Before sending a Deliver message, review the Pre-Flight Checks that appear within the Send Mailing popup window. These errors and warnings identify common mistakes, but they should not be used exclusively for message review. Always test and review all aspects of a Deliver message, including recipient lists, links, the message body, and all intended settings prior to activation.

Please note that Pre-Flight Checks only display for Version 1 of a split test mailing.

Pre-Flight Check Errors

Pre-Flight Check errors appear in red at the top of the Send Mailing popup window and will prevent activation of a mailing. Errors will appear under the following circumstances:

Error: Recipient field is missing

Enter a value in the Recipient field, whether you are using a merge field (for example, {{email}}) to pull in an email address from the recipient list, or you are using a static email address.

Error: Mailing does not contain any recipient lists

Add at least one recipient list to the mailing.

Error: One or more recipient lists use an identity-aware population that was created outside of Deliver. Edit and re-save any existing recipient lists in Deliver to bypass this message

Add a user to the recipient list using an identity-aware population by doing the following:

1. Go to the recipient list.

2. Select Edit.

3. Specify a user.

Error: Message cannot be activated while archived

Unarchive the message by:

1. Select Edit.

2. Select Unarchive.

Error: Stop date/time has already passed. Message will not send unless stop date/time is blank or occurs in the future

The Stop Date/Time is either set automatically when a mailing is deactivated, or it is set manually.

To unset the value:

1. Select Edit.

2. Select Continue running mailing indefinitely.

3. Clear the Stop Date/Time value.

Error: For compatibility with all recipient mail servers, attachments cannot exceed 2MB in the aggregate. (Current Total = (#) MB)

Use a smaller attachment or link to the attachment within your message body. If linking to it, you can upload the attachment in Database → Files.

Error: Message body is larger than 256KB, which may result in the message being blocked.

This error only occurs when the content of a mailing is extremely long. This is usually caused by browser extensions injecting “junk code” into messages, and rarely by actual human action. If you receive this message, check the source code of your mailing for code that does not directly change the appearance or content of the mailing.

Error: SMS requires an active sender number

To activate the mailing:

1. Purchase Slate Credits, if applicable.

2. Add an account that uses the SMS/Voice service.

Error: There is a negative balance of message credits. Add at least (#) additional credits to restore a positive balance

Purchase additional credits in the Deliver Configuration tool.

Error: SMS is not available in a test environment

SMS messages can only be activated in production environments.

Error: Message contains one or more links using merge fields without the protocol designation

This error appears when a merge field is the first component of a URL and the Protocol is either http:// or https://.

Adjust the Protocol by taking the following steps:

1. Edit the URL.

2. Change the protocol to "".

Error: Message contains one or more tracking links from another message

To track URL selects, Slate rewrites each URL. These tracking URLs contain the domain mx.technolutions.

When a link is copied from a different message that had been sent from Slate and pasted into your current mailing, the pasted link will contain that unique tracking URL.

To resolve this error:

1. Open the mailing's source.

2. Search for any URLs that contain mx.technolutions.

3. Replace those URLs with their direct URL (for example, www.technolutions.com).

Error: Message body contains redirector links from another email client.

One or more links in the message body were copied from an email message in Microsoft Outlook Web Access (OWA). These links will not load correctly for external users because the links will contain /owa/redir. Resolve this error by removing the redirector link(s).

⭐ Best practice

When copying links from other sources - including Microsoft Word and Outlook - it is best practice to first paste the link into Notepad or a similar app that will convert it to plain text. Highlight it in Notepad, copy, and then paste the Notepad version to your hyperlinked text in Slate. This will make your mailing as error-free as possible.

Pre-Flight Check Warnings

Pre-Flight Check warnings appear in orange and will still allow users to activate the mailing, though it is recommended to resolve these identified issues prior to activation.

If a user attempts to activate a mailing while a warning is present, the user will be prompted to type a confirmation message.

Warnings will appear under the following circumstances:

Warning: Recipient field does not contain a merge field

The recipient field in the message contains a static email address or addresses, rather than a merge field. If the intent is to send messages specifically to one email address, then this warning can be ignored. If the message must be sent to each email address within a recipient list, then the Recipient field in the mailing should be updated to use a merge field (for example, {{email}}) so that unique email addresses will be pulled in for each new recipient.

Warning: Custom SQL queries are strongly discouraged for recipient lists and may prevent some pre-flight checks from being evaluated

It is not recommended to use Custom SQL queries as recipient lists. In most cases, Custom SQL queries are not necessary for Deliver mailings, so recipient lists should be migrated to use a query base within the Query Builder tool.

Warning: It appears that you might be sending a decision-related email. Check your message, recipient lists, and estimated recipient counts to ensure that you are sending the right message to the right population

It is never recommended to send an email with decision information. Instead, decision letters should be assigned to the application to be viewed on the application status page or from within a secure portal when a decision is released via the Release Decisions page. There is a Decision Notification System mailing that can be configured to alert applicants of a released decision without telling the applicants what the decision is. This process helps to prevent accidentally offering admission to applicants who do not have an admit decision.

If the message contains any of the following decision-related terms, this warning will appear:

• admitted

• acceptance

• congratulations

• deposit

• enroll

• deny

• regret

• waitlist

• wait list

This warning should only be ignored if the message is unrelated to decisions, and the message just happens to use these words.

Warning: Bulk SMS messages are recommended to contain a merge field, such as the recipient's name, to avoid being blocked by mobile carriers

Mobile carriers block messages that are perceived to be spam. One best practice to ensure deliverability of SMS messages is to include a merge field, such as the person's first name. This personalization is often enough to prevent mobile carriers from blocking the message.

Warning: MMS picture messages are not currently recommended for bulk communications, as they are more likely to be blocked by mobile carriers than text-only messages

Mobile carriers block messages that are perceived to be spam. MMS picture messages are more likely to be blocked than text-only (SMS) messages. Therefore, SMS messages are recommended to improve deliverability.

Warning: One or more recipient lists have existing query executions that were manually run. These records will not be considered unless the executions are removed prior to activation

If a query run is manually executed prior to the mailing being activated to send, this warning will be displayed. If the records present in that query run should be included when the mailing is sent so that those people receive the mailing, remove the query run by taking the following steps:

1. Open the recipient list.

2. Select the query run.

3. Select Edit Properties.

4. Select Delete Run.

Warning: {{merge field}} in reply/sender/recipient/cc/subject/body missing in . . .

This message will appear when a merge field within the message is not defined within one or more recipient lists. The warning message lists the name of the merge field, the location where it is used, and the recipient list that does not include that merge field. Use this information to help you find the erroneous merge field.

All available merge fields appear on the right side of the Edit Message window. Confirm that all merge fields in the body of your mailing, which can be identified by the {{curly braces}}, match the available merge field list in the window’s sidebar. If a new merge field is required, update the recipient list query with the appropriate field export or spreadsheet from the Edit recipient lists page.

Please note that you will get this warning if you have multiple recipient lists on the mailing and a merge field appears in one list but not the other(s). If the exclusion is intentional, you can ignore the warning and type a confirmation message in order to activate the mailing. If it is not intentional, add the merge field to the recipient list or lists that do not have it.

To avoid typos that cause a mismatch between the merge field in the body of your message and the merge field list in the sidebar, set your cursor at the place in the message where you want the merge field to appear and then select the merge field from the list on the right. This will insert the merge field at the cursor location.

This warning may also appear if advanced liquid markup is used, such as splitting missing checklist items and listing them using {{item}}, or using a forced value snippet. If it was done intentionally, you can ignore the warning and type the confirmation message to activate the mailing.

Warning: . . . in body is an unknown merge field

This warning can occur under the following scenarios:

• Creating a variable/merge field using Liquid markup

• Using related event merge fields

• Using the Form-Payment-Receipt merge field

• A merge field does not exist in any of the recipient lists on the mailing

There are four methods to rectify the third scenario:

• Ignore the warning (for example, in the case of using the Form-Payment-Recipient or related events merge fields)

• Remove the merge field

• Correct the merge field

• Add the corresponding export to the recipient list