How To Preview Your Newsletter As Your Subscribers See It

The worthwhile practice of sending to yourself FIRST.

Jun 14, 2025

This is something I’ve been doing since the dawn of the email age.

Anywhere I’ve ever sent a newsletter from (yes, including clunky old Mailchimp back in the day), I’ve always sent it to myself FIRST.

Why?

There are several reasons:

It’s nice to view it exactly how your readers will see it.
Checking your work in multiple screen views (desktop, mobile, email) can help you catch mistakes and typos you might have otherwise missed. You’d be shocked at what you catch on a mobile preview that you didn’t see as you were typing.
Link testing. If you’ve included text or image links, it’s a good practice to test them, ensuring they work before sending your email. Especially if your links lead to things you’re selling or promoting.

Here’s how to send a test email to yourself before sending to your entire list:

In your post draft, you’ll see a “preview” button in the top right corner. Click it.

After clicking ‘Preview’, you’ll see a share button. Click it and your own email address should be populated in the “Send test email” box. If you want to use a different email address, feel free to change it.

Then click on the Send button and wait for a little popup to tell you it’s been sent.

Your test email will arrive in your inbox shortly. Then you can skim it for typos and test all the links.

How to preview what all levels of subscribers will see.

I feel like this one is a hidden gadget that not many people utilize. It only applies if you have paid subscriptions enabled.

When you’re in the preview screen, look at the very top and you’ll see what I have highlighted in this screenshot:

This handy tool allows you to preview what each level of subscriber will see on the mobile version of your newsletter. This is great for checking how and where the paywall appears.