Simplifying Testing for Dynamic Content on Landing Pages

Simplifying Testing for Dynamic Content on Landing Pages

Hi all,

We have a landing page used across our Marketo instance that utilizes dynamic content to deliver localized content for each of our user segments. I recently received a report internally that the dynamic content was not working, and that all leads were receiving the same Default content.

After some minor heart palpitations, further testing, and a little help from Marketo support (thanks Rob!), we learned that you cannot test dynamic content using the Sample Email function. Instead, you need to create dummy leads in each of your segments, send each of them live emails, and make sure for each test your browser has been cleared of cookies so the right content resolves.

It would be great if sample emails linking to Marketo landing pages with dynamic content could more accurately mirror production, or include some functionality to walk testers through the process they are seeing. Ideally the sample email would contain a link that will launch the landing page with some kind of guide to explain that it contains dynamic content, with some interface to cycle through each variation on the page.

The more we can do to guide our users through these testing processes, the better - it will save us time in training, internal support, and provide a little more peace of mind.

Thanks for reading, happy to clarify anything above.

- Doug

7 Comments
Justin_Cooperm2
Level 10

You can use the Previewer and then preview as different leads.

Jesper_Palmark
Level 1

You really need to fix this, it is not acceptable that you can't send a sample and check all the pieces of dynamic content. This is basic functionality in a marketing automation tool.

Justin_Cooperm2
Level 10

Jesper,

We do have lots of testing capabilities in both our Email experience and Landing Page experiences. You can send a sample for any segment you're using w/ Dynamic Content in the email, as well as send a sample to be rendered as any lead in your lead database. You can also preview the email in our email previewer as any lead, any lead in a list, and any segment in the email. In our landing page experience, you can preview the page by lead and any lead in a list, as well as generate a temporary preview URL to share with your team for testing.

The only thing this thread is discussing we don't support is offering users the ability to send a sample email where if you were to click links in the sample email it would direct you to some sort of "fake" landing page that would mimic the page experience for the sample email lead that was sent the sample email. I don't believe this is basic functionality and I don't believe any MA solution offers this. By the way, if we were to do that, it wouldn't be an actual test of the page because content would be strictly driven by the fake link's parameters vs. the lead's cookie (which is what would be doing it in the real world). It would not allow you to verify the page any more than you can do in our landing page previewer.

Justin

Jesper_Palmark
Level 1

Let's agree on disagreeing. Since this is a 3 year old thread, I know you won't fix this, but you really should.

Justin_Cooperm2
Level 10

I'm actually curious what you're referring to and it's very helpful to hear. Can you explain the scenario/use case you're trying to cover?

Justin

Jesper_Palmark
Level 1

Local language on Landing pages f. ex. I think the scenario is well discribed by Doug.sending live emails to dummy emails is just not an option

kh-lschutte
Community Manager
Status changed to: Already have it