Testing your automated sequence is critical to understanding the customer journey you’ve created. By running through your sequence the way your customers will, you can ensure everything works smoothly and delivers the intended experience.
Testing can be done in two phases:
- Test individual messages: Send yourself test versions of each email or SMS message.
- Test the full sequence: Experience the entire flow in real-time to see how each step behaves.
Testing individual messages (Email or SMS)
When you create an email or SMS step in your sequence, the message is set up in the Content step of the sequence wizard. Before sending the sequence live, it’s a good idea to test each message.
Example of the SMS content composer
How to send a test message:
- In the email or SMS composer, click Send test in the bottom-right corner of the window.
- Enter the email address or mobile number where you want to receive the test.
- Check the design and content of the message in your inbox or on your device to make sure it displays as expected.
Running a real-time experience test
To ensure your sequence performs exactly as designed, it’s essential to run a live test by subscribing yourself to the sequence. This lets you experience each step as your leads would.
How to run a real-time test:
- Add yourself to the sequence:
- Go to Contacts in your account and create a new contact with a valid email address you can access.
- Manually subscribe yourself to the sequence.
As the sequence progresses, you can monitor each step in real-time, ensuring the logic, timing, and messages work correctly.
Pro tips
Use a unique email address for each test, especially if you run multiple tests. This ensures accurate tracking and avoids confusion with previous test data.
Use variations of your email address if you have a Gmail or Google Workspace account. You can add "+test1" to your email (e.g., johndoe+test1@gmail.com) to create unique leads without setting up multiple email accounts. Learn more from Google.
Monitoring your test results
After subscribing yourself to the sequence, check the progression and interaction logs to ensure everything works as intended.
Review the contact profile:
- Go to Contacts and open the test subscriber's profile.
- Check the Emails, Sequences, and Log tabs to see:
- Which emails were sent.
- The contact's interaction with each step. As you open the emails or click links, observe how those actions are reflected in the contact's log.
- The contact's progression in the sequence.
Review your inbox:
- Open each email you receive from the sequence.
- Verify the design, content, and functionality by clicking all the links to ensure they direct to the correct pages.
Analyzing sequence performance
To make sure your test contact moved through the sequence as expected, review the sequence analytics:
- Go to Marketing > Sequences. On the Analytics page, click the In detail tab in the top right corner.
- Select the sequence you're testing from the drop-downs menus.
- Hover over each step to review how your progression and behavior is shown.
This allows you to see subscriber progression and how each step in the sequence is performing.
Testing advanced conditions
If your sequence includes complex logic, such as tags or behavior-based actions, test each scenario to ensure everything works as expected.
How to test multiple scenarios:
- Create multiple test leads that each meet different conditions in your sequence (e.g., some leads with the tag "VIP," others without).
- Subscribe each test lead to the sequence and monitor their progress.
- Use incognito or private mode in your browser to ensure each test is unique and avoid data conflicts from browser cookies.
Pro tip
Close and reopen the private/incognito window between tests to start fresh each time and avoid overlapping test data.