Generating Text Only Content
Once you are happy with how your email has been set up in the Visual Builder, you will need to convert it to a Text Only content version. This is absolutely essential, for the following reasons:
- Email spam filters read the plain text version before determining whether the email can pass through into the inbox, or whether it belongs in the spam folder. The Text Only version must match the HTML in order for it to not be perceived as spam.
- A small percentage of your recipients may be using older email clients, which only show the plain text element of an email, therefore this must still be able to show the correct content for this particular subset of your audience.
To do this you should:
- Go to the top right of the dashboard, select the drop down arrow and choose Text-only Content
- Select the Auto-generate button, which will be near the top left of the dashboard
- Then go back to the HTML version by clicking HTML Content
- You should then press the green Save Template button, on the bottom left of the screen
Validation Errors
After saving the template, you will be redirected to the Summary page where you will need to address any outstanding Validation Errors.
The Validation warnings and errors need to be addressed to combat any potential issues that may impact on delivery, inbox display and how people interact with the Email Campaign
- If there are any validation errors, there will be a number beside the Validation tab
- You should select the Validation tab
Common Validation Errors
Validation errors are categorised under the Junk Mail Filter and Content & Links sections:
- Junk Mail Filter although there are several things that could cause Junk Mail Filter errors, these are often caused because a Text Only version of the email hasn't been generated and to correct this, you would need to generate one
- Content & Links - there are several types of errors, most of which can be easily addressed (some of the more common errors are below)
You might encounter errors in any of the tabs under Content & links but common validation errors are more likely to found under the HTML section, such as -:
- An empty placeholder, for example, there may be an image placeholder in the email that you had forgotten to add a real image to
- This can be remedied by either deleting the placeholder or by adding an image to the placeholder
- Missing links is another common error, if you click on the blue text beside the warning or error, a pop up message will indicate where in the email you should add links
- Once you have addressed the errors, you can hit the Run tests again button to see if all validations have been corrected
- If everything has been corrected, don't forget to regenerate your Text Only version so it matches
Subject line section errors -:
The subject line section will give you a warning if it detects a subject line that might only be placeholder, as a reminder to update it.