diff --git a/requirements-dev.txt b/requirements-dev.txt
index 8e69fc4..b011dfe 100644
--- a/requirements-dev.txt
+++ b/requirements-dev.txt
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 coveralls==1.1
 ipdb==0.9.3
 ipython==4.1.2
+mock==2.0.0
 pdbpp==0.8.3
 pytest>=2.8.2
 pytest-cov==2.2.1
diff --git a/rtmbot/core.py b/rtmbot/core.py
index 049bb77..9cc507d 100755
--- a/rtmbot/core.py
+++ b/rtmbot/core.py
@@ -101,7 +101,7 @@ class RtmBot(object):
                     if limiter:
                         time.sleep(.1)
                         limiter = False
-                    message = output[1].encode('ascii', 'ignore')
+                    message = output[1]
                     channel.send_message("{}".format(message))
                     limiter = True
 
diff --git a/tests/test_example.py b/tests/test_example.py
deleted file mode 100644
index c8d72d0..0000000
--- a/tests/test_example.py
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,2 +0,0 @@
-def test_example():
-	assert True
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/tests/test_rtmbot_core.py b/tests/test_rtmbot_core.py
index 0353147..85d7563 100644
--- a/tests/test_rtmbot_core.py
+++ b/tests/test_rtmbot_core.py
@@ -1,15 +1,25 @@
+# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
+try:
+    from unittest.mock import Mock
+except ImportError:
+    from mock import Mock
+
 from testfixtures import LogCapture
 from rtmbot.core import RtmBot
 
+def init_rtmbot():
+    ''' Initializes an instance of RTMBot with some default values '''
+    rtmbot = RtmBot({
+        'SLACK_TOKEN': 'test-12345',
+        'BASE_PATH': '/tmp/',
+        'LOGFILE': '/tmp/rtmbot.log',
+        'DEBUG': True
+    })
+    return rtmbot
 
 def test_init():
     with LogCapture() as l:
-        rtmbot = RtmBot({
-            'SLACK_TOKEN': 'test-12345',
-            'BASE_PATH': '/tmp/',
-            'LOGFILE': '/tmp/rtmbot.log',
-            'DEBUG': True
-        })
+        rtmbot = init_rtmbot()
 
     assert rtmbot.token == 'test-12345'
     assert rtmbot.directory == '/tmp/'
@@ -18,3 +28,32 @@ def test_init():
     l.check(
         ('root', 'INFO', 'Initialized in: /tmp/')
     )
+
+def test_output():
+    ''' Test that sending a message behaves as expected '''
+    rtmbot = init_rtmbot()
+
+    # Mock the slack_client object
+    slackclient_mock = Mock()
+    channel_mock = Mock()
+    slackclient_mock.server.channels.find.return_value = channel_mock
+    rtmbot.slack_client = slackclient_mock
+
+    # mock the plugin object to return a sample response
+    plugin_mock = Mock()
+    plugin_mock.do_output.return_value = [['C12345678', 'test message']]
+    rtmbot.bot_plugins.append(plugin_mock)
+
+    rtmbot.output()
+
+
+    # test that the output matches the expected value
+    channel_mock.send_message.assert_called_with('test message')
+
+    # test that unicode messages work as expected
+    channel_mock.reset_mock()
+    plugin_mock.reset_mock()
+    plugin_mock.do_output.return_value = [['C12345678', '🚀 testing']]
+    rtmbot.output()
+
+    channel_mock.send_message.assert_called_with('🚀 testing')