How to Send a Test Drip Email

A drip email can look perfect in the editor and still arrive looking wrong. A merge tag might come through empty, an image might not load, the spacing can shift in a real inbox, or the whole message can land in spam. Running a test email before sending it shows you the real thing, the same email a lead would get. It takes a few seconds and saves you from sending a typo or a dead link to a real prospect.

Open the email step you want to check in the sequence editor and click Send Test. A small window opens with one field, Send test to, already filled in with your account email. That address is your test recipient, and you can change it to any inbox — your own, a teammate's, or a second account you want to preview in. Click Send Test and it is on its way.

The test sends the step you are editing right now: its subject line, its body, the layout you have chosen, and any call-to-action button. It is the exact content in front of you, including edits you have not saved yet, so you can write and preview at the same time. Each test covers one step rather than the whole sequence. The subject also arrives with a [TEST] label in front, so it is easy to tell apart from real mail in your inbox.

SiteStakes fills your merge tags with a mix of sample and real information. Lead details are stand-ins: the first name shows as Test, the full name reads Test User, and the phone number is a placeholder, so you can see where a lead's details will land without needing a real contact. Your own information is real — your company name, phone, address, logo, social links, and call-to-action all pull from your site settings. Think of it as a real estate email preview, where the names are examples but the branding is exactly what a lead would see.

Open the test in the inbox of your test recipient and look it over the way a lead would. A few things worth checking:

• Token rendering: every merge tag is filled in, with no leftover braces in the subject or body.
• Image loading: your logo and any images appear instead of broken icons.
• Link verification: every link, and the call-to-action button, goes where it should.
• A sender check: the sender name and address are correct.
• An inbox check: the email landed in the inbox, not the spam folder, and the subject and preview pane text read well at a glance.

If anything looks off, fix it in the editor and send another test. There is no limit, so you can render test emails as many times as you need.

Yes. The test goes out through the same email provider your live drips use, so you will need one connected before a test will send. If you have not set that up yet, start with connecting an email provider. If your provider is connected but the test still does not arrive, check your spam folder and then see email drips not sending. Once it is working, you can send a test drip email for any step and confirm it before real leads ever see it.