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Subject and Preheader Validation
This feature displays a notification to the user to highlight words in the Subject and Preheader of emails prior to sending. The notification warns users and prevents accidental live sends that contain test-related words in the subject and preheader.
The notification displays when sending an email during creation, using Send Flow to send an existing email and in the Send Email Activity in Automation Studio. The default validation list includes the words Test, Draft, and Proof. You can configure the list for your situation or language.
Dynamic subject and dynamic preheader is also validated prior to sending.
If your account is provisioned with Approvals, the subject and preheader of the email will not be editable when sending. These fields need to be updated when the email is in draft status.
The administrator must have the Subject/Preheader Validation permission under Send Management in the Admin section of Email enabled to update the validation list. The maximum character limit is 4,000 and non-ASCII characters are unsupported. A warning displays to the user if validation words are surrounded by these characters in their subject or preheader:
- -
- ]
- (
- )
- .
- !
- ?
- :
- ;
- -
- .
Users are not warned if validation words are surrounded by these characters in the subject or preheader of the email:
- ,
- =
- {
- }
We recommend users use Subject Prefix in the Test Send step, which appends [Test]: to the beginning of the subject of the email at the time of the test send. This function eliminates the need to include this directly in the subject of the email. You can customize the Subject Prefix field can be customized.
A Northern Trail Outfitters administrator wants to prevent marketers from sending emails with their test-related words in the subject and preheader of emails. Marketers can use the Subject Prefix field in the Preview and Test step so they do not modify the subject during testing. However, the administrator understands that marketers may also update the subject or preheader as well so they want to add more prevention measures. Northern Trail Outfitters frequently use the word “Test” in their actual subject lines, so they do not want the warnings to display for that word. In Setup, search Subject/Preheader Validation. They click the trash can icon next to the Test field, and click Add to enter Pending as a new word in the list. They click Save.
A Northern Trail Outfitters marketer plans to send their monthly email newsletter. During the testing process, the marketer adds Pending to the subject of the email, so the internal team can differentiate the test emails with the live emails. The marketer finalizes the content of the email and now it is time to send the email. From the Preview and Test step in Create Email, the marketer selects Save and Send. A pop-up notification displays to let them know they have a word “Pending” that is listed in the Validation list. If the marketer chooses to ignore this warning and proceeds to send the email, from the Define Properties step to the Select Audience step, another warning displays.
The marketer chooses to ignore this warning again and clicks Continue Send in the notification. In the final Review and Send step, an icon displays in the preview to warn the marketer that the subject or preheader contains a word on the validation list. The marketer had three opportunities to update the subject or preheader to ensure that live sends are not sent with test-related words. In any of these scenarios, the marketer can update the subject to remove Pending from the subject line, and they can proceed through the process without receiving a warning.
