Validating Message Content Prior to Launch

Before launching a campaign, validate the message to make sure the content is correct.

Check all external links being used
Check all parameters to ensure that the content will display correctly
Ensure that all coding is correct

To properly validate your message content prior to launch:

Validate the message content in the UI. Validate all link definitions by clicking each link that corresponds to a particular content type (i.e. text, HTML).
Recheck all links in the message. If there are any capital letters in a link, query the LINK_MASTER table to ensure that the link name in the database corresponds exactly to the link name displayed in the user interface. If they are different, the links sent in the live message will be unregistered and hinder the ability to track click-throughs. Contact your Connect admministrator for assistance.
Validate the mail merge tags used in the message. To ensure that all tags are valid, view the staged message and the information in the mail merge tag fields. If the attributes are inserted into the message body using a mail merge, ensure to use mock data for the particular attribute value to view how the data format appears in the message.
Select one or more group(s) and send the staged message. This will allow you to confirm the appearance of the message once it is delivered.
Validate all links in the message.After the message is staged and received, click all links to verify that they are directing the user to the appropriate site.
Validate the LINK_ID for each link sent in the message content. In the example below, the LINK_ID is properly registered with a unique ID of '343'. The link displayed below appears in either a text or multi-part message:
```
http://ws.connectifydirect.com/kc123.14.0.343
```
To confirm that a link is properly registered in an HTML message, right-click the message content and select View Source. The LINK_ID at the end of the aliased link (and inside the anchor tags) is properly registered with a unique ID.
```
<A href="http://example.com/kc123.14.0.343">Click me</A>
```
If the LINK_ID is not registered, the LINK_ID defaults to 0 and also has the destination URL for the redirected click-through, after the aliased link:
```
http://ws.connectifydirect.com/kc123.14.0.0
http://www.brickstreetsoftware.com
```
Print out a hard copy of each message and compare the text and spelling to the original content. This will ensure that the layout and spelling is correct.

With these steps completed and approved, the message is ready for launch. Remember to complete all of these steps for each message launched in a campaign.

Validating Links

The Connect link validation process parses content and checks all links it finds. It then lists all the links and notifies you whether or not each link is valid.

For detailed information on validating your links, please see Analyzing Content Links.

Note: Automatic link validation cannot be performed for dynamic content. When generating dynamic content, you must manually validate each link.

Note: Connect cannot validate links to https:// sites. If you use these links, you must override the Undeliverable status during link validation and rollout.