emails will be sent.
  • Your contact imports: Some spammy-like list imports and exports can ring E-goi's alarm bells and throttle your sends over a few days while we double-check what you're actually importing.
  • Your account level: Depending on your E-goi account plan, you may be given higher priority through our sending queue.
  • Your contacts' engagement: The more engaged your contacts get (by opening and clicking through your emails with nary a spam complaint), the quicker you'll be given the go-ahead for major ISPs (such as Gmail, Outlook.com, Yahoo, etc.) to turbocharge your email delivery across all remaining contacts. Engagement is the one key piece of evidence for ISPs that people love you and want to hear from you.
  • ISP throttling: In addition to dynamic engagement-based filters, Gmail, Outlook.com, Yahoo and virtually all major ISPs have their own fixed delivery limits per hour.

 

How often should I send my mailings?

It all boils down to two key things:
  • how often your audience is expecting to receive your mailings
  • how engaging they find them to be
This means the first thing you should do is clearly state in your sign-up form how often subscribers will be sent mails from you (daily, weekly, every two weeks, etc.). Consider also adding a small reminder to all your emails letting your contacts know the frequency of your sends, as well as where and when each subscriber opted in (E-goi can do this automatically for you).
 
Consistency is one of the things that tells ISPs you're a good sender, so beware of doing a large-volume one-off campaign.
 
Overall, you should mail your audience often, though not too much. Weekly is a nice, not-too-pushy sending frequency, but blasting out huge email volumes every day will have you reported for spamming! If you need to get daily emails out the door, make sure to segment your audience and send them small batches of targeted, highly relevant mailings.
 
Whatever frequency you choose, always send contents which connects strongly with your audience, offering them something they're really interested in and can't find anywhere else! This is what engagement is all about and the key to having your emails land straight in the inbox