Edit and Test Mobile Styles in a Campaign
This feature requires Author user level or higher.
As mobile devices increasingly become the preferred way to view email, it’s more important than ever to understand how email behaves on mobile devices, and how to design and test for mobile.
In this article, you’ll learn how to customize your campaign’s appearance on mobile devices, and how to preview and test your mobile campaigns before you send them.
Edit Mobile Styles
MailChimp’s drag and drop templates allow you to easily edit mobile-specific styles. Classic and custom-coded templates don’t include a simple Mobile Styles section. Templates are labeled as classic or drag and drop under each template’s name on the Templates step of the Campaign Builder.
To edit mobile styles in a drag and drop template in the Campaign Builder, follow these steps.
- Navigate to the Campaigns page.
- Choose a draft campaign to edit, or create a new campaign.
- Navigate to the Design step of the Campaign Builder.
- Click the
Design tab.
- Click the
Mobile Styles option.
- Use the drop-down menus and other fields to edit the mobile styles as needed, and click Save.
Preview and test your campaign to view the changes you set in the Mobile Styles section.
Preview Mobile Design
To see how your campaign will render on a mobile device, follow these steps.
- Navigate to the Design step of the Campaign Builder.
- Click the Preview and Test drop-down menu and choose Enter Preview Mode.
- The mobile preview is on the right side of the screen.
Preview Mode is a generalization of how your styles should appear on common mobile devices. Depending on the mobile device and application your subscriber uses to view email, the actual version may vary. To get the most accurate preview, use our Inbox Preview feature or send test campaigns to a mobile email client.
Pay close attention to any large images inside Text content blocks, because the responsive template doesn't constrain those images. Only images used in Image, Image Group, Image Card, or Image + Caption content blocks will conform to the device used.
Create a Mobile Test List
If you or your colleagues have several different types of mobile devices you want to test your campaign on, you can create a mobile test list to compare the displays.
To create a mobile test list, follow these steps.
- Navigate to the Lists page.
- Select the drop-down menu next to your main list, and click
Replicate list.
- Name it something like Mobile Test List and click
Replicate.
Only the list settings and forms will be copied. No subscriber data is moved. - Import your email address or a small handful of test emails as the subscribers.
Send to Mobile Test List
To test your campaign on mobile devices with the list you just created, follow these steps.
- Navigate to the Campaigns page.
- Click the drop-down menu of the campaign you want to work with, and choose
Replicate.
- Rename the campaign to something like Mobile Test.
- Navigate to the Recipients step of the Campaign Builder and choose your new test list.
- Navigate to the Confirm step, and click Send Now.
Push to MailChimp Mobile
To streamline your testing, you may want to use MailChimp Mobile for iOS or Android to preview your campaigns on your mobile device. To push a campaign from your computer to MailChimp Mobile, follow these steps.
- Navigate to the Design step of the Campaign Builder.
- Click the Preview and Test and choose Push to MailChimp Mobile.
- If you haven't installed MailChimp Mobile on your mobile device, you'll be prompted to do so. Otherwise, click
Send To Mobile Apps.
You'll receive a push notification on your phone, which will open the mobile preview of your campaign in MailChimp Mobile.
MailChimp Mobile doesn't store your mobile previews. If you close the preview and want to see it again, repeat Steps 1-3.