Inbox placement tests
Send the same email from each of your mailboxes to your own test accounts at Gmail, Outlook and other providers. Within the hour you see inbox, spam or not arrived.
PLANSFrom Growth
Built and tried on our test systems; not yet run against a customer's mailboxes.
The problem it solves
- Reply rates drop and you cannot tell whether people ignore you or never see the email.
- One mailbox lands in spam while the others are fine, and nobody knows which.
- A new subject line or a link trips a spam filter, and you find out after the campaign.
How it works
- Make your own test mailboxes at the providers your buyers use (Gmail, Outlook and others). Add each one as a mailbox with its IMAP settings and tick Seed for Placement Tests.
- Open Marketing > Outreach > Placement Tests > New. Choose the Senders (mailboxes that had Start Sending), the Seeds, and the Email to Test: a sequence step, or a subject and text written here.
- Press Send Test. Every sender writes to every seed, each email marked with its own code in the subject.
- For the next hour, every 5 minutes, each seed's inbox and spam folder are searched for the codes. Check Now searches at once.
- The Results tab shows Inbox, Spam, Not Arrived or Not Sent for each sender and seed. The test ends with a line such as "7 of 9 landed in the inbox."
Everything it does
Seeds
- A seed is a mailbox with Seed for Placement Tests ticked; it only needs IMAP
- A seed never sends outreach and is skipped by sequences
- Spam Folder: empty to find it by itself ([Gmail]/Spam, Junk, Junk Email, Junk E-mail, Spam, Bulk Mail, INBOX.Spam, INBOX.Junk), or type its name
The test
- Senders: mailboxes that are set up for sending; Seeds: mailboxes ticked as seeds
- The email: a sequence step's subject and email, or a subject and text written on the test
- Each email gets a code such as [T1A2B3C4D] in its subject, so it is found in the seed
- States: Draft, Checking, Done
Results
- Inbox, Spam, Not Arrived (after an hour), Not Sent (the sender failed, with the reason) or Waiting
- A seed that cannot be read says so on its lines
- The summary is written on the test when every line has a result
Good to know
- Merge fields are not filled in a test email; the test checks the wording, links and sender
- Test mailboxes are yours: SmartMy does not provide a seed network
- Managers can delete tests
Who uses it
Marketing UserRuns tests before a new sequence or after changing a subject or link.
Marketing AdministratorAdds the seed mailboxes.
Marketing ManagerReads the results across mailboxes and deletes old tests.
Where you use it
- Web: Marketing > Outreach > Placement Tests
- Web: seeds are added in Marketing > Outreach > Mailboxes
- Not in the phone app: this is done on the web. The SmartMy Marketing app covers chats, contacts, posts, leads and campaigns
What you control
Settings
- Seed for Placement Tests: off on every mailbox until you tick it
- Spam Folder: empty (found by itself)
- Waiting time: one hour, read every 5 minutes (fixed)
Notifications
- None; the result is written on the test
Questions
Do I need to buy seed accounts?
No. You make free or paid test mailboxes yourself at the providers your buyers use, and add them as seeds.How long does a test take?
Usually a few minutes. The seeds are read every 5 minutes for an hour; anything not found by then is marked Not Arrived.Does a test count against the mailbox's daily limit?
Test emails are sent straight from the mailbox's server and are not counted in its outreach emails for the day.Is a placement test in Starter?
No. Placement tests start in Growth.Related features
OUTREACHMailboxes with a domain check, ramp-up and bounce pauseConnect your own sending mailboxes over SMTP and IMAP, and check the domain's SPF, DKIM, DMARC and MX records. Let each new mailbox send a little more every day. A mailbox stops by itself when too many of its emails bounce.OUTREACHBlocklist watch for your sending domainsEvery day each sending mailbox's domain, tracking domain and own mail server are looked up on the main spam blocklists. A new listing pauses the mailbox and tells its owner.OUTREACHEmail sequences over many mailboxes, with tracking and one-click unsubscribeCold and warm outreach as plain, personal emails. Each sequence sends from a pool of your mailboxes, a little at a time. It keeps follow-ups in the same thread and stops for a person when they reply. Every email carries an unsubscribe link and the one-click unsubscribe header.OUTREACHOutreach results for email and WhatsAppEvery outreach email and WhatsApp message is kept with its sequence, step, version and sender. You see sent, replied, bounced, clicked and read for each one, and where each person stands.
See your inbox and campaigns on it.
Tell us which channels your customers use, how leads reach you and how many people answer them. We will connect a channel with you and run your first journey.