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LISTSERV Maestro User`s Manual - L

1. 0 0 0 0 0 issticlyequalto casesensiive N negation used in conjunction with the other mathematical operators for instance means is not equal to bb DEC IN amp DATE The server s internal variable amp DATE outputs the day s date in the format Day dd Mon yyyy hh mm ss TZ This statement would evaluate true if the date were any day in December and false for any other day of the year The specified text is not found in the space separated data provided Testing Conditional Blocks OE The specified text is found in the space separated data provided For instance Any number of conditional blocks can be inserted into the body of a message Conditional blocks will be processed and resolved by LISTSERV during delivery and will not appear as part of the final message that is sent to recipients Figure 1 shows a plain text message that contains conditional blocks and merge fields Figures 2 and 3 show variations of the resulting message when certain conditions are met One of the most important steps to perform when using multiple conditional blocks is extensive testing Send messages to test every condition and combination of conditions to ensure that your conditional text matches up with your recipient data in the expected manner Important Any basic syntax errors that are detected when the job is transferred to LISTSERV will generate an error message from LISTSERV that w
2. X rd A red X means that the step cannot yet be started Icons on the Workflow diagram change appearance to signal the status of the step they represent Icons that are not clickable represent steps that cannot be started until earlier steps are completed Icons may also not be clickable for an individual even though the step is available because the account holder does not have permission to execute that particular step of the job Permission to execute certain steps in an e mail job is granted by the job owner the person who initiated the e mail job or by the LISTSERV Maestro Administrator when the user s account was set up For more information on team collaboration see Section 3 5 Team Collaboration For more information on individual user account privileges see Section 4 2 in the LISTSERV Maestro Administrator s Manual 3 4 Using the Summary Diagram The Summary diagram has all of the same functionality as the Workflow diagram but the information is presented in a different manner The Summary diagram is most helpful in reviewing and editing aspects of an e mail job once they have been defined It is possible to delete the current job and to authorize the delivery of a job from the Summary diagram Toggle between the Summary diagram the Workflow diagram and Test Reports by using the tabs near the top Individual account holders may set a personal preference in the User Settings that will open the summary diagram first
3. Options available for this report type include e Result Calculation Defines how the number of events is calculated There are three choices Total number of events Displays the total number of events For example if 123 events have been counted the resulting line length will be 123 Percentage of the total number of messages sent Displays percentages in relation to the total number of messages sent For example if 300 messages were sent and if 150 events have been counted then the line length will be 50 because 150 is 50 of 300 94 Percentage of the total number of unbounced messages sent Displays percentages in relation to the total number of messages sent that have not been bounced For example if 300 messages were sent and 50 bounced there would be a total of 250 unbounced messages And if 150 events have been counted then the line length will be 60 because 150 is 60 of 250 e Unique or Total Events Selects the type of events to include in the report Count only events unique for each recipient Plots only a single event of each type for each recipient Recommended when one of the percentage result calculations has been selected This chart will register 0 zero events if blind tracking has been selected for the tracking type during the tracking definition because blind tracking cannot count any event as unique Count all events Plots all events triggered for each re
4. The Open Group Motif OSF 1 UNIX and the X device are registered trademarks of The Open Group in the United State and other countries Digital Aloha AXP AXP Digital UNIX OpenVMS HP and HP UX are trademarks of Hewlett Packard Company in the United States and other countries Microsoft Windows Windows 2000 Windows XP and Windows NT are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and other countries Sun Solaris SunOS and PMDF are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sun Microsystems Inc in the United States and other countries IRIX is a registered trademark of Silicon Graphics Inc in the United States and other countries Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds Intel and Pentium are registered trademarks of Intel Corporation All other trademarks both marked and not marked are the property of their respective owners This product includes software developed by the Apache Software Foundation http www apache org Some portions licensed from IBM are available at http oss software ibm com icu4i This product includes code licensed from RSA Security Inc Manuals for LISTSERV are available in ASCII text format from LISTSERV and in PDF format from ftp Isoft com They are also available on the World Wide Web at the following URL URL http www lIsoft com manuals index html L Soft invites comment on its manuals Please feel free to send your comments by e mail to MANUALS Q L
5. and at the same positions The following charsets from the ISO 8859 family are currently supported by LISTSERV Maestro e ISO 8859 1 Latin 1 West European e 150 8859 2 Latin 2 East European e IS0 8859 3 Latin 3 South European e ISO 8859 4 Latin 4 North European e 150 8859 5 Cyrillic 129 e 150 8859 6 Arabic e IS0 8859 7 Greek e 1S0 8859 8 Hebrew e IS0 8859 9 Latin 5 Turkish e ISO 8859 15 Latin 9 West European update of Latin 1 with some French and Finnish letters that were omitted in Latin 1 plus the Euro currency symbol instead of the international currency symbol u e UTF 8 International Unicode encoded in UTF 8 format Unicode is a very large charset with room for almost all characters of many different languages of the world even the many Asian characters The 8 bit range of 0 255 is not enough to accomodate all letters from even the European languages at once therefore there is a need for more than a dozen different members of the ISO 8859 family Also 8 bit charsets do not take into account the other major language groups of the world such as Asian languages To address the limitations of 8 bit charsets recently the 16 bit charset Unicode with a range for 65536 characters has become more and more widespread This charset contains more or less all letters and characters from the most widely used languages as well as a set of symbols and other useful characters LISTSERV Maestro offers Unic
6. 4 Click the AOL Preview tab to see what the message looks like to recipients All formatting will be displayed bold or italic text for example HTML tags that are not compatible with AOL Rich Text errors in coding will be displayed as regular text within the message and will be readily identifiable Any drop in content elements will be automatically added into the body of the text message Any trackable links in the alternative text message must be enclosed within quotation marks the same way as the trackable plain text message links are enclosed Merge fields and drop in content can be used in this format as described in Sections 5 1 Drop in Content and 5 6 Merge Fields and Conditional Blocks 37 Table 3 AOL Rich Text Formatting Tags Big lt big gt Body lt body gt Bold lt b gt Paragraph lt p gt Small lt small gt Strong lt strong gt Superscript lt sup gt Subscript lt sub gt 5 4 3 Conditional Content In the event that recipient data is available that somehow determines the format each recipient prefers to receive the data can be used to send the preferred format to each recipient all within the same job This determination is based upon a conditional statement run against the recipient data The advantage of using conditional content is it is possible to prepare a single job for recipients who prefer HTML and those who prefer plain text respecting each recipient s choices as well as saving time and re
7. 4 2 5 Upload a Recipients Text File By choosing the option Upload a Recipient Text File the Source screen that opens contains two options Define recipients now and Load recipients just before sending from a server file Select the option button Define recipients now to enable the link Upload a recipients file Click this link to upload a text file from a local drive Browse for the file on a local drive and select the encoding for the file if necessary For more information on encoding see Appendix B E mail and International Character Sets Figure 12 Define Recipients from an Uploaded File Define Recipients Options Source Cancel Upload a File Source Select the text file containing the recipients Press the Upload button to replace the current recipients file with the new file Information about the re cipients source file Press the Cancel button to keep the currently saved recipients fila File Name Brower Encoding West European 150 1 ae i Upload Cancel Upload a recipients file C Load recipients just before sending from a server file Recipients File Define recipients now File Name File Encoding Vest European ISO 1 Note The given file name and path must be a valid path on the server running LISTSERY Maestro 17 Figure 13 Uploaded File Define Recipients Options Source Source Details Recipients Details z Back Next gt Source Information a
8. seeeeeeeeeeenn nennen nnn nnn 36 5 4 2 AOL Alternative Text for HTML Messages occcccoococcccocnccoconcncnonoconnonannnnononnnnonannnnnnannnnennnnanoss 37 54 3 CONGINON Al Conte c 38 9 4 ddr Attachments taa cdi 39 5 5 Setting the Language Character Set ooonnccccconnccccccnnccconcnncnnnnonnnnnnnnnonannnnnnnnnnnnnannnnononnnnenonnnnenenanass 40 5 6 Merging Fields and Conditional Blocks cccococcncccooccnccnocnnonononnnnnacononnnnnnnononennnnnnnnnconanrnnnnanens 41 5 7 Using Merged Parameters within URLS ccoooccooocccoconococononononccnnoncnnnnnononnncnnnnnononononannnnnnanennns 43 5 7 1 URL encoding of Parametros a ee 46 SECON O TACK ING nr LET 47 6 1 Defining Tracking Behavior f r a JOD unas aloe 48 Oda TRACKING Detalls ina li 49 6 12 Defining Tracking URLS ico roo da 50 6 129 DOUE PNAS CS b ais cote tasas 93 BAN Rest Ol TACK IAG mm 53 Section 7 Sender and Delivery Options c csccccssssseseeeeeeeeeeseeeeeeeneeeseeseeeeeeseeeeeeseesenenseseoennessoneneesenanes 60 FE BEI Son EE 60 7 1 1 Using Merge Fields in the Sender Informati0ON cocoocccncccoccnnconoccnnononcnnonnnnnnonanennononcnnonnanonnos 60 7 T1 2 BoUnce FIanaliig aste init shale ipM mds Qn Tue atacar a 61 7 1 3 Advanced Sender Information SettingS ccooooccnccconnncoconnnocnncnnnnannncononcnnnnnannnnonananenannnnnss 61 ANNA M H 61 1 2
9. Do not track this Link to remove tracking Edit Alias Do not track this Link Tip Selecting Highlight tracked links will display all links that are currently marked for tracking on a bright yellow background in the body of the message This makes it easier to tell which links have already been selected for tracking and which have not Images that are links will be shown with a bright yellow frame when they are selected for tracking Since this frame makes the images a bit larger it may impact the overall page layout Switch off the link highlighting to restore the original layout Once the tracking links have been chosen and aliases defined click OK in the top frame to continue A summary of the tracking details will be presented From this screen re edit the tracking definitions by clicking Define Tracking URLs remove any of the links by clicking the Remove link adjacent to each URL or remove all the links by clicking the Remove All link at the bottom of the listing Figure 45 Tracking Details Tracking Definition Onf Off Tracking Details Type Summary Cancel lt Back Hest gt Tracking Details Open Up Tracking M Yes enable open up tracking for this jab Click Through Tracking The following URLs from the mail body are currently registered for tracking logo http www soft com Main Body sneak peek http www soft com Main Body lt No Alas http ww Isoft cam Main Body Define Tracking URLs Remov
10. Figure 6 1 OULDOX JODIDO il cin 17 Fig re 62 Delivered JODS asnicar iii ino 78 Figure 63 Delivered Jobs SUMIMANY lt lt sioe pt onn ibid oett i edet mia ep du n ntcut Does comua a obese aides 79 Figure 64 BOUAcCe Detalla id 80 Figure 65 Delivered Jobs Quick REPO Sia a ci 81 Figure 66 Line Chart Report of Events Distributed Over Time sees 84 Figure 67 Bar Chart Report of the Sum of Unique Events COUNt occcccccnccccccccccnncconnnccncnocononcnnnncnononononos 84 Figure 68 Bar Chart Report of the Sum of Unique Events Percentage ccooccncccccccnccnoccncononcnnononcnnnonanonos 84 Figure 69 Tracking oe i um PTT 86 Figure 70 Define Report Top Part of Screen ccoocccccoccccoccnccoconococononoconononnononnnononnnonannnonnnnonanonennnnonnannnenanos 86 Figure 71 Define Report General SettingS ooccccococnnoccnnncccoononcncononcnnonnnnononnnnonannnnnnannnnononnnnnnnnaness 87 Figure 72 Define Report Data SourcC8S coooccccoconnocccoconcccononcnnnnnnononcnnnonannnnnnnnnnononnnnnnnnnnnnonannnnennnranennanass 88 Fouero Data Source TI DO a ri 89 Figure 74 Data Source JoDS ite aie ee e eai tata sse a pae i code ed E ed de Mad oet 90 Figure 75 Data Source LINKS uoto tar ab te v Natal abd iia 91 Figure 76 Data Source General PropertieS cccccccccsesececceseeeccesceeceaseeecseaeeseeaseeessageeecseneeesssseesssageees 91 Figure 77 Data Source oummely couscsascc tas idas 92 Figure 7
11. HTML message HTML messages that include content in another format are referred to as multi part messages This means that all parts of the message are sent to each recipient and the e mail client decides what format of the message to open for the recipient Many people elect not to receive HTML e mail for a variety of reasons Recipients who prefer plain text messages usually do not want to receive multi part messages either By using the Conditional Content it is possible to send an HTML message with alternatives to those who wish to receive it and send a plain text alternative without the multiple parts to those who wish only to receive plain text In order to take advantage of this feature however it is necessary that recipient data is available in the form of a merge field that determines which format each recipient prefers to receive 5 4 1 Alternative Text for HTML Messages To add a plain text alternative to an HTML message follow these steps 1 Select the HTML with Alternative option button next to Body on the Define Content screen 36 2 Check the box next to Text Format This activates the additional tabs Text Preview and Text 3 Click on the tab labeled Text to add the alternative text message The message can be uploaded pasted or keyed directly into the box 4 Click the Text Preview tab to see what the message looks like to recipients Any drop in content elements will be autom
12. STATE Click on an item in one of the boxes to select it The click on an arrow to move it from one column to the other Sample from the recipient list NAME EMAIL ID RECIP ID GENDER STATE Tom cat yahoo com 1234 456 Wilma primative arch edu au net 1236 345 Click Next to continue A summary of the tracking behavior will be presented Click Back to return to an earlier screen to change selections Click Finish to return to the Job Details screen and the Workflow or Summary diagram 99 Figure 50 Tracking Definition Summary Tracking Definition Tracking Summary You have specified the following e mail tracking behavior Tracking Type The tracking type unique is used Open Up Tracking Open Up Tracking is ON Click Through Tracking Click Through Tracking has been enabled for the following URLs sneak peak ato wwwIsoft com Main Body advanced order http www Jsoft com Main Body Section 7 Sender and Delivery Options Defining the sender of an e mail job can take place at any point in the process of creating or editing a job It is necessary however to have sender information added to a job before delivery testing and authorization to deliver the message can take place 7 1 Define Sender Enter sender information from the Job Details screen by clicking on the Define Sender icon in the Workflow diagram or the Edit link next to Sender in the Summary diagram Enter the sender information by loading a
13. This data from reports of the types Event Distribution and Sum of Events can easily be imported into Microsoft Excel in order to create tables graphs and other forms of reports LISTSERV Maestro comes with an easy to use Excel Add In that makes this import process a matter of a few clicks 10 3 1 Downloading the LISTSERV Maestro Excel Add In The add in must be installed into Excel before it can be used This step is done only once on each local computer before the add in is used for the first time If there is an existing version of the add in file from an earlier build of LISTSERV Maestro it must be removed from the local machine and the newest version installed Please see the Section 10 3 4 Removing an Existing Version of the Add In for instructions on how to proceed From any quick report or regular report of the type Event Distribution or Sum of Events click the Download Report icon This will open the Download Report Result screen Next click the download link located under the time zone drop down menu Click the ImportTrackerStatistics xla link to download the add in file to a local drive 110 Figure 91 Excel Add In for Tracking Statistics Import Excel 2000 Add In for Tracking Statistics Import This page allows you to download an Excel 2000 Add In to import and visualize downloaded tracking data Note This Add In is designed for Excel 2000 only earlier versions of Microsoft Excel are nat supported Download the Excel 2
14. UU 777 Available to Selected for download Available Calumns Selected Columns HAME Change the order of the columns using Move Up and Move Down Mowe Up Move Down OK Cancel Executed Aug 16 2002 09 54 10 AM Including events from Aug 15 2002 12 20 00 PM until 4ug 15 2002 06 56 00 PM Click OK to save the available columns and the order they appear The Download Report Details screen will reopen Choose the file encoding for the download from the drop down menu Click the Download button to begin downloading the data The rows in the downloaded data table are generated in a particular way For each recipient that generated at least one of the events that are counted by the selected data source one entry is made Each entry consists of the profile values of this specific recipient and are placed in their matching columns However only those profile values that match the columns selected will be used All columns not selected are ignored If all the columns are not used recipients may not retain a unique profile This happens only if the differences in the profiles of recipients are contained in columns that are not selected For example if the columns EMAIL GENDER CITY were part of the recipients data then each recipient probably has a different profile because the combination of EMAIL GENDER and CITY is most likely unique for each recipient But if the column EMAIL is not selected and the
15. e rack when recipients open a message e rack when recipients click on URLs contained within a message including URLs that are text based image based or contained within image maps e Track when recipients respond to a Web form e Produce different types of tracking reports from tracking data e Download tracking data and import into Microsoft Excel e Produce bounce reports tabulating the number and type of bounce 1 1 System Requirements LISTSERV Maestro needs to be installed on a server and configured by a system administrator However LISTSERV Maestro does not have to reside on the same server as LISTSERV and L SMTP The administrator will set up user accounts assign initial passwords for all individuals who need access to the program and create account groups if collaboration is desired Groups are optional and accounts do not need to be part of a group to use the program Groups are required however for collaboration among accounts Depending on the operating system of the client used for the access the following browsers are supported when accessing the Maestro User Interface e Client with Windows Microsoft Internet Explorer 5 5 or later Netscape 7 0 or later and Mozilla 1 0 0 or later e Client with Linux Netscape 7 0 or later and Mozilla 1 0 0 or later To access the Maestro User Interface we strongly recommend that only Windows or Linux be used with the browsers and browser versions listed Other opera
16. eeseeseeeeeeeee eene 56 Table o Test ReDor ICONS t 67 Table G Delivered Jobs Report COINS da 83 Tape REPON ICOM Sito rias 97 REGS and REC WED ies odo 138 Figures Figure 1 LISTSERV Maestro Login creen cooonncccoocccccccnnococoncnnnonannnnononcnnononnnnnnnannnnononnnnnnnannnnnnannnnenaneness 2 Figure Z LISTSERV Maestro Home Page its imei deco doo eulos emite oue SEa 4 Figure 9 Start New JOD SCCM usado do lid 6 Figure 4 Workflow Diagram on Job Details Screen c ooonccccoccncococoncnnnonconnonononnononnnnnonnnonnonanennonnnrononnaninnss 8 Figure 5 Summary Diagram from the Job Details Screen oocccconccnccconcnnoconcnnconanonoonononnononenononcnncnnaninnnnos 9 Figure 6 Change Job Information Screen cccccsssceccseseecccesseecceuseeeceeeecseseeeseuseeessageeessageeeseueeeeessageees 10 Figure 7 Team Collaboration Screen iR bes aee dev a breue As Ba SN 10 Figure 8 Define Recipients Options Screens ccccceeccccesceccececceececeeececeaeeeseueeeseaeesseecessseessueesseeeessaaees 12 Figure 9 Source Screen for Recipients Target Groups ccccccccseecceeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeesseeeeesseaeeesaneeesaeeeeees 14 Figure 10 Define Recipients from a LISTSERV LiSt oo concnncccccnnccncccnccnncnnnononcnncnnanononnoncnnonnnnnnonnnnnnnnnaneos 15 Figure 11 Determine Recipients Based on Reaction to the JOD ooooccccconccccnncccccnnnccnconaccncnnnccnnnnacnncnnanennns
17. openup this will always be empty For EVENT TYPE click the alias of the URL that was clicked is listed If there is no defined alias this field will be empty FULL JOB ID The full Job ID including the User Prefix of the job that triggered the event 109 e AGENT The user agent string transmitted by the client software of the recipient who triggered the event Edit Report Create Report with This as Template To change the definition of the current report click the Edit Report icon The Define Report screen opens if the user has the right to edit reports The current report s General Settings Data Sources and Result Settings can be edited and saved to reflect any changes in the current report or they can be saved as a new report See Section 10 1 Tracking Reports and Figures 68 and 69 for more details If the current report is a quick report from Delivered Jobs clicking the Create Report icon will allow the user to create a new report based on the settings of the quick report Type in a title for the report and then click the Save amp Execute button to save the quick report as a regular report The report title will then show up in the listing of current reports on the Tracking Reports screen This option is not available for quick reports generated from delivery test data See Section 9 2 Delivered Jobs Reports for more information 10 3 Using The Excel Add In The statistics downloaded from LISTSERV Maestro are in CSV format
18. together with date time and recipient information who clicked the link Only those links that are specified in the e mail body will be tracked To specify which links to track click Define Tracking URLs Figure 41 Tracking Definition Tracking Definition On Off Tracking Details Typ Summary Cancel lt Back Next gt Tracking Details Open Up Tracking Yes Enable open up tracking for this jab y Check the box to enable open up THAN tracking for HTML messages Glick Through Tracking The following URLs fram the mail body are currently registered for tracking Alias URL Define Tracking URLs Click Define Tracking URLs to select which links in the message will be tracked Click Next gt to continue or Define Tracking URLs to define click through URLs 49 6 1 2 Defining Tracking URLs This page defines the links in the e mail message that are to be tracked LISTSERV Maestro is able to track all Internet links that have a URL starting with the http or the https protocol LISTSERV Maestro is able to track image map links as well as form submission links The page is divided into four separate frames e Top Frame Contains several general options O Highlight tracked links Select this option button to highlight tracked links Due to the nature of image maps links selected for tracking within them will not be highlighted Do not highlight tracked links Select this option but
19. 03 29 31 PM old address html Old Company Address in HTML format 14 2002 03 31 00 PM old address text Old Company Address in plain text Aug 14 2002 03 31 38 PM phone Toll free phone number Aug 5 2002 10 06 29 AM stock quote Price of a share af Widget Company stock Aug 14 2002 03 34 15 PM CE ew opanstemert gt Click here to create a new drop in Select the type of drop in from the drop down menu The Edit Drop In Content Element screen will appear This screen will appear in different formats depending on the type of drop in selected There are four types of drop in content elements that can be created e Text Text elements can be plain text or HTML text Plain text elements are best suited for plain text or alternative text messages HTML text drop ins contain HTML tags to format the text such as lt br gt for a line break and lt b gt for bold Plain text can be inserted into an HTML message but formatting such as line breaks will not necessarily appear as expected HTML text containing tags is not compatible with a plain text message because the tags will be seen in the message and will not format the text Figure 102 Edit Drop In Content Element Text Edit Drop In Content Element Enter a name that will serve as the placeholder in the message Mame Description The drop in contains Plain Text C HTML Text Any nested drop ins are enclose select Plain Text or HTML Text for the formatting of the drop
20. 16 Figure 12 Define Recipients from an Uploaded File ooccccoccnccocnncccnnncononocononocanonononncnnnnnocanononanos 17 gisuiczaeaUieerioodg me ee RT en 18 Figure 14 Define Recipients from a Database Select Database Plugin ccccooccncococcnnoconcnnconanononnonoss 19 Figure 15 Define Recipients from a Database Define Database Connection cccccceeeeeeneeeeeeneeeees 19 Figure 16 Define Recipients from LISTSERV Connected Database oooccccccoccncccnccnconononcononcnnnnoncnnnnanonoos 20 Figure 1 0 USING ODESSA od 22 Figure 18 Drop Down Menu Recipients Target Group cccoocccccccncccccncccnnononcncnononononononnnnnnnnnnononnnnnnnnononenenonos 23 Figure 19 Checkbox Recipients Target GrOUP cccooccncccccccncccoccnononcnnconannncononcnnononcnnnnnnnnnnnnnrnnonnnrnnnonnnrnnonanens 23 Figure 20 Define Recipients Source Details Parse RecipientS ooccccoccncconcncconncnocnnonanononacnnonnnncnononononos 24 Figure 21 Define Recipients Source Details Character Encoding cccoooccccoocconoconccnnonanononnonnnonnncnnconanenoos 25 Figure 22 Time Fernoa Detalla ia 26 Figure 23 Recipients Details for Uploaded Text File with Additional Recipient Data 29 Figure 24 Recipients Details for Uploaded File without Additional Recipient Data 28 Figure 25 Recipients Details from LISTSERV LisSt oocccccconnnncccnnnnccconncononnnnoco
21. Assume also that all columns plus the special purpose column COUNT are selected The downloaded report table would look like this CITY GENDER EMAIL COUNT New York female sally somewhere com 1 New York male john somewhere com 1 New York male robert somewhere com 1 Washington female debby somewhere com 1 Washington male frank somewhere com 1 This table means that each of these recipients has generated one event of the type being counted by the data source The sort order is apparent after first second and third columns Now if the EMAIL column is omitted the result would be CITY GENDER COUNT New York female 1 New York male 2 Washington female 1 Washington male 1 John and Robert from New York which differed only in their e mail addresses are now aggregated into the profile male from New York and there are now two events shown as coming from recipients that match this profile one from John and one from Robert If the GENDER column is omitted as well the result would be CITY COUNT New York 3 Washington 2 The resulting data table shows that three events were counted that fit the New York profile and two events were counted that fit the Washington profile Click the Use for new job link at the bottom right of the screen to create a new job with a recipients list where each recipient that triggered one of the events counted by the selected data source would have an entry This would be the same as selectin
22. Directory names commands and examples of editing program files will appear in Courier New font e Emphasized words or phrases will be underlined Some screen captures have been cropped for emphasis or descriptive purposes e This symbol denotes an important note or warning Tip This symbol denotes optional advice to save time Vii Section 1 Introduction to LISTSERV Maestro Designed specifically to work with LISTSERV 1 8e or later and LSMTP 1 1b or later LISTSERV Maestro allows users to easily create and send personalized e mail messages using a Web interface Incorporated into this powerful tool is a tracking component that can collect data every time a recipient opens an e mail message or clicks on a URL contained within the message LISTSERV Maestro can e Define a targeted group of recipients based on a LISTSERV list a database a past job responses to a past job or a text file e Define an e mail message in plain text in AOL Rich Text HTML or combination e Attach files to an e mail message e Delegate various tasks related to defining recipients creating the messages and delivering e mail to LISTSERV Maestro defined team members e Schedule e mail messages for delivery on any date at any time in one minute intervals within any time zone e Save messages as well as sender and recipient information for future e mail jobs e Test e mail messages before delivery e Define the types of data to track
23. Figure 53 Delivery Test Results Delivery Test Delivery Test Results The test messages have already been delivered to the recipients you specified Please wait until you have received the test messages depending on the Internet connection and the e mail systems involved this may take a short while and review them ta verify the messages are acceptable C NO The delivery test results are not acceptable C YES The delivery test results are acceptable C Verify Later View and verify the result of the delivery test at a later time ok fip It is useful to have a good understanding of the actual recipients data when putting together a test If the message contains merged fields then study those fields in the actual data what are the shortest and longest instances of those fields Are those fields ever empty Then make sure to send tests that have values of the shortest and longest lengths and empty fields if appropriate to make sure that the message layout looks correct in all cases It is sometimes necessary to change the layout or use conditional blocks to accommodate special cases If using conditional blocks make sure that the test cases exercise every possible condition being especially cautious about the formatting when working with HTML messages Tip Send test messages to e mail accounts running different e mail clients A message that looks fine in one client may look messy or unreadable in another fip If the recipi
24. HTML coding errors If in doubt or if there is trouble selecting a tracking definition for a seemingly good link double check the HTML coding of the links An example of correct coding appears below lt a href http www lsoft com Link text goes here lt a gt Omitting the quotation marks would result in incompatible coding for LISTSERV Maestro tracking as in the example below lt a href http www lsoft com gt Link text goes here lt a gt In order to upload HTML files into LISTSERV Maestro it is necessary to have either the Microsoft Java Virtual Machine MS JVM or Sun Microsystem s The Java Virtual Machine JVM installed This ensures that any accompanying image files for backgrounds banners icons diagrams and pictures will be automatically uploaded with the source code Most Windows systems manufactured before 2003 already have MS JVM already installed If a system does not download The Java Virtual Machine from http java sun com getjava index html The first time a file is uploaded after the Java Virtual Machine is installed a Security Warning dialogue box will appear asking for permission to use the L Soft applet to upload HTML Grant permission and check the box Always trust content from L Soft international inc so that the grant dialog box will not re appear If this box is not checked it will be necessary to grant permission to use the applet every time HTML files are uploaded in a new browser session
25. LISTSERV Maestro retrieves recipients from a database and LISTSERV retrieves recipients from a database The data administrator will select the appropriate method of connecting to the database as well as naming the target group putting it in a category for convenience this is optional and writing the select statement to retrieve the specific recipients who are targeted for the job Figure 105 shows the Recipients Target Groups screen as it appears to a data administrator Users without this right will not see this screen 120 Figure 106 Recipients Target Groups Recipients Target Groups All defined target groups for your account Category computers Suftware Vendors Target Group Tvpe LISTSERV Maestro Retrieves Recipients from Database Descriptian All software vendors in the database Status Incomplete hardware vendors Target Group Type LISTSERV Retrieves Recipients from Database Description all hardware vendors in the database Status Incomplete Rename Category Create anew Target Group of the following type Select E esse 11 4 Changing User Password Click the Change Password link to open the Change Password screen Enter the old password first and then type in the new password twice for confirmation Click OK to save the new password and return to the User Settings Page Figure 107 Changing User Password Change Password Enter your old password then enter the new password twice Clic
26. LISTSERY List Use the drop down menu to select the LISTSERV list Information about the currently selected LISTSERV list List Name li Send job as standard list message to list members Mo mail merging and bounce reporting possible only blind tracking possible v Send job as special list message No bounce reporting possible Mail merging and personal unique and blind tracking possible Standard list behavior like archiving and digesting does not apply Click here to hide details and reset options and conditions Condition Conditional blocks are explained in detail in the LISTSERV Developer s Guide E Options 4 MAIL Deliver this message to normally subscribed users D DIGEST Deliver this message to subscribers who receive only a digest INDEX Deliver this message to subscribers who receive only a topics index D NOMAIL Deliver this message to subscribers who currently receive no mail Setting a Condition is a means of creating a subset of recipients from the selected LISTSERV list based on the e mail address or in the case of DBMS based lists other information in the list s database table For information on setting conditions for a LISTSERV list see the LISTSERV Developer s Guide available online at http www lsoft com manuals html 15 There are four Options for a LISTSERV list that can be set by checking the adjacent boxes The options are standard LISTSERV settings that subscri
27. PM until Aug 15 2002 04 38 00 PM 8 Downloading Recipients Details Report Data The collected data available for download is selected from the upper and lower frames of the report Data sources for tracked events are selected from the top frame and column data pertaining to the recipient profiles is selected from the bottom frame Click the Select All link in the bottom frame to select all the columns of recipient data for download Click the Edit link to add specific columns subtract columns and re order the selected columns to change the data that is downloaded 105 Figure 89 Recipient Details Report Column Selection Report Tracking data for listing Download Report Result Report of type Details of Recipients that Triggered Events During the Time Period Define the column grouping and ordering Grouping For the download only the selected columns will be considered All profiles with the same values in all selected columns will be grouped together and will be considered one single aggregated profile with an event count equal to the sum of events of all the profiles in the group Ordering The rows in the downloaded result will be ordered after the content af the first column selected here Rows with the same value in the first column will be ordered after their content of the second selected column and so on Currently selected From data source Open Up Events the jobs Use the arrow keys to move columns from
28. Recipients Target Groups Define Recipients Options Source Si a ecipients Details Summary Cancel Source Information about the currently selected recipients target group Select a target group category then select a target group by clicking on the name in the list below Category lt No Category gt y Use the drop down menu to select a Description Recipients preference of mail type HTML or plain text Appears as a check box checked HTML mail will be sent If unchecked plain text mail will be sent Uses maestro recipients less table in Oracle customer database Click on the name Pet Type of the target group Description Selects recipients pet type Appears as a single input field Uses maestro to select it and recipients less table in Oracle customer database proceed to a Select by CITY confirmation Description Select recipients by city Appears as a drop down menu Uses screen maestro recipients less table in Oracle customer database Back to Previously Selected Target Grou Define Recipients lt Back Next gt Source Information about the currently selected recipients target group Target Group Pet Type Description Selects recipients pet type Appears as a single input field Uses maestro recipientsJess table in Orade customer database Parameters Type in the kind of pet you own Use this link to change Select Different Target Group the selected target group Cl
29. SMTP MTAs 2635 DON T SPEW A Set of Guidelines for Mass Unsolicited Mailings and Postings spam 3098 How to Advertise Responsibly Using E Mail and Newsgroups 1818 Best Current Practices 1796 Not All RFCs are Standards 138 http www ietf org iesg 1rfc_index txt http ietf org rfc rfc3000 txt http ietf org ID html http ietf org rfc rfc0821 txt http ietf org rfc rfc2821 txt http ietf org rfc rfC0822 txt http ietf org rfc rfC2822 txt http ietf org rfc rfc1123 txt http ietf org rfc rfc2045 txt http ietf org rfc rfc2046 txt http ietf org rfc rfc204 7 txt http ietf org rfc rfC2049 txt http ietf org rfc rfc1894 txt http ietf org rfc rfc1893 txt http ietf org rfc rfc1855 txt http ietf org rfc rfc2505 txt http ietf org rfc rfc2635 txt http ietf org rfc rfc3098 txt http ietf org rfc rfc1818 txt http ietf org rfc rfc1 796 txt Appendix E Using Conditional Blocks Adding conditional blocks to the body of an e mail job is a powerful way to personalize the content of the message for individual recipients Conditional blocks act much the same way that merge fields do in that their use is dependent upon the recipient data available in the mail job Judicious use of conditional blocks can also save time and resources by allowing one job to contain different content for different recipients that would otherwise have to be sent in multiple jobs Conditional blocks are sections of text tha
30. Type in the Plain Text box or click Upload Plain Text to upload a text file If drop in content has been enabled a third tab labeled Plain Text Preview will appear Click on this tab to see what the drop in content elements look like within the body of the message Tip Uploading a file composed in a word processing program can be advantageous because it is possible to use spelling and grammar checkers Just be sure to save the file as text not in the word processor format Click OK when finished composing the message e Important Note In order to track links inside of text messages it is necessary to enclose the URL within quotation marks http www Isoft com These quotation marks will be removed from the recipients copy of the message and serve only to let the system know that there is a trackable link in the message 5 3 Creating HTML Messages There are several ways to compose HTML messages in LISTSERV Maestro e Upload an HTML file from a local drive e Copy and paste HTML source code from another application 33 e Type in HTML source code HTML messages can be created locally in any HTML editing program and uploaded to LISTSERV Maestro In order for any links to be tracked in an HTML message they must be enclosed within quotation marks Most HTML editors will do this automatically but it is possible to create a link without quotation marks that will be read in Internet Explorer this browser is very forgiving of
31. XYZWeb com bday home home html 782 3339950 1258814 Now that you are 18 you can finally do what you have been waiting for all vou lite SiG UD EO yOu ely Owl uae Online casa Management ac cou We are waiving the first year s fee if you apply within the next 2 weeks Apply now at http www XYZWeb com bday 12348 18badgrz Did you Know Ena Vou can access lt iZ webes Store directly from AOL Click on keyword XYZWeb and land on your personalized page The resulting message to a person from Texas and randomly selected would read Figure 3 Resulting Recipient Plain Text Message Happy birthday To celebrate the occasion XYZweb is pleased to credit your account with OOO Oise ade Ie ote ss ote as penas tes e Cie dies On any hang ous online store but there s a catch They will expire in a week if you do not use them So wait no further and go to your personalized web page at http www XYZWeb com bday home home htm1 104 1119951 0252744 Congratulations You have won a free pair of XYZweb sunglasses 144 Twenty Tips for Establishing a Successful E Mail Marketing Campaign Y Y Build your list internally even if it takes time so the quality of your recipient list remains at a high level Keep an accurate audit of how your company received permission to contact the subscribers of the lists some people forget they signed up to receive information Make membership to your list valuable by offering deals that non members c
32. accounts click on Team Member in the top left corner of the table It is also possible to copy permissions from another job by selecting the job from the drop down menu Click OK to save the settings Figure 7 Team Collaboration Screen Team Collaboration Select other account holders that have permission to execute the following warkflaw steps for this job You also can load permissions from another job E Select Undelivered Jobs Recipients Content D E E 2 Use in Team Member Definition Definition 40202220 Beth at L Soft Delivery Reports jeff 1 1 C matt O C 1 patrick O C 1 fip Separating responsibilities for different aspects of an e mail job to team members with expertise in those aspects will help to ensure an effective message is sent to the right recipients and useful tracking data is collected For example a company wants to send new product information to clients and find out which clients opened certain links contained in the message A team would be assembled to send out this message The project leader would initiate the job in LISTSERV Maestro and become the job owner The job owner would enlist an HTML expert to create the content of an HTML message a marketing expert to determine the recipients of this message and an analyst to decide the types of information to be tracked for a company report Section 4 Defining Recipients of an E mail Job The next step in creating an e mail job is to define or
33. an automatically created copy that is part of an auto repeat sequence The delivery authorization of this job was revoked but the job has not changed the job since then When re authorized the job can either continue as part of the same auto repeat sequence or it can start a new auto repeat sequence This choice will have to be made on the Authorize Delivery screen Figure 58 Auto Repeat Re Authorization Authorize Delivery Review the jab summary to verify that the job settings are correct If you authorize the delivery of the job the job will be sent Dec 17 2003 11 24 AM The jab will run in an auta repeat sequence and will automatically authorize and deliver a copy of itself every 2 weeks after the first delivery until Dec 31 2004 12 01 PM Please define if the job shall be part of the same sequence as before or if it shall start a new sequence Continue as part of the same auto repeat sequence as before C Start a new auto repeat sequence with this job as the first job e The job is not the first job of the auto repeat sequence and has been changed since the delivery authorization was revoked This means that this job is already an automatically created copy that is part of an auto repeat sequence The delivery authorization of this job was revoked and then it was changed in some way When re authorized the job will create a new auto repeat sequence and it will no longer be part of the sequence it belonged to before
34. available delivery time for re scheduling In that case the job will fail with a message to that effect 7 5 Authorizing a Job for Delivery In order for an e mail job to be delivered final authorization is required After all previous requirements have been met define recipients define message define tracking define sender delivery test and schedule delivery a job may be authorized for delivery The job owner always has permission to authorize a job as do any other team members that have been granted permission Figure 57 Authorizing Delivery Authorize Delivery Review the job summary to verify that the job settings are correct If you authorize the delivery of the job the job will be sent Dec 31 2003 12 12 00 PM Authorize Delivery Now Cancel Job Summary Sender E mail Address lass_sass goodrich edu Sender Name Beth Reply To Address Bounce Handling handled by LISTSERY gt Recipients Recipients Type List uploaded as a text file Number of Recipients 8 Recipients Data Usage Used for mail merging and tracking Content Subject style guide L Mail Type HTML Details Alternative Text NO List of Attachments no attachments gt Tracking Tracking is OFF Recipients Sample NAME EMAIL Tom cati yahoo com Jerry mousedGhotmail com Fred stoneage umass edu The summary screen lists all the selections that make up the e mail job Above the Authorize Delivery Now and Cance
35. be anecltudecd ik neither the irot nor tae second Condi Llon is met eb eb Conditional Operators The condition that is evaluated is created by making a comparison against recipient data Operator symbols make up the statement and appear in a table below Operators are not case sensitive However strictly equal to and not strictly equal to are available when case must be respected String literals within a statement must be enclosed within quotation marks if they contain spaces Boolean operators AND and OR may be used within the statement If used the sub expressions must be enclosed within parentheses For example for this conditional block to be true both expressions must be met the recipient must be in New York State and in New York City to see the text about winning sunglasses FOr residences of New York NY bb amp state NY and amp city New York Congratulations You have won a free pair of XYZweb sunglasses eb For the next conditional block to be true only one of the expressions must be met the recipient is either in New York State or in New York City Recipients in Albany NY New York NY and New York CA will see the text about winning sunglasses For residences of any New York OP S Scu QN tor scs re New OT s Congratulations You have won a free pair of XYZweb sunglasses eb 141 Table 2 Conditional Operators isequdto caseinsensiive
36. be delivered once the temporary reason is gone Important If a job contains a virus it will fail during delivery It will be rejected by LISTSERV The job will remain in the Outbox in the failed state The reason for the failure a message about the detected virus will be visible when clicking on the job to view the job details From there the job can either be re opened to change the content to get rid of the virus and send again or closed and remain in the list of delivered jobs as a failed job 8 1 Auto Repeat Jobs and Delivery Failures If delivery of an auto repeat job fails for any reason the failure is handled slightly differently than with normal jobs A normal job that fails remains in the Outbox and is marked as failed From there the job can be closed transferring it into the list of delivered jobs or delivery can be retried or the job can be re opened for editing A failed auto repeat job is marked failed as usual only it is automatically closed and transferred into the list of delivered jobs just as if it had been manually closed as a failed normal job If the end condition for the auto repeat has not yet been met a new copy is created and authorized for delivery after the corresponding delay interval just as if the delivery of the previous job had not failed As a result if at a given delivery time some condition that causes failure that may exist outside of LISTSERV Maestro for example the accessibility of a data
37. been wating TOC all your life sign up for your very own XYZweb online cash management account We are waiving the first year s fee if you apply within the next 2 weeks Apply now at http www XYZWeb com bday 1234 amp 18badgrz eb Two randomly selected people every day get a free T shirt Note amp index is randomized with every run If we ran the job twice the prize would go to different people Oo SOLID OK Sp d C UT Congratulations You have won a free XYZweb T shirt eb Another 10 randomly selected people get a free baseball cap BO indes gt 2 and 4 index lt 12 Make that a free pair of sunglasses in Texas bb amp country USA and amp state TX Congratulations You have won a free pair of XYZweb sunglasses else Congratulations You have won a free XYZweb baseball cap eb eb 2 wpeclal oO cAOL users oleae MEC eom Did you know that you can access XYZweb s store directly from AOL Click on keyword XYZWeb and land on your personalized page eb 143 The resulting message to a person using AOL and turning 18 would read Figure 2 Resulting Recipient Plain Text Message Happy oir taday To celebrate the occasion XYZweb is pleased to credit your account with SEOC OO a tnos o edu oW als penal ese Walia Soe soln clas eo E online store but there s a catch They will expire in a week if you do not use them So wait no further and go to your personalized web page at http www
38. charsets can become quite complex especially when merged data is involved Each charset has advantages and disadvantages that are described in greater detail in the online help and in Appendix B E mail and International Character Sets 5 6 Merging Fields and Conditional Blocks LISTSERV provides the ability to customize mail messages for each recipient by merging in values uploaded with the recipient data or conditionally including blocks of text based on the preferences indicated in the recipient data These values are taken from columns that are present in the recipient data To merge a field into the message simply enter the field name or header name in the case of an uploaded file used in the recipient definition and precede it with an ampersand amp and follow it with a semi colon If the recipients data is derived from a traditional LISTSERV list not connected to a database then the only merge substitution fields available are amp TO for the e mail address and amp NAME for the name For a list of available merge fields click the link Show Merge Fields and Drop Ins at the bottom of the text box on the HTML Source or the Alternative Text screen Copy and paste the name of the merged field into the message to ensure the correct name and formatting 41 Figure 37 Available Merge Fields and Drop Ins Available Merge Fields and Drop Ins Selected Job October Widget Company Newsletter ID NEWS 0208094 Available me
39. columns GENDER and CITY are selected in all likelihood several recipients will have the same profile namely all those of the same gender that live in the same city Previously each profile was different because of the inclusion of the EMAIL column If during the creation of the report several recipients are found to have the same condensed profile created by omitting columns that make up the recipient profile this profile will be included in the report table only once Instead of including the same profile several times LISTSERV Maestro simply counts how many recipients share the same profile for each profile In the special purpose column COUNT each instance of an event for the same profile is recorded If this column is included it will be populated with the number of recipients that were matched to the condensed profile defined by the other columns in the same row The COUNT column can be used to find out interesting demographic statistics such as how many 106 males from a certain city have clicked on a certain link and similar information The order in which the columns are used can provide information as well because the rows in the table are sorted in ascending order on the first column If there are profiles with the same values in the first column they will be sorted after their second column and so on For example Assume that the full profile has the three columns from above EMAIL GENDER and CITY
40. data such as all customers in a certain country where country is a list of countries that the user can select from e The account holder does not have to know how to use SQL the data administrator sets up the SQL statements that retrieve data from the database freeing the user from this task e They are reusable target groups can be reused on different jobs The data administrator will set up what groups of recipients are available to users and how those groups are selected in the user interface The recipient target group interface can be composed of drop down menus and or check boxes for selecting groups of recipients Ideas for additional target groups should be directed to the data administrator The Source screen for Send to a Recipients Target Group contains listing all of the available target groups Target groups may be placed within categories by the data administrator for organizational purposes Use the drop down menu to select a category if appropriate Once the category is selected the target groups listed in the table will change to list only those in that category To select a target group to use for the recipients list click on the name of the target group The Source screen will confirm the selection If the selection is correct click the Next gt button To change the target group click the link Select Different Target Group which will re open the first Source screen 13 Figure 9 Source Screen for
41. each individual using the e mail account 29 Figure 27 Recipient Summary and Duplicate Elimination Summary Options Source Source Details Recipients Details Summary Cancel lt Back Finish Summary A summary of the recipients information Press the Finish button to save this as a new recipients definition for your job Recipients File Source File Mame Oak3 text Upload Date Time Dec 3 2001 10 13 39 AM Special Purpose Columns E mail Column EMAIL Mame Calumn NAME Usage of Recipients Data Used for mail merging and tracking Validation Results Correctly uploaded recipients will be used for delivery 16 download Recipients with errors will be ignored during delivery 3 download Duplicate Elimination Selected Duplicate Elimination Do not remove duplicates Define Duplicate Elimination Recipient Sample limination of Duplicate Recipients To avoid unnecessary and in mast cases unwanted double messages to the same recipient use this page to remove duplicates fram your recipient data Torn cati yahoo com Duplicate Elimination Options Jerry mouse hotmail com P l P 4 4 amp Do not remove duplicates Fre stoneagem umass edu gem C Remove duplicates with same e mail address C use my list af columns to determine duplicates Recipient Sample EMAIL Tom catiyahoo com Jerry mausedghaotmail com Fred stoneage humass edu Wilma primativedyarch edu au Betty lass sassaQwgoodnch edu Blossom flowergi
42. groups of recipients from a database All accounts in the group where the recipients target groups are saved may use them to build a recipient list for an e mail job The data administrator will set up target groups based on information in a database and will decide what the target group functionality will look like check boxes drop down menus or a combination For information on how to create target groups see the Data Administrator s Manual Send to an Existing LISTSERV List Recipients are defined by a LISTSERV list The list must be owned or be moderated by the e mail address registered for the LISTSERV Maestro account The LISTSERV site administrator or the LISTSERV Maestro system administrator must configure this set up Determine Recipients Based on Reaction to the Job Recipients are selected based upon a defined action they performed in a previous job Select the previous job from the drop down menu This option can only draw recipients from jobs with personal tracking and where the recipients were defined using Upload a Recipients Text File or Select Recipients from a Database Use Recipients Definition from Job Recipients are copied from a previous job including all the recipient details such as LISTSERV list options and so on Select the previous job using a drop down menu listing the jobs available The category Define recipients contains three options that allow for the creation of an original reci
43. in HTML Text supports the use of HTML tags such as br for a line break for formatting text Plain Text does not support the use of HTML tags E Test Drop In y Click this link to open a new browser window to test the formatting of the drop in Cancel Delete fip Drop in content for plain text messages should be rendered using the Plain Text setting and drop in content for HTML should be rendered using the HTML Text setting For HTML messages with alternative text create two separate drop ins one in each format and use each in its appropriate message part 118 File The content of this type of drop in element is loaded from a text file that is accessed by a file name defined here The file itself must be accessible from the server and not a local file on a workstation computer See the LISTSERV Maestro Administrators Guide or the system administrator for more information Figure 103 Edit Drop In Content Element File Edit Drop In Content Element Enter a name that will serve as the placeholder in the message Mame Description elect Plain lext or ext Fe H to reflect the file contents The drop in contains plain Text HTML Text 2 Any nested drop ins are enclosed in and t Type Enter the path and file name File Mare File Encoding west European I50 1 Select the file encoding Test Fle nane Click this link to test the file name M ote The given file name and path must be a valid path
44. not being processed or have not reached the scheduled delivery date and time Scheduled delivery 74 time is always shown relative to the local time of the current user If a job is edited from the Outbox it is subject to re testing and re authorization before it can be delivered Figure 60 Outbox Outbox All jobs that have been authorized for delivery for your account It contains jobs that are authorized and scheduled for future processing 3 are currently being processed Y were processed previously but failed to succeed Click on the Jab ID to see details about the selected job Job ID Job Title Mail Type Date Time of Sending State o20222E Jeff Plain Feb 26 2002 12 02 00 PM x 0202250 recdpients3 HTML sep 9 2002 10 00 00 4M E Jobs in the Outbox exist in three states represented by different icons A clock icon represents jobs that are authorized for delivery and awaiting a future delivery time Click on the Job ID to open the Outbox Job Details screen for a particular job It is possible to rescind the delivery authorization status by clicking on the Revoke Send Authorization button Click the View link adjacent to each of the job details to review the selections lt is not possible to edit any selection until the send authorization is revoked At that point the job is removed from the Outbox and once again put into the list of Undelivered Jobs just as if it had never been authorized It now is possible to edit the job
45. on the server running LISTSERV Maestro OK Cancel Delete URL The content of this type of drop in element is loaded from a text file accessed by an http or ftp URL defined here The URL must be accessible from the server and have an http https or ftp protocol See the LISTSERV Maestro Administrators Guide or the system administrator for more information Figure 104 Edit Drop In Content Element URL Edit Drop In Content Element Enter a name that will serve as the placeholder in the message Mame Description elect Plain lext or ext Type LRL 2 to reflect the file contents The drop in contains plain Text HTML Text Any nested drop ins are enclosed in HF and t Enter the URL URL File Encoding West European 150 1 r Selectthe file encoding Test URL_ gt Click this link to test the URL Note The given URL must be a valid http or tpi URL that is accessible from the server running LISTSERY Maestro If a username and password is required for an FTP server include it in the URL to myhost domain com becomes ftp username passwardiamyhoast domain com OK Cancel Delete Database The content of this type of drop in element is queried from a database The database connection settings and the SQL statement are defined here See the LISTSERV Maestro Administrator s Guide or the system administrator for more information 119 Figure 105 Edit Drop In Conten
46. on their local computers then 21 consider exposing the topics in the subject line However if there are many topics selected for the message a rather lengthy subject line will result In this case consider hiding the topics from the recipients Hiding topics can also be useful if the topics are only used to sub divide the list and are not directly known or used by the recipients Figure 17 Using Topics Define Recipients Options Source Source Details Summary lt Back Hest gt A Source Details Let LISTSERV Maestro send the mail in the normal way send to all members of the specified list or send only to the subscribers of the specified topics C Normal send topic unspecific Send to all subscribers of selected list Send only to subscribers of selected topics ants Check at least one topic from the list Iv Bees Beetles Topics appear in the subject line Iw Butterflies Hide or expose them l Hide the topics from the recipients Expose the topics in the subject line 4 3 2 Recipients Target Groups that Include Parameters Recipient target groups are pre selected groups of recipients based on information in a database and arranged on the Source Details screen by a data administrator The data administrator creates SELECT statements using SQL to extract groups of recipients from a database based on specific criterion The SELECT statements may contain placeholders called parameters that will be replac
47. open up and for the selected links in the case of click through are summed up and displayed in the form of a colored bar Two types of sum can be chosen for the report Sum of unique events or Sum of all events Sum of unique events plots only a single event of each type for each recipient This chart will register 0 zero events if blind tracking has been selected for the tracking type during the tracking definition because blind tracking cannot count any event as unique Sum of all events counts all events triggered for each recipient and is available for blind tracking The Sum of all events will give an overall picture of how many events were generated When compared to the Sum of unique events the report gives an idea of how well the overall number of events was distributed over the individual recipients It is possible to discern whether many recipients generated relatively few events each or whether most events were generated by only a few recipients generating the same events over and over while many other recipients only generated a few events or none at all View The View page of a sum of events report displays the collected data in a bar graph format The View page of this report type changes to reflect different options set on the Change Result Settings screen Depending on what options are set the number of recipients can reflect the total number of all recipients or a percentage of the number of recipi
48. page in recipients wizard as long as Use additional recipient data for mail merging and tracking is chosen on the Recipients Details page in recipients wizard e Blind Tracking Collects unspecific tracking data recording only the number of times open up and click through events occur In other words blind tracking cannot discern between one person clicking a link 100 times and 100 people clicking a link once The total count will be 100 events in both instances Therefore all blind tracking events are considered non unique This has specific implications for Sum of Events report types See Section 7 3 Running Test Reports and Section 10 1 Tracking Reports for more details Blind tracking is always available The table below summarizes the types of tracking available based on the way the recipients are defined 55 Table 4 Types of Tracking Available Based on Recipient Definition Recipients defined from Types of tracking available Uploaded text file with non identifying fields with only identifiable fields Database Connected to LISTSERV Maestro with non identifying fields with only identifying fields LISTSERV list Standard list message Special list message 96 Figure 46 Selecting Tracking Type Tracking Definition On Off Tracking Details Type Summary Cancel lt Back Next gt Tracking Type Personal Tracking Records open up and click through events traceable to t
49. parameters have many uses and when it comes to mailings they come in two general types e Constant URL parameters Parameters that are the same for all URL visitors A typical use of a constant parameter is to select a certain page or part of a page The following imaginary URL would tell the server to show the electronics page and the 15 item on that page http host domain path page electronics amp item 15 e Individual URL parameters Parameters that are different for each individual URL A typical use of an individual parameter is to tell the server about the identity of the visitor The following imaginary URL would tell the server that the user with the ID usr18 is visiting the page The URL also contains a constant parameter that tells the server that it is supposed to show the home page http host domain path visitorlID usrib5 amp page home Different visitors would have different values of the visitorID parameter For example the following URL would tell the server that this time the visitor has the ID usr217 http host domain path visitorlID usr217 amp page home LISTSERV Maestro allows the user to track URLs with or without parameters as well as URLs with constant or individual parameters Since URLs with individual parameters need to have a different value for the parameter for each recipient how can such a URL be written in the text of the message By using field merging it is possible to create uniqu
50. report is only a warning to remind the user that there are currently problems but the upload is not suspended The reason that uploads are not halted when the HTML contains errors is that the linked files simply may not be available yet Sometimes referenced Web sites are under development or are being updated as the e mail message is being created Once the linked site is complete the message will be valid and can be sent out Table 2 Advantages and Disadvantages of Linked and Embedded Files mE Advantages Disadvantages omaller message size Recipients must have a live Internet connection Mail servers will most likely not refuse a small message Some firewalls strip HTML content linking to Links can be tracked outside sources Image server must be available Drop in content can be used g Embedded No image server needed Large message size Files Firewall will not strip content Some mail servers may refuse or delete Visible without a live Internet large messages connection Fewer links to track Drop in content can be used fip Make clicking each link for linked files a part of the testing procedure For more information on testing an e mail job see Section 7 2 Delivery Testing for a Job 5 4 Alternative Content and Conditional Content Some e mail clients do not receive HTML messages well if at all To include those recipients who cannot receive HTML e mail in a job create an alternative text message to be sent with the
51. saved sender profile or typing in new information 7 1 1 Using Merge Fields in the Sender Information It is possible to use merge fields when entering sender information for E mail Address Sender Name and Reply To Address in order to create personalized values for each recipient Merge field values are limited to those provided in the recipients definition and must follow the standard format of the name of the field being proceeded by an ampersand amp and followed by a semi colon See Section 5 6 Merging Fields and Conditional Blocks for more information on using merged fields See the online help for examples of using this feature to personalize sender information It is critically important that the sender and reply to addresses resolve into authentic Internet e mail addresses when the merge fields have been replaced with corresponding data Failing to disable the reply functionality of the e mail hurting the reputation of the sender The user must verify that merged addresses are valid LISTSERV Maestro cannot accomplish this 60 7 1 2 Bounce Handling Bounced e mail e mail that is not accepted by the server holding the e mail address can be handled automatically by LISTSERV or sent to another address supplied by the sender If LISTSERV handles bounces bounce details can be downloaded on the Job Summary screen Bounces can also be retrieved from a file called NOLIST j obname changelog located in LISTSE
52. such a job auto repeats itself each repeated copy may be mailed to a different list of recipients Dynamic content is content that uses drop ins to pull content into the message just in time before delivery Different content can be used with auto repeat jobs to mail constantly changing content to a list of recipients without editing the other parts of a job Examples of these types of jobs are provided below Dynamic Recipients Example A bank or credit union could employ dynamic recipient lists for sending a generic Your account balance is negative warning message on the first of each month to only those recipients who have a negative account balance on that day To set up such an auto repeat job create a job with static content telling the recipients that their account balance is negative probably using the balance value as a merge field pulled from the customer database Use a recipient definition that is just in time and that selects exactly those recipients from the database where the account balance is negative Next schedule this job to be delivered at a certain hour of the first day of the next month with a repeat interval of 7 70 Month After the initial authorization of that first job the mail would automatically go out at the set hour of the first of each month to only the recipients with a negative account balance Dynamic Content Example A weather report service could employ dynamic content to automatically mail th
53. than the sender s e mail address e Bounce Handling Select either Handle bounced messages automatically in which case LISTSERV will handle bounced messages or select Send bounced messages to and type an e mail address in the text box to send the bounced messages to Click Cancel to return to the Manage Sender Profiles screen without saving the profile or Delete to delete the profile Sender profiles can also be created and saved from the Edit Sender Information screen available from the Workflow or Summary diagram screens See Section 7 1 Delivered Jobs Summary for more information 11 2 Creating Drop in Content Elements Click on Drop In Content Elements to open the Manage Drop In Content Elements screen From here it is possible to create a new drop in content element or edit an existing one For more information about the nature of drop in content see Section 5 1 Drop In Content or the online help Click on the button New Drop In Element to create a new drop in or click on the name of an existing drop in to edit it 117 Figure 101 Manage Drop In Content Elements Manage Drop In Content Elements All defined drop in content elements for your account Click on a drop in element to edit delete it ar use the button to create a new element Mame Description Date Time saved new address html New Company Address in HTML Format 14 2002 03 29 03 PM new address text New Company Address in plain text 14 2002
54. to differentiate between two different links that go to the same URL Each link in this case would be given a different alias Aliases can also be used to group different links together into a larger group to 125 measure the overall number of clicks in a message In this case all the links would be given the same alias If aliases are not defined for tracked links which is possible since aliases are optional LISTSERV Maestro will only be able to find the URL of the link in the tracking data LISTSERV The most prevalent e mail list management software in the world today It is a system that allows users to create and maintain e mail lists on their corporate networks or on the Internet LISTSERV supports all types of e mail lists newsletters moderated and unmoderated discussion groups and direct marketing campaigns List sizes can range from a few participants in a discussion group to several million in a newsletter Every list and its archives can be maintained through a simple web interface which can be fully customized to match a website profile LSMTP E mail delivery application that distributes messages at a very high rate of speed MIME Stands for Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions Extensions to the Internet mail format that allow it to carry multiple types of data as attachments to e mail messages Open Up Event A trackable occurrence available with HTML e mail messages that records each time a message i
55. used LISTSERV Maestro creates a profile for each individual mail recipient and stores this information in an internal or external database The creation of this profile takes place during the delivery of the mail as the job is being transferred to LISTSERV With a large recipient list the additional work of creating profile entries in the database will make the transfer to LISTSERV noticeably slower If general statistics are required without the need to trace events back to anonymous profiles use unique tracking instead because the processing time is much faster e Unique Tracking Records the number of times open up and click through events happen to unique recipients but is not associated with individual users or other identifying data Unique tracking is available O For recipients uploaded as a text file and the option Use additional recipient data for mail merging and tracking chosen on Recipients Details page in recipients wizard For recipients selected from a database by LISTSERV Maestro and the option Use additional recipient data for mail merging and tracking chosen on Recipients Details page in recipients wizard For recipients defined by a LISTSERV list with the option special list message chosen on the Source page in recipients wizard For recipients defined by a database select by LISTSERV For recipients defined Based on Reaction to a Previous Job chosen on the Options
56. user s local time is in a different time zone than the scheduled delivery time So the time may look incorrect at first but when converted to absolute time it is correct Even more important this may even show an incorrect day If the user sets the scheduled delivery time to 0 30 at GMT on the first of January the time may appear as 23 30 on the 31 of December on this page if the local time zone is before GMT 7 5 1 Re Authorizing Auto Repeat Jobs Any auto repeat job currently in the Outbox awaiting its scheduled delivery time can have its delivery authorization revoked just like a normal job If authorization is revoked the job will be put back into the Resume Jobs list where it can be edited again If a job is re authorized for future delivery the job may have its standing changed in respect to the auto repeat sequence it was part of before the authorization was revoked Here are the possible standings e The job is the first job of an auto repeat sequence This means that no delivery has taken place for this job because it was the first job of the sequence and was already revoked before its scheduled delivery time When re authorized the job will simply continue to be the first and still only job of the same auto repeat sequence it belonged to before 73 e The job is not the first job of the auto repeat sequence but has not been changed since the delivery authorization was revoked This means that this job is already
57. will be used for display mon Day Year Specifiy the format that will be used for input fields mm dd yyyy Time Format Specifiv the format that will be used far display AM PM i Separator Specifiv the format that will be used for input fields hh mm Number Format Specifiv the format that will be used for display Number format of your Locale 1 234 567 89 Number format of your Locale 1 234 567 89 1 234 567 89 1 234 557 89 jl2342557 89 Display Preferences For some of the pages that have tabs to switch between active screens select the tab that will be at the front active when the page is initially opened from the drop down menus 122 Figure 110 Display Preferences Display Preferences On this page you can set your individual display preferences Default displayed tabs Resume Job Page Workflow Edit HTML Content Page View HTML Content Page HTML Cancel Job Definition Set the preferences for defining a new job including the default Job ID Prefix and the default Team Collaboration settings Recipients Definition Select the default recipient type for new jobs from the drop down menu Content Definition Select the default content type Plain Text or HTML and the default character set encoding from the drop down menus Select to have HTML messages default to having alternative text or not using the options buttons Tracking Definition Use the optio
58. word Hammer are not interpreted as quotes that delimit the field but are instead interpreted as single appearances of the quote character which are part of the field value Therefore the un escaped form of the field looks like this John Hammer Cool Similarly the second field of the last row has the un escaped form of Hauser the man 137 Appendix D E Mail Related RFCs For technical material on the protocols for e mail see the many Request for Comments documents RFCs available on the Web These documents explain the rules that e mail and other software products must follow in order to work cooperatively with each other on the Internet Understanding the rules is often helpful for understanding and troubleshooting problems Table 8 RFCs and RFC Web Sites All RFCs 3000 Internet Official Protocol Standards Internet Drafts 821 Simple Mail Transfer Protocol 2821 Simple Mail Transfer Protocol 822 Standard for the Format of ARPA Internet Text Messages 2822 Internet Message Format 1123 Requirements for Internet Hosts Application and Support 2045 MIME Part 1 Format of the Internet Message Bodies 2046 MIME Part 2 Media Types 2047 MIME Part 3 Message Header Extensions for Non ASCII Text 2049 MIME Part 5 Conformance Criteria and Examples 1894 An Extensible Message Format for Delivery Status Notifications DSNs 1893 Enhanced Mail System Status Codes 1855 Netiquette Guidelines 2505 Anti Spam Recommendations for
59. 000 Add In ImportTrackerStatistics la Features Import and convert a downloaded tracking data file Let Excel 2000 create a new workbook with the data from a previously downloaded tracking data file and generate a chart from the Imported values Convert the current worksheet Let Excel 2000 create a new chart in the current workbook based on the data of the current worksheet How to install e Select Add Ins fram the Tools menu to open the Add Ins dialog e Click on the Browse button and select your copy of ImportTrackerStatistics sla e After you have closed the Add Ins dialog a new toolbar with one icon to start the import dialog will appear e 10 3 2 Installing the LISTSERV Maestro Add In into Excel Follow the steps described below to install the add in into Microsoft Excel 2000 1 Open up Excel 2 From the Tools menu select the Add Ins It may be necessary to click on the small arrow symbol at the bottom of the menu to make the command visible A dialog box opens that lists all available add ins Click the Browse button in that dialog box Figure 92 Installing Tracker Add In Ed Microsoft Excel Eile Edit View Insert Forma Tools Pata Window Help Acrobat D eus amp 7 x75 a m EE z w T5 Add Ins available Access Links Analysis ToolPak Analysis ToolPak YEA Sutosave Add in Conditional Sum Wizard Euro Currency Tools A Internet Assistant VB Lookup
60. 1 87 14 bao HTS 208 AT 1 MAA MT de eae TH JH JT 170000 TOM HET 17 EROE SHAT dE DOE a dE zat 2E aT 1 TO ET IE un EH H AT 2E OE Xni H IT O Hl T ad BO EL ET 271 90 0C J JH dT sired Xi El IT DO El ET nA rd 1 E1 35 GE ia 2G H DA Oc EE E memo aue mn 51 25 pr e Sd HEIL OI OGOE 238 H F Oc Ee Bos sk pea pg ee ee ee E Tro Co FPR oO RF Re Pee oat Doo oS MA i Bae en SHH 3G H E 04 23 OE in d ne mE a e de oe eme Loc 2000 3 DE 20D H OE DO 2061 ol d DC OE 30601 1 En DO rs OH H A ORE DOLORE KH H EB OS SCORE Bina es e Jp El Bn e E H MRS DEE EOL 3 ii Edi Ei b itii Cocos 0 og ooo 10 AA RE a oa rin it Daba Pay It is now possible to use all the regular Excel features to edit and adjust both the graph and the data table 10 3 4 Removing an Existing Version of the Add In If there is an existing ImportTrackerStatistics xla file from an earlier version of LISTSERV Maestro installed on the local machine it may not work with downloaded report data from the newest version of LISTSERV Maestro The old add in file must be removed from Excel and a new one must be installed Follow the steps below to remove an old ImportTrackerStatistics xla file from Excel and install the latest version 1 2 p OO ND Oo Open Excel If there is an existing version an icon with little feet will appear in a toolbar Under Tools gt Add Ins gt Uncheck the Importtrackerstatistics Add In from the list o
61. 8 Result Settings Event Distribution Over Time oooccncccccccnconoccnnononcnncnnanonnononnnnononnnnnonanennnnanens 94 Figure 79 Result Settings Sum of EVOhls iro cum A resina Essai eri a Du Sun vu Remus 95 Figure 80 Result Settings Recipient Details ooccoonccococoncnnccconnncononennnnnnnonnanonnnnoncnnonnnrnnnonarencnnanons 96 Figure 81 Result Settings Event Details 000 ite Crate Fu Do poe o nie e iem to ades dde behead 96 Figure 82 Events Distributed Over Time Report VariatiONS ccccoonccncococcnnoconcnnconnnnnonanonnononnnnnonanencnnanons 98 Figure 83 Downloading Event Distribution Report Data oooccconcccconcncccccncononccnonnnoncnnnnncnnonncnnonarnnnnanonnanos 99 Figure 84 Change View Settings cccccsscccccesseecceeseeecsesseeceeseecsaececsaaeeeeseaseeecsageeeeseuseesseaseeessageeesseaes 100 Figure 85 Sum of Events Report Variations ccccccccssseccceeseeccesececeaeeecceuseeecsageeeceuseeessageeessansenesseass 102 Figure 86 Download Sum of Events Data ooocccccccncncccocnnccconconcccanononannnnnnnnnnnnnnannnnononnnnononnnnnnannnnnnnnns 103 Figure 87 Change View Settings for Sum of Events RepOlML o coooccnccnoccccccccnnccnnconconononnnnoncnnnonarononnanenonnnoos 104 Figure 88 Recipients Details Report coooccoconcoocncconnoconncconcononcnnnnononnononononnonannnnnnnonnnononnnnnnnenannnnaninos 105 Figure 89 Recipient Details Report Column SelectiON
62. AOL format and plain text alternatives two conditions need to be specified one for the HTML content and one for the AOL format content evaluated in the following order Ifa recipient fulfills the HTML condition a full HTML e mail including the plain text alternative only is delivered to that recipient Ifthe recipient does not fulfill the HTML condition but does fulfill the AOL condition an e mail in the special AOL format is delivered containing only the AOL format alternative Ifthe recipient does not fulfill the AOL condition neither of the two conditions are fulfilled a simple plain text e mail is delivered containing only the plain text alternative If attachments are present then LISTSERV Maestro adds the attachments to each of the messages without applying conditions 5 4 4 Adding Attachments Any type of file can be included as an attachment to an e mail message There is no limit to the number of files that can be attached to a message but there may be a limit to the size of each attachment set by the system administrator Large attachments or numerous attachments can slow down the delivery of the message and use up bandwidth Recipients with slower connections may have a negative reaction to the message if they have to download large or numerous attachments Consider using a link to the information if possible instead of an attachment That way processing time is faster less bandwidth is used and the li
63. ASCII all non ASCII international characters will be replaced with question marks To avoid this problem use the same charset for the message body as was used for the merge data If the recipients information was uploaded as a text file then simply use the same charset for sending as was used during the initial upload And if the recipients information was selected from a database use the same charset as was used by the database ask the database administrator for this information if it is unclear In summary recipients that are uploaded as a text file or are selected from a database by the Maestro User Interface merge value characters that have no representation in the charset that was chosen for the mail text will be displayed as To avoid this problem make sure the message body is encoded with the same charset as the recipient list If recipients are defined by sending to an existing LISTSERV list or by letting LISTSERV select from a database then the Maestro User Interface will not see the actual recipients or their merge values and cannot do any special charset encoding on them Instead LISTSERV will simply merge the bytes from the recipients source from the LISTSERV list or from the database LISTSERV connects to into the mail text Consequently make sure that the merge values in the original recipients source LISTSERV list or LISTSERV DBMS already have the correct charset for the mail they are merged into For example in
64. Add In to import the data into Excel See Section 10 3 Using the Excel Add In for more information Figure 83 Downloading Event Distribution Report Data Report Tracking data for listing Download Report Result Report of type Event Distribution over the Time Period To download the report result in form of a zipped text file select the time zone to be used to format the result and click the download button below Lise my local time zone gt Download You can also download an Excel 2000 Add In to import the downloaded text file into Excel Executed Sep 27 2002 09 18 44 PM d Including events from Aug 15 2002 05 20 00 PM until Aug 15 2002 11 56 00 PM Change Result Settings The Change Result Settings screen allows the user to change specific options and as a result change the appearance of the report on the View page and change the data that is downloaded on the Download Report page Any changes made on the Change Result Settings screen do not change the actual report definition they are only temporary allowing the user to see different views and download different data To permanently change the report changes need to be entered on the Result Settings tab of the report definition page and then the changed report must be saved See Edit Report Create Report for more information For an events distribution report the following options can be selected e Result Calculation Defines how the results on the char
65. Another dialogue box will appear to browse for the file Select the file to upload and click OK If there are any image files that are linked remotely or embedded from local files a dialogue box will appear listing each and asking whether to proceed with the upload Click Yes The HTML message will then appear in the HTML box 1 Click Upload HTML from the Define Content screen 2 Grant permission to install and run HTML Upload Applet for the first time only Check the box Always trust content from L Soft International to prevent the dialog box from re appearing 34 Figure 31 Grant Permission to Install Applet Securily Warning x Do you want to install and un HTML Uploac Applet signed on 9 27 01 12 39 PM and distributed ay L Soft international inc Publisher autbenticity verified by eriSian Commercial Software Publishers CA Caution L Solt international inc assert that this content is safe Y3u should only install view this content if you trust L Soft international inc to make Ihat assertion SIGNED WITH PERMISSIONS Full Permissions Always trust conent from L Soft international inc j More Info Click Yes to continue 3 Browse a local drive for the file and then click OK Figure 32 Browse for File If the file is large an in progress message will be displayed Upload in progress please wait El HTML File FF lsoft style_guide html oK Lancel 4 Review Load Properti
66. Aug 5 2002 11 51 19 AM 4 Select All Unselect All Use these buttons to quickly select or unselect all jobs Click Next gt to continue The third screen Data Source Link Selection is only engaged if Click through events is chosen on the Data Source Type screen This screen defines the URLs to report on To select a URL to generate report data on click on the link in the Available box to highlight it Next click the Select button to place the highlighted link in the Selected box Use the All with same Alias button to select a group of links that share the same alias that was defined during the Tracking Definition phase of defining a job See Section 6 1 2 Defining Tracking URLs for more information Use the All with same URL button to select a group of links that have the same URL To unselect a link click on it in the Selected box to highlight it Next click the Unselect button to replace it in the Available box To highlight several links at once hold down the SHIFT or CTRL key while clicking 90 Figure 75 Data Source Links Report Data Source Definition General Summary Xm lt Back Next gt Data Source Link Selection Select the links to include in reporting data Available advanced order http ww w order widgets now com html advanced order http www Isoft com html sneak preview http ww w Isoft corn ASO com sneak preview http www w
67. Define the desired recipients actions Fram the recipients that reacted an the jab 0202258 recipients exclude all recipients that performed at least one af the actions below Open Up Action M The recipient did open the mail Click Through Actions The recipient clicked on ane af the following links M microsoft http dgl micrasoft camy Select include only recipients that performed at least one of the actions below to include all those recipients who were part of the previous job and did react in the configured way opening up the mail and or clicking on a link contained in the message Select exclude all recipients that performed at least one of the actions below to include all those recipients who were part of the previous job and did not react in the configured way Next select Open Up Action and or 16 Click Through Actions The resulting recipients list is based upon including or excluding recipients that performed a specific action in a previous job Click Next gt to continue 4 2 4 Use Recipients Definition from Job This option transfers all the data and settings from a previous job to the new job Select the previous job from the drop down menu The settings of the previous job will determine which Source screen is presented It is possible to make changes in the selections available on the Source screen or leave the selections the same as the previous job Click Next gt to continue
68. Delivery Testing Tor d JOD uses adeat aaa hac a bcc tabo i aetas Dass Pe as 62 Fo RUNNING ME dies TT EE E 65 7 4 Scheduling Delivery of a JODA rh aee oaa oc o ea ue chaux Oe deua RES 67 7 4 1 Scheduling Information for Normal JODS coccoocccccoccnncccoconcnoncconononcnnnonaroncononcnnnnnnrnncnnanonnos 67 1 42 Advanced Scheduling Options 3 5 1 1 52 50 di 68 1 4 3 About Auto Repeat ODS analisis cod IM MIR E EL DE 69 7 5 Authorizing a Job for Delivery ssssssssesssssesseeeeee nnne nene nnne n nennen nnne nnn sre nnns 72 ad IRESAUTMOLIZING AUtOSReDedSt JODS s espace denim quen doe dedecus o a oc dotate npe A Ue spa tact UR OR 73 Section DUDO NAAA A AAA A 74 8 1 Auto Repeat Jobs and Delivery Fallures oooccccocnccconnccconccconnccnononononcnnannnnnnnnnnnnnononanncnunnoninans 76 SECOND Deliver JO DS a on 77 9 1 Auto Repeat Sequences in the Delivered Jobs LisSt ooccccoccnccccnnccccnnoconnnoconocononononononononononos 77 9 2 D llvered Jobs SUMMA ar ds 78 dies MEW BOUNCE Dell Sii oda 79 9 3 DellvereddoDsIsSeDOFIS sido 81 Section 10 Tracking Statistics and Reports elceeeeeieeeeeeseeee eese e nennen nnn nnne nnn nnns 85 10 1 Tracking REDONS aut ado Sa unte acutus dos A 85 1O s WAGGING aD alas SOU Ceci 87 Nonest ad 92 OZ EXECU TROD ONS qauspuscatt qu teta cu ds 96 10 21 Event Distrib tion Repo inc ie ro are heec eta heo tad 97 10 2 2 Sum
69. Drop In Content Element URL ce cceccccecseeeeeeeeeeeeseeeeeeseeeseesseeeeeesaaesesseeeeessaeees 119 Figure 105 Edit Drop In Content Element Database ooccnccccccnnccccccncoconcnnccncononnnnonnononcnnnnnarononnanenenanens 120 Figure 106 Recipients Target Groups ssssssssessssseseseneeene nennen nnne nnne nn nnn nnns na nnn nnns 121 Figure 107 Changing User P asSWOEG usc ord aie eor spore xb uyb lidia rx rovs ia ir asd 121 Figure MIS eR duce ut 122 Figure 109 General Preferences ccccssscccccesseecceeseecceaneeecsaueeeceaaeeecsaeeecseaseeessaeeessegseeessaseeessageeesseass 122 Figure 110 Display Preferentes orririk adnia Satara cuba vaca iii ates retiene 123 Figure 111 Report Definition Preferences seeessssesesiseeseee nennen nennen nennen nnne nnn nnne nnns 124 About This Manual Every effort has been made to ensure that this document is an accurate representation of the functionality of LISTSERV Maestro As with every software application development continues after the documentation has gone to press so small inconsistencies may occur We would appreciate any feedback on this manual Send comments via e mail to MANUALS LSOFT COM The following documentation conventions have been used in this manual e Quotations from the screen will appear in italics enclosed within quotation marks e Clickable buttons will appear in bold e Clickable links will appear in bold e
70. Excel Executed Sep 30 2002 04 26 07 PM Including events from Aug 15 2002 12 20 00 PM until Aug 15 2002 06 56 00 PM Change Results Settings The Change Result Settings screen allows the user to change specific options and as a result change the appearance of the report on the View page and change the data that is downloaded on the Download Report page Any changes made on the Change Result Settings screen do not change the actual report definition they are only temporary allowing the user to see different views and download different data To permanently change the report changes need to be entered on the Result Settings tab of the Define Report page and then the changed report saved See Edit Report Create Report for more information For a sum of events report the following options can be selected e Result Calculation Defines how the results on chart are calculated O Total number of events Displays the total number of events For example if 123 events have been counted the resulting bar length for will be 123 Percentage of total number of events Displays percentages in relation to the total number of messages sent For example if 300 messages were sent and if for a data source 150 events have been counted then the line length for that data source will be 50 because 150 is 50 of 300 Percentage of total number of unbounced messages sent Displays percentages in relation to the total number
71. Hegt gt Source Information about the recipients source in a database Database Connection Database Plugin E Select SQL Statement MySQL Driver Database Plugin Oracle 8i Thin Driver Database Plugin Add a SELECT statement here Contact your data administrator for help creating a SQL statement The recipients will be retrieved Now Just before sending Once the database plugin has been selected a longer Source screen opens requiring additional information If there is any question about the information required contact the data administrator or the system administrator This longer version of the Source screen will automatically open skipping the shorter version if the new job is copied from a previous job with the same settings or if the user returns to the Source screen from another link in the recipients wizard The wizard does not have to be completed in order to keep the plugin selected Figure 15 Define Recipients from a Database Define Database Connection Define Recipients Cancel Source Information about the recipients source in a database Database Connection Database Plugin M Driver Database MySQL Driver Database Plugin y administrator or data administrator for help with these fields Password Database Host Name Database Name Contact your system MySQL User Name TCP IP Port SQL Statement Add a SELECT statement here Contact your data administrator for h
72. ISTSERV This option is only available if LISTSERV handles bounces automatically selected during the sender definition Number of Bounced Messages Adds the number of bounced messages as a constant value in the report This value shows the number of messages that were sent but were detected as bounces by LISTSERV This value can go up over time depending 66 on the type of bounce LISTSERV detected This option is only available if LISTSERV handles bounces automatically selected during the sender definition Select a report type a source data type and any additional statistics using the option buttons Click OK to continue A temporary report with the settings selected will be generated and displayed on the screen This report will not be saved it can always be run again from the Test Reports tab Located at the bottom right side of the test report are four icons Each icon opens a page with different functions and options The currently selected icon will be highlighted with a blue border Icons that are unavailable will appear grayed out These icons appear on all test report quick report and regular report pages Table 5 Test Report Icons ili View Report Displays the currently selected report with the latest report options Download Report Opens the Download Report Result screen From here it is possible to download report data in a zipped text file Change Results Settings Opens the Change View Settings for R
73. L Soft Sweden AB Softy User s Manual LISTSERV Maestro version 1 2 6 LISTSERV MAES TRO 6 11 2004 12 02 00 PM Last Updated This page intentionally left blank Information in this document is subject to change without notice Companies names and data used in examples herein are fictitious unless otherwise noted L Soft international Inc does not endorse or approve the use of any of the product names or trademarks appearing in this document Permission is granted to copy this document at no charge and in its entirety provided that the copies are not used for commercial advantage that the source is cited and that the present copyright notice is included in all copies Recipients of such copies are equally bound to abide by the present conditions Prior written permission is required for any commercial use of this document in whole or in part and for any partial reproduction of the contents of this document exceeding 50 lines of up to 80 characters or equivalent The title page table of contents and index if any are not considered to be part of the document for the purposes of this copyright notice and can be freely removed if present Copyright 2004 L Soft Sweden AB All Rights Reserved Worldwide L SOFT LISTSERV LSMTP and ListPlex are registered trademarks of L Soft international Inc L Mail is a trademark of L Soft international Inc CataList and EASE are service marks of L Soft international Inc
74. RV s main directory Click OK to continue If bounced mail is being sent to another address and not processed by LISTSERV make sure that the address is a valid e mail address Be aware that bounced mail not handled by LISTERV will not be available for reporting purposes or for easy download It will have to be collected from the other mailbox and processed accordingly 7 1 3 Advanced Sender Information Settings Advanced Sender Information Settings are disabled by default Click the corresponding link to enable the advanced settings Once enabled the advanced settings can be disabled by clicking the disable link Advanced Sender Information Settings allows user defined MIME mail headers to be added to the end of the MIME header part of the mail These headers follow the X Header convention as described in RFC822 The X Headers will appear just before the actual mail content and will appear in the order that they are entered on the screen To add an X Header to a mail job enter the name of the header which must include the leading X in to the X Header Name column Enter the text for the header in the X Header Text column Rows where both the name and text are empty are ignored To remove a header click the corresponding Clear Row link Click Add Row to added additional headers 7 1 4 Profiles If the system administrator has granted permission it is possible to save any new sender information as a profile for future use All sa
75. Result Calculation Defines how the number of events is calculated There are three choices O Total number of events The y value of the graph will display the total number of events For example if 123 events have been counted for an interval the resulting line height for that interval on the y value will be 123 Percentage of the total number of messages sent The y value shows percentages in relation to the total number of messages sent For example if 300 messages were sent and if in an interval 150 events have been counted then the line height for that interval on the y value will be 50 because 150 is 50 of 300 Note The percentage could be more than 100 if multiple event types are being represented by a given data source or if single recipients produce multiple events Percentage of the total number of unbounced messages sent The y value shows percentages in relation to the total number of messages sent that have not been bounced For example if 300 messages were sent and 50 bounced there would be a total of 250 unbounced messages And if in an interval 150 events have been counted then the line height for that interval on the y value will be 60 because 150 is 60 of 250 e Interval Size Defines the size time period for each interval on the chart The number of events that occur within the interval will be plotted on the chart Intervals can be grouped hourly daily or weekly e Result Accumul
76. SOFT COM Contents Section 1 Introduction to LISTSERV Maestro ccccscscsccssscssessscessscesessscesessecevsecevsecevausecevassesavsecevanseeevanss 1 1 1 System Requirements fade ERR MIEL MN M DT 1 NZ aee nemi RR 2 Section 2 Understanding the LISTSERV Maestro Interface neni 3 Section 3 Using LISTSERV Maestro to Define an E mail Job eere 5 Ap ELT RP 5 2 Denning a INC Wd olo 6 9 9 USING the Workflow DA id daca 7 34 Using the Summary Diada ii 8 SENE Kee leere ss fe dt 9 Section 4 Defining Recipients of an E mail Job eeeeeeeeeeeeeeee esee nennen nennen nnn nnn nnn 10 A T ODIOFS cest ramum MEM I IE MIA MM MI I MIU ME DNE LM NEUE 11 T2 SOUL Geese ccu A MM DI dE EI ULM S 13 4 2 1 Send to a Recipients Target GTOUP occccccccnccoccnccocnncconnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnononnnonnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnncnns 13 4 2 2 SENG toan Existing LISTSERV LAST s e ot uei qu neo onto On Bette Ii den ubt vi usa PON RA Hard 15 4 2 3 Determine Recipients Based on Reaction to the Job oocccoccccccccocnccncncnacnconcnonononononnnnnnnonos 16 4 2 4 Use Recipients Definition from Job cccocccoccnnnoccnncoccnnncnnnnononononannonannnonnnnnonnnnnnnncnononnnonanenes 17 4 2 5 Upload a Recipients Text File oooccconcococnoconccconcconccccnccnnnoconnoconnonannonannonnnonnnnnnnn
77. Unknown host e Recipient mailbox related errors RFC 1893 4 2 x and 5 2 x Includes errors like Recipients mailbox full Mailbox disabled or Mail too large e Mail system related errors RFC 1893 4 3 x and 5 3 x Includes errors like Mail system full or Message too big for system e Network related errors RFC 1893 4 4 x and 5 4 x Includes routing errors and errors like No answer from host or Bad connection e Mail protocol related errors RFC 1893 4 5 x and 5 5 x Errors on the mail protocol level e Message content related errors RFC 1893 4 6 x and 5 6 x Includes errors like Conversion failed or Conversion not supported e Security or policy related errors RFC 1893 4 7 x and 5 7 x Errors for security or mail system policy reasons like Delivery not authorized For more information on RCFs see Appendix D E Mail Related RFCs Use the check box adjacent to each bar to select it for download Use the drop down menu to download the just the e mail addresses that bounced or the e mail addresses with the delivery failure information included Figure 64 Bounce Details Bounce Details Bounce Details for Job SAM 030422B Sample All bounces 2 039 100 Unknown delivery errors 233 11 4 Address related errors 1 213 59 595 Recipient mailbox related errors 578 28 3 Check individual boxes to select the data to download or use the Check Uncheck All link to select or unselect a
78. Wizard M5 Query Add in ODBC Add in pdate Add in Links Updates links to XL4 add in Functions integrated in xL 3 A file selection dialog box opens Navigate to the folder where the downloaded file was saved and then click OK 4 The add ins dialog box reappears There will now be an entry for the LISTSERV Maestro add in which should already have a check mark in front of it if not check the box Click OK to install the add in 111 Figure 93 Browse for Add In File Look in 3 Addins EN E Tools Add Ins available Access Links Analysis ToolPak Analysis ToolPak VBA Cancel Autasave Add in Conditional Sum Wizard B M Euro Currency Tools 000 Browsen b E 4 Internet Assistant VEA Desktop Lookup Wizard M5 Query Add in mE mE Filename E Cj ox D Files of type add ins xla x1N Y 5 A new toolbar button that looks like two footprints will appear in the Excel toolbar This button will start the LISTSERV Maestro data import Figure 94 New Excel Tool Bar Button Ed Microsoft Excel Book File Edit View Insert Format Tools Data Window Help 10 3 3 Using the LISTSERV Maestro Excel Add In Download the data to be imported into Excel The data is downloaded in a compressed ZIP file Open the ZIP file There are two files contained inside a readme txt file and another file named for the type of data downloaded Extract the txt files and save them on a local drive T
79. a Since this comma is inside of the quote characters it is not interpreted as a separator comma but instead as part of the value of the field Values in which some contain a comma separated by comma quoted with lt gt with empty fields John Denver Colorado USA oummers London UK Karl Hauser Frankfurt am Main This defines a dataset with three rows each row consisting of four fields The third fields in the first and last rows each have a value that contains a comma Since this comma is inside of the quote characters it is not interpreted as a separator comma but instead as part of the value of the field Also in each row there is an empty field Values in which some contain a comma and some the quote character separated by comma quoted with lt gt John Hammer Cool Doe Denver Colorado USA Lucy Summers London UK Karl Hauser the man Frankfurt am Main DE This defines a dataset with three rows each row consisting of four fields The third fields in the first and last rows each have a value that contains a comma Since this comma is inside of the 136 quote characters it is not interpreted as a separator comma but instead as part of the value of the field Also the first field in the first row contains the quote character which has been escaped Including the quotes the field in its escaped form looks like this John Hammer Cool The two double appearances of the quote character around the
80. a statement in the company or institution s privacy policy Post the policy on the Web and provide users and recipients the URL for reference 6 1 Defining Tracking Behavior for a Job There are five basic steps to define tracking for a single e mail job e Turning tracking on or off e Selecting the tracking details e Selecting the type of tracking to record e Selecting the type details e Generating a summary of the tracking selections for the job To begin defining tracking for an e mail job click on the Define Tracking icon from either the Workflow or Summary diagram on the Job Details screen Select the option button Yes Enable tracking for this job and then click Next gt Figure 40 Tracking On or Off Tracking Definition On Off Tracking Details Type Summary Cancel Tracking On Off Yes Enable tracking for this job No do not track this job 48 6 1 1 Tracking Details LISTSERV Maestro will track two different types of recipient interaction with a message Open Up and Click Through tracking e Open Up Tracking LISTSERV Maestro will register each time an e mail message is opened by its recipient and will log each event together with date time and recipient information who opened the e mail Open up tracking is only available for HTML messages e Click Through Tracking LISTSERV Maestro will register each time a recipient clicks on a link in the message and will log each event
81. additional recipient data and send job as bulk e mail No mail merging possible only blind tracking possible Recipient Identification Columns Select the column that identifies the recipients e mail address and enter the name and address that will appear in the To header E mail Column EMAIL y To header information that will be used for all recipients Address Name optional Header Definition Zoe Zimmerman Yvette Yosel Xavier Xero Wilfred Wonderly Ursula Underhill EMAIL zoe server company com yvyette server company com Xavier server company com Wilfred server company com Vanna VonSchedule Vanna server company com Ursula server company com MODEL_NUM CITY Baltimore Hartford New York New York Lansing Albany Header labels are limited to upper and lower case letters the numbers 0 9 and the underscore Any illegal characters in the headers will have to be changed before proceeding Before continuing to the next screen specify the E mail Column and the Name Column using the drop down menus For a LISTSERV List the E mail column and the name column are preset to TO and NAME respectively There is a text box to input additional mail merge columns For a LISTSERV selected database fill in the name of the e mail column and the name column in the text boxes Additional columns if any will have to be identified as well if they are to be used for merged content Figu
82. alue into the field labeled Delay interval between repeated deliveries and choosing an appropriate time unit from the selection list Choose between hours days weeks and months In addition an end condition must be entered to stop the auto repeat sequence Select one of the options Repeat until stopped manually After each delivery a new auto repeat copy will always be created and authorized This can only be stopped manually by selecting the latest copy located in the Outbox awaiting delivery and revoking its delivery authorization Repeat until the following threshold time With this option specify the threshold date and time to stop the auto repeat sequence After each delivery a new auto repeat copy is created and authorized only if its designated delivery time the time of the previous delivery plus the specified interval is not later than the date and time specified here Figure 56 Advanced Scheduling Options Schedule Delivery Supply Scheduling Information C Deliver immediately when authorized Deliver at the following time Date mm dd ssyyy Time hh mm Advanced Scheduling Options Deliver only once Do not auto repeat If the system is down at the scheduled delivery time delivery will commence immediately after the next system restart v Auto repeat delivery of this job If the system is down at a given delivery time no delivery will happen at that time After system rest
83. ample because recipients report that they never got the message then L Soft recommends that the system administrator check the LISTSERV logs to find out what happened to the job 9 2 Delivered Jobs Summary The Summary tab of the Delivered Jobs Details screen displays information about the delivered job Click on the View link adjacent to a property to see more information on that particular property Two additional links are available here one to update the bounce count and one to view bounce details See Section 9 1 1 View Bounce Details for more information Click Delete Job to permanently delete the job Click Team Collaboration to change the team collaboration settings for the job 78 Figure 63 Delivered Jobs Summary Delivered Job Details Detailed information about the selected job Team Collaboration Delete Job Summary Reports Click on the Detail Links to get more information about the related property Job Job ID 030220D Jab Title uplaaded list Send Date Feb 20 2003 04 52 23 PM State Delivery has succeeded Sent to 38 recipients Bounces 1 recipients last updated Apr 21 2003 09 59 19 AM Update bounces count View bounce details Recipients Recipient List Type List Uploaded as a text file Number of Recipients 38 Recipients Data Usage Used for mail merging and tracking Content Subject Newsletter Mail Type HTML Alternatives Text Format List of Attachments ino attachments defi
84. and International Character Sets 130 Merging Fields with International Character SetS ooocccconncncccocccncnoccncononcnnononnonconanoncononennnnnnrnncnnanonoss 131 International Character Set Recipient Names in the Mail TO Header oocccoccccocnccocnconcnconcncocnnonnnnns 132 LISTSERV Maestro and Bi Directional Character SetfS occcoonccccconcnnconoccncononcnnononcnonnnnonnnnnncnnonancnnnnnos 133 Appendix C About Comma Separated Format Recipient Files 135 Appendix D E Mail Related REGS i iioi eio Faden Ec ci Rec OE eeu cu Che ai n 138 Appendix E Using Conditional Blocks 11e eeeeeeeieeee lesen eene nene n nnn na nnn anna annuas 139 Syntax Tor Conditional BIOGKS die eto e to ce i Ute edat Peste ont ratu eae e 139 Nesting Conditional BIOCKS 22 d IDs MR cd 141 Conditional ODSPalOIS us esee iua atentos len ondas ectutes ol ol dol 141 Testing Conditional BIOSKS nic bo ia 142 Twenty Tips for Establishing a Successful E Mail Marketing Campaign 145 Tables Fable Navigatiolal ICONS sss pacc tasks ot ead etu aahacto E i txawadesnts a 3 Table 2 Advantages and Disadvantages of Linked and Embedded Files 36 Table SAOL Rich Text Formatting Tags iu rp dis 38 Table 4 Types of Tracking Available Based on Recipient Definition
85. annot receive Make sure that your company s name or product name is clearly stated in the domain name which appears in the Sender line of the e mail Use clearly stated words that describe what you want customers to respond to in both the Subject line and the body of your message Provide recipients with a clear way to contact you for more information including a staffed telephone number or e mail address Provide subscribers with clear instructions of how to be removed from future mailings and make sure that your Privacy Policy is easily accessible Plan mailings for specific opportune times so subscribers are expecting your messages and are properly suited to respond Personalize headers with recipients names and tailor messages that are ideally suited for different target segments Choose software that is capable of performing as your lists grow scans outgoing messages for viruses and can measure the effectiveness of your campaign 145 rad x Don t send messages to anyone who did not request to receive information Don t purchase or rent lists of e mail addresses from brokers who are not reputable Don t use exclamation points capitalized letters or other blatant marketing techniques that are synonymous with spammers Don t send irrelevant offers to members of your database for example if you run an online travel agency do not send special airfares incentives that originate from airports that do not corre
86. any times a link has been clicked This data can be augmented with information from the database the recipient data was extracted from Personal tracking is available 53 For recipients uploaded from a text file when the option Use additional recipient data for mail merging and tracking is selected from the Recipients Details page in the recipients wizard For recipients selected from a database by LISTSERV Maestro and the option Use additional recipient data for mail merging and tracking chosen on Recipients Details page in recipients wizard For recipients defined by a LISTSERV list with the option special list message chosen on the Source page in recipients wizard For recipients defined by a database selected by LISTSERV For recipients defined Based on Reaction to a Previous Job chosen on the Options page in recipients wizard When personal tracking is used LISTSERV Maestro creates a profile for each individual mail recipient and stores this information in an internal or external database The creation of this profile takes place during the delivery of the mail as the job is being transferred to LISTSERV With a large recipient list the additional work of creating profile entries in the database will make the transfer to LISTSERV noticeably slower If general statistics are required without the need to trace events back to individuals use unique tracking instead because the pr
87. aph and change the downloadable data Edit Report Create Report To change the definition of the current report click the Edit Report icon The Define Report screen opens if the user has the right to edit reports The current report s General Settings Data Sources and Result Settings can be edited and saved to reflect any changes in the current report or they can be saved as a new report See Section 10 1 Tracking Reports and Figures 68 and 69 for more details If the current report is a quick report from Delivered Jobs clicking the Create Report icon will allow the user to create a new report based on the settings of the quick report Type in a title for 100 the report and then click the OK button to save the quick report as a regular report Or click the Save amp Execute button to execute the report again display it and save the quick report as a regular report The report title will then show up in the listing of current reports on the Tracking Reports screen Edit the settings of this new report by clicking the Edit Report icon again This option is not available for quick reports generated from delivery test data See Section 9 2 Delivered Jobs Reports for more information 10 2 2 Sum of Events Report This report type produces a bar graph that shows the number of recipients who clicked on each URL and or opened up the e mail message For each job defined as a data source all events of the selected type click through and or
88. art delivery will commence at the next delivery time according to the repeat schedule or the job will be failed if the delivery threshold time has been reached Delay interval between repeated deliveries lo Days C Repeat until stopped manually Repeat until the following threshold time Date mm dd syyyy Time hh mm Advanced scheduling options are enabled Click to disable Time zone to be applied to the dates and times specified above use my local time zone Note Daylight saving time is taken inta account automatically Cancel 7 4 3 About Auto Repeat Jobs Auto repeat jobs are made up of a sequence of identical jobs based on the first job created in the series and scheduled to be delivered at regular programmable intervals Various settings control the auto repeat sequence and these sequences can be used in many ways 69 Specifying the Delivery Time The delivery time of auto repeat jobs is defined using the following rules e The first job in the auto repeat sequence will be delivered at the date and time specified in the basic options of the Schedule Delivery page see Section 7 4 1 Scheduling Information for Normal Jobs e Each subsequent copy of the original job will then be delivered a certain amount of time after the previous delivery which is defined in the advanced options as the Delay interval between repeated deliveries Here are some examples e If Delivery Immediately is sp
89. ata This report type displays a multi frame table that lists each data source and the column data from the define recipients file Select the data from the top frame in the table by clicking the Select link In the lower frame click Select All to choose all the columns or Edit to re order and or remove columns Select the file encoding from the drop down menu The data will then be ready to download in the form of a ZIP archive file Click the Download button to begin downloading the raw data to a local drive Raw data can be used in Excel or other statistical software to create detailed reports For more information on Recipient Details reports see Section 10 2 3 Recipients Details Report Event details Event detail reports are available for personal anonymous unique and blind tracking jobs The report type displays a table that lists the report type time period of the report allows for the selection of encoding for downloading the data and allows for the selection of the time zone to reference the downloaded data Click the download link to download the raw data to a local drive Raw data can be used in Microsoft Excel or other statistical software to create detailed reports For more information on event details reports see Section 10 2 4 Event Details Report Click OK to save the column selections and return to the Recipients Details report screen Next select the source data for the report type There are five choices depending on
90. atically added into the body of the text message Any trackable links in the alternative text message must be enclosed within quotation marks the same way as the trackable plain text message links are enclosed Merge fields and drop in content can be used in this format as described in Sections 5 1 Drop in Content and 5 6 Merge Fields and Conditional Blocks 5 4 2 AOL Alternative Text for HTML Messages Recipients who use older AOL e mail clients version 5 0 and older cannot receive HTML messages but can receive AOL Rich Text messages AOL Rich Text is a specialized e mail format that uses a sub set of HTML tags to create text formatting Rich Text is not compatible with newer AOL e mail clients and sending Rich Text formatted mail to newer AOL clients will cause formatting errors Images cannot be embedded in Rich Text but Rich Text can contain links to image files located on another server To include recipients using older AOL e mail clients create an AOL alternative message to be sent with the HTML message To add an AOL Rich Text alternative to an HTML message follow these steps 1 Select the HTML with Alternatives option button next to Body on the Define Content screen 2 Check the box next to AOL Format This activates the additional tabs AOL Preview and AOL Code 3 Click on the tab labeled AOL Code to add the alternative AOL message The message can be uploaded pasted or keyed directly into the box
91. ation Defines whether values plotted on the chart will display cumulatively from one interval to the next creating an ever increasing line or bar or whether they will display as non cumulative intervals creating a series of peaks and valleys 93 Figure 78 Result Settings Event Distribution Over Time Define Report Define the settings of the report Copy Settings Save amp Execute OK Cancel Title Newletter Jobs General Settings Data Sources Result Settings Result Type Event distribution over time C Sum af events Recipient details C Event details Result Calculation Defines how the result shown on the Y axis of the chart is calculated Total number of events C Percentage of total number of messages sent C Percentage of total number of unbounced messages sent Interval Size Defines the how many events will be grouped in each interval Events per hour C Events per day O Events per week Result Accumulation Defines if values accumulate from one interval to the next C No accumulation Accumulate interval values Result Settings for Sum of Events This report type produces a bar graph that shows the number of recipients who clicked on each URL and or opened up the e mail message For each job defined as a data source all events of the selected type open up and or click through and the selected links in the case of click though are summed up and displayed in the form of a colored bar
92. b ani e a Saeed eal 51 Figure Track WIth OF WIKNOUE ANAS ni AAA AAA AAA 51 Fig re 44 Edit Tracked LIN M 52 MOUSA TAKING DEIS EE 52 Figure AG Selecting Tracking TVDO siio ree e a a p i ine drogen a 57 Figure Tracking Type Detalla as 58 Figure 48 Personal Tracking Type DetalilS oooocccconcccoccccconcnnonanononcncnnncncnnnnnonnnnnnnnrnnonannnnnrnnnnnnrnnnnaos 58 Figure 49 Anonymous Tracking Type Details lesser nennen nnn nnn nnns o9 Figure 50 Tracking Definition Summa conia ceu uc ade ease roten eau e Rug ee caa eet on E beige aekusut added bide ee 60 Figure 51 Sender InfortraltlOPt eina ia onc tI A head cmd ME oo 62 FIS 52 Devesa tai RE DUE 63 Figure 53 Delivery Test Results 2 0 0 0 cecccscscccsssceceeeesesececeeeeseseecsaseecsaeeseaeceneeceneseesedeceeaseesseaeeensuesenseees 64 RoUe 54 TESTING DOING rt dai 65 Figure 55 Scheduling BellVel yt ite ettet ii bien 68 Figure 56 Advanced Scheduling Options 1 esses eene nnne nnn nnne nnn nnns 69 Fig re 57 Authorizing DellVery 25 2 t ac Rosae EY xb Ve vd usu Da utendi ena o uu AA Due Da 12 Figure 58 Auto Repeat Re Authorization ooocccoccccoocnccocnnccconoconanoccnononnnnncnnancnnnannnnnnnrnnnnnnnnnnnrnnnncinanos 74 Figure 59 Auto Repeat Authorization for a New SequenCe occccoccccccccncccocncconcnononononnnnnonnnnnnonnnononnnononenononos 74 FI UTE OO OULDOX ut ds 75
93. base exists then only this auto repeat instance will fail The next auto repeat instance will be created and authorized normally and will proceed to be delivered at its scheduled delivery time If the condition that caused the first failure still exists at the next interval the delivery of the next copy will probably fail as well But the copy after that if there is one may have a chance to get through if conditions change and so on 76 Figure 61 Outbox Job Details Outbox Job Details Detailed information about the selected job Click on the Detail Links for more information about the related property Revoke Send Authorization Job Job ID Job Title State Recipients Recipient List Type Number of Recipients Recipients Data Usage Content Subject Mail Type Alternative Text List of Attachments Tracking Open Up Tracking Click Through Tracking Tracking Type Sender E mail Address Sender Name Reply To Address Bounce Address 020225D recipients3 Authorized for Delivery List uploaded as a text file 28 Used for mail merging and tracking October Newsletter HTML YES no attachments defined ON OFF Anonymous widget company com Beth Handle bounced messages automatically Section 9 Delivered Jobs Delivered Jobs is a listing of all the e mail jobs that have attempted delivery and the present state they are in processed successfully or failed during delivery Cl
94. be re scheduled to the next available delivery slot of the auto repeat sequence it belongs to The job will remain in the Outbox as authorized for delivery but now with a new delivery time that occurs after the system startup If there is no such delivery slot available because the end condition for the auto repeat has already been 71 met the threshold time has passed the job will be marked as failed with a corresponding error message and will immediately be transferred to the list of delivered jobs as explained in Auto Repeat Jobs and Delivery Failures For example If a job is scheduled to be delivered at 8 00h with an auto repeat delay interval of 12 hours the job is supposed to repeat itself at 8 00h and 20 00h of each day but the system is down at that time then during the next system startup the job will be re scheduled from 8 00h to 20 00h Or if the next system startup occurs after 20 00h of that day the job will be re scheduled to 8 00h of the next day or even 20 00h of the next day if necessary and so on until a delivery time is found that occurs after the system startup During the whole process the job will not fail and no new job copies are created The system simply takes the job that should have been delivered earlier and re schedules it for the next available delivery time If the job was supposed to stop auto repeating itself at a time that has passed before the system startup the system will not find a next
95. bers may have set for their subscriptions e MAIL Will deliver the message to all normally subscribed users e DIGEST Will deliver the message to users that receive only a digest e INDEX Will deliver the message to users that receive only a topics index e NOMAIL Will deliver the message to users that currently receive no mail Click Next gt to continue fip LISTSERV Maestro can take advantage of defined topics in a list to send mail to a specific topic or topics so that subscribers will only receive the message if they are subscribed to that topic s Topics are only supported for mail that is sent as standard list messages to list members in the recipients wizard If there are topics for the list selected in the recipients wizard they will automatically be displayed in the Source Details screen See Section 4 3 1 LISTSERV Topics for more information 4 2 3 Determine Recipients Based on Reaction to the Job This option opens a Source screen that defines the original job and the conditions that potential recipients had to fulfill in the previous job to become eligible to receive the new message The list of original jobs that may be selected only contains jobs that used personal tracking and were defined using an uploaded text file or a database Figure 11 Determine Recipients Based on Reaction to the Job Define Recipients Options Source Source Details Recipients Details Summary lt Back Hest gt Source
96. bout the recipients source file Recipients File Define recipients now Source File recipients csy Upload Date Time Feb 7 2003 02 54 16 PM Upload a different file C Load recipients just before sending from a server file File Name File Encoding West European 50 1 Note The given file name and path must be a valid path on the server running LISTSERY Maestro Once a file had been uploaded information about that file will appear on the screen The link to upload a file will change to Upload a different file after one file has been successfully uploaded to the system Select the option Load recipients just before sending from a server file and then enter the path and name of the file the recipients will be taken from at the moment just before the message is sent The file must be on a valid path on the server running LISTSERV Maestro The file must also be included in a list of files that can be accessed by LISTSERV Maestro This list of permissible files is controlled by the system administrator and is necessary to maintain server security If the file is not available at the moment of sending the job will fail Click Next gt to continue or lt Back to return to the previous page 4 2 6 Selecting Recipients from a Database Choosing the option Select Recipients from a Database for a new job opens a Source screen that requires the selection of a database plugin entering a SQL statement and selecting w
97. ce Total Number of Sent Messages This figure includes all sent messages regardless of whether the mail bounced or not amp Total Number of Unbounced Messages This figure shows the number of sent messages minus the number of messages that were detected as bounces at the time the report is executed amp Total Number of Bounced Messages This figure shows the number of messages that were detected as bounces at the time the report is executed Click Next to continue The next screen in the wizard is Data Source Job Selection Select the e mail job or jobs to report on Only jobs for which the chosen event type is possible will be listed For example if only Open Up events were selected on the previous page then only jobs with open up tracking enabled will be displayed Check the boxes next to the job or jobs to include in the data source Unlike the quick reports from Delivered Jobs it is possible to combine data from different jobs into one report from this screen Different jobs can be combined into one data source by checking the boxes for the desired jobs listed under Job ID The data from each selected job is aggregated and produces one line or bar on the graph For example to produce a report that charted the total number of click through events for three jobs first select click through events on the Type screen Next select each of the three jobs from the Jobs screen From the Links screen sele
98. cipient and is available for blind tracking Figure 79 Result Settings Sum of Events Define Report Define the settings of the report Cancel Title General Settings Data Sources Result Settings Result Type O Event distribution over time Sum of events Recipient details Event details Result Calculation Defines how the result shown as the length of the bars in the chart is calculated Total number of events Percentage of total number of messages sent Percentage of total number of unbounced messages sent Unique or Total Events Defines if only unique events or if all events are counted Count only events unique for each recipient Count all events Result Settings for Recipient Details Recipient details reports are only available for personal or anonymously tracked jobs because this report type is linked to recipient profile data This report type displays a multi frame table that lists each data source and the column data from the define recipients file There are no other options available for this report type 95 Figure 80 Result Settings Recipient Details Define Report Define the settings of the report copy setings save esvecute ok cance General Settings Data Sources Result Settings Result Type Event distribution over time Sum of events Recipient details C Event details Result Settings for Event Details Event detail reports are available f
99. ck on a link than smaller more conservative images Aliases can also be used to group links with different target URLs For example all image links in a message can be given the one alias and all text links in a message can be given another to determine if people click on image links or text links more often Important To track links in a plain text message or in the alternative text of a HTML message enclose them in quotation marks lt gt http www lsoft com This formatting tells LISTSERV Maestro that this is a link that can be tracked in a plain text message The quotation marks will be removed from the message before it is delivered if the link is actually selected for tracking 6 2 Types of Tracking LISTSERV Maestro supports four different levels of tracking information about e mail recipients Each type of tracking will yield different data sets based on the recipient list and any database information available to the system However not all types of tracking are available for all recipients Choose the level of tracking desired based on the kinds of information already in the system and the permission received from recipients keeping within the boundaries of what is legally allowable in the user s jurisdiction e Personal Tracking Records open up and click through events traceable to the individual who triggered them Very specific information can be gathered about an individual s interaction with a message such as how m
100. ct all the click through links contained in the job and on the General screen type in a name for the data source and a color for the line or bar All of the click through events from the three jobs would be added together and produce one line or bar on the graph To combine data from more than one job into a report where each job is represented by a separate line or bar a different data source for each job must be created To do this using the example above first select the type of data to include in the data source from the Type screen Next select one job from the Jobs screen Continue through the Links and General screens making the desired selections Engage the data source wizard again for the second job in the report Engage the data source wizard for a third time to create the third data source in the report The resulting graph would have three separate lines or bars each representing a different job 89 Figure 74 Data Source Jobs Report Data Source Definition Type Jobs Links z Back Next gt Data Source Job Selection Select the jobs to generate reporting data Job Title Date Time of Sending 0202250 recipients Aug 15 2002 02 16 54 PM 0202236 listing Aug 15 2002 12 18 35 PM NEWS 0208094 October Widget Company Newsletter 4ug 15 2002 12 12 00 PM NEWS 0208084 Widget Company September Newsletter Aug 9 2002 11 12 21 AM 0208058 August Newsletter Aug 5 2002 12 36 03 PM E 0208054 Widget Company August Newsletter
101. ddress and optional name for the TO field in the message header see Figure 23 4 4 2 Recipient Identification Columns In order to process an e mail job LISTSERV Maestro needs to know which column represents the recipients e mail addresses If LISTSERV Maestro has used an uploaded text file a database or a LISTSERV defined database it is necessary to identify the column for e mail address and optionally the column for name Use the drop down menus to select the E mail Column and the Name Column 4 4 3 Header Definition If a text file or a database was used to define recipients it is possible to add or edit the headers Headers are specially defined rows in databases Headers are used by database tables to label the columns of data so that the system and the user can correctly identify the columns Recipient data files containing a header will be sorted or parsed by LISTSERV Maestro based on that header row and the table reflected on the screen will have the columns labeled If the recipient data file does not contain a header it is possible to define a header within LISTSERV Maestro 2 Figure 23 Recipients Details for Uploaded Text File with Additional Recipient Data Define Recipients Options Source Source Details Recipients Details Summary Cancel me lt Back Next gt Recipients Details The system now knows how to separate the recipients file into columns Select th
102. details from the Workflow or Summary diagrams Depending on what steps are edited other steps may have to be revisited and delivery authorization may have to be given again A yellow arrows icon represents jobs that are currently being processed It is possible to click on the ID of such a job very soon after it begins delivery if the user is quick enough or if the job is large and sending takes a longer time A Summary page appears with a Stop Sending button Clicking this button while sending is still in process will abort the delivery The job will then be listed in the Sending has failed state see below A red X represents jobs that have failed to be sent Click the ID of such a job to get to the summary page Three buttons appear Re Open Job Close Job and Retry Sending Click Re Open Job to move the job back from the Outbox into the list of undelivered jobs where it can once again be edited Click Close Job to move the job from the Outbox to the list of delivered jobs It will then appear in this list just as any other delivered job only that its status will be failed instead of successful Click Retry Sending to immediately restart the sending of the failed job the job stays in the Outbox and goes back to the authorized and immediately into the being processed state 19 Use Retry Sending if the reason for the failure was a temporary one for example the LISTSERV server being down so that the job can
103. ducing the chance for errors while sending multiple jobs In order to use the Conditional Content feature it must first be enabled To enable conditional content click on the Change link that appears directly under the tabs of the text box on the Define Content screen when HTML content with alternatives is selected see Figure 28 The Conditional Content Settings screen opens Select the option button next to Enable conditional content Once enabled it is necessary to type in the condition that determines which recipients receive which type of mail LISTSERV Maestro uses the standard LISTSERV syntax to create the condition See Appendix E Using Conditional Blocks for more information on constructing conditional blocks The condition needs to include at least one merge field from the recipient data so that the condition acts like a variable whose true false result is different for those recipients receiving each of the different message formats More information on using recipient data can be found in Section 4 4 Recipient Details Figure 34 Conditional Content Settings Conditional Content Settings Enable or disable conditional content delivery for the job The current content definition contains HTML with AOL format and plain text alternatives Please define which content type shall be sent to which recipients C Disable conditional content Send multipart HTML with alternatives to all recipients Enable conditional content Send diff
104. e All Click Next gt to continue 92 6 1 3 About Link Aliases A link alias gives each tracked link a special name that can be distinguished from other links even if they go to the same URL This becomes significant when there is more than one link to the same URL in a message and if it is important to find out which links have been clicked If aliases for tracked links are not defined which is possible since aliases are optional LISTSERV Maestro will only be able to find the URL of the link in the tracking data This is adequate if each URL appears only once in the e mail message or if there is no need to track which of several instances were clicked If the same URL appears in several links in the message it will not be possible to know which of the links was actually clicked without defined aliases For example a message may have both an image link and a textual link in the running text body both of which link to a company homepage When looking at the tracking data the company would like to know if more people click on the image link or on the text link To get this information mark both links for tracking and give them different aliases LISTSERV Maestro will then be able to report which of the links was clicked when reviewing the tracking data Other examples include finding out if links at the top of a message are clicked more often than those at the bottom or if bright flashing animated GIFs motivated more people to cli
105. e HTML source It is important to test all possible conditional values in the testing stage see Section 7 2 Delivery Testing for a Job to make sure that the HTML code works correctly in all cases Mail merge substitutions and conditional blocks are explained in more detail in the LISTSERV Developer s Guide 5 7 Using Merged Parameters within URLs URL parameters are specially constructed parts of a Web address URL that allow a single URL to initiate various specific operations by passing particular instructions and data to the Web 43 server Parameters are text based instructions and data that are passed to a Web server which passes them on to a script for example a Java Perl C C or a UNIX shell script The script then executes the corresponding parameter as instructed by the URL and passes the results back to the Web server The Web server then returns the results to the client In essence parameters can be used to select a certain page or part of a page to display or tell the server which page to display to a specific user or type of user A URL parameter is a pair like name value that appears after the path part of the URL separated from the path by a question mark similar to the example below http host domain path param value If there are several parameters in one URL then the individual parameters are separated by ampersand characters amp http host domain path paraml valuel amp param2 value2 URL
106. e URL parameters based on the fields of a database For example assume there is a merge field named ID for each recipient that contains the visitor ID of that recipient then the sample URL of above would be written as http host domain path visitorID amp ID amp page home 44 Let us dissect the different parts of this example The URL begins as usual with the protocol header the host name and the URL path http host domain path visitorIlID amp ID amp page home Next follows the question mark signaling the end of the path part and the beginning of the parameter part http host domain path visitorID amp I1D amp page home The first parameter is the parameter visitorID with the value s1D http host domain path visitorID amp ID amp page home Between the first and the second parameter is the ampersand as a separator http host domain path visitorID amp ID amp page home The second parameter is the parameter page with the value home http host domain path visitorID amp ID amp page home The second part of the first parameter visitorID amp ID uses the LISTSERV Maestro convention of denoting mail merge fields Its value is not an actual user ID but instead is the name of the merge field 1D with the preceding ampersand and the trailing semicolon the format always used in LISTSERV Maestro to mark mail merge fields Although the ampersand usually has the reserved function of separating
107. e and the alternative messages 42 Conditional blocks are coded by using the BB ELSE and EP directives These directives must each be on a line by itself The BE directive begins the conditional block and a condition follows BB on the same line The ELSE directive is optional and starts a text block to be used for the opposite condition as was used for the BB The EB directive ends the conditional block Fields used in a conditional block should be preceded by the ampersand but should not be followed by a semicolon Lines that start with dot asterisk are used as comments and do not appear in the final message to the recipients Figure 39 Conditional Block Example S fi BO OR as blank then Use Ene Singular phrasing ENSIS RE The following book borrowed using library ID card amp IDNUM 1S overdue EESE The following books borrowed using library ID card amp IDNUM are overdue EB amp BOOKI To avoid extra blank lines we only include the lines for other books wt they are not blank JBI ot C NM amp BOOK2 EB BB BOOR S s EB If conditional blocks are used in an HTML message first create the basic HTML message then go into the HTML source code and correctly insert the conditional statements making sure to maintain proper HTML syntax once the directives are followed The HTML page will now look incorrect because the directives are interpreted as part of th
108. e bottom frame using the Edit link or the Select All link Select the file encoding for the download from the drop down menu Figure 88 Recipients Details Report Report Tracking data for listing Download Report Result Report of type Details of Recipients that Triggered Events During the Time Period To download the report result in form of a zipped text file choose from the list below for which job s from which data source you want to download the profiles and define the column grouping and ordering you want to use Then select the file encoding to be used to format the result and click the download button Click Select to add the data source to the download Data Sui Open Up Events select ORp 25E listing h Data sg rce Click Through Events for link logo http www Isoft com Select 02p225E listing Data Source Click Through Events for link advanced order http www Isoft com Select 020225E listing Data Source Click Through Events for link sneak preview text http www widgets com Currently selected From data source Open Up Events the jobs e 020225E listing Add subtract and re order Selected Columns EMAIL ID NAME COUNT selected columns The selection defines grouping and ordering Available Columns CITY EMAIL GENDER ID MODEL NUM NAME COUNT File encoding DOWRIDEa Use for new Job Executed Aug 15 2002 05 25 06 PM e Including events from Aug 15 2002 12 20 00
109. e characters 135 e Ifthe first character in the field is the quote character then LISTSERV Maestro assumes the field is quoted and the next not escaped quote character marks the end of the field The end of the field must then be followed by a separator character or by the end of a line trailing white space after the last field of the line is allowed e lf the first character in a field is not the quote character then LISTSERV Maestro assumes the field is not quoted and the next appearance of the separator character marks the end of the field Here are some examples Simple values separated by comma not quoted John Doe Denver USA Lucy Summers London UK Karl Hauser Frankfurt DE This defines a dataset with three rows each row consisting of four fields Simple values separated by comma not quoted with empty fields John Denver USA oummers London UK Karl Hauser Frankfurt This defines a dataset with three rows each row consisting of four fields In the first row the second field is empty in the second row the first field is empty and in the last row the fourth field is empty Values in which some contain a comma separated by comma quoted with lt gt John Doe Denver Colorado USA Lucy Summers London UK Karl Hauser Frankfurt am Main DE This defines a dataset with three rows each row consisting of four fields The third fields in the first and last rows each have a value that contains a comm
110. e columns in the recipient data containing the e mail address and name Usage of Recipients Data Use additional recipient data for mail merging and tracking Ignore additional recipient data and send job as bulk e mail No mail merging possible only blind tracking possible Recipient Identification Columns Select the columns that identify the recipients e mail address and name E mail Column Email y Name Column Select y optional Select Name Header Defini Email Name Modelnum f ame City State Zoe Zimmerma gewserver company com 9595 Baltimore Yvette Yosel yvette server company com 8787 Hartford Xavier Xero Wilfred Wonderly Xavier server company com 5454 New York Wilfred server company com 9595 New York Vanna VonSchedule Vanna server company com 8787 Lansing Ursula Underhill Toby Tuttle Ursula server company com 5454 Albany Toby server company com 5454 Rockville Seth Simpson Seth server company com 9595 Buffalo Figure 24 Recipients Details for Uploaded File without Additional Recipient Data Define Recipients Options Source Source Details Recipients Details Cancel lt Back Next gt Recipients Details The system now knows how to separate the recipients file into columns Select the columns in the recipient data containing the e mail address and name Usage of Recipients Data C Use additional recipient data for mail merging and tracking Ignore
111. e daily weather forecast to all subscribers on their list To set up this type of auto repeat job create a job with content that uses a drop in that pulls the text of the daily forecast from a suitable source for example from a web server Next schedule this job to be delivered at a certain hour of the next day with a repeat interval of 1 Day Before setting the hour of delivery check to make sure that the source of the weather forecast drop in is updated before the hour of the delivery time After the initial authorization of that first job the mail would automatically go out at the scheduled hour each day with a different forecast as pulled from the web server source by the drop in each day Auto Repeat Jobs and Delivery Failures If delivery of an auto repeat job fails for any reason the failure is handled slightly differently than with normal jobs A failed auto repeat job is marked failed as usual only it is automatically closed and transferred into the list of delivered jobs just as if it had been manually closed as a failed normal job If the end condition for the auto repeat has not yet been met a new copy is created and authorized for delivery after the corresponding delay interval just as if the delivery of the previous job had not failed See Section 8 Outbox for more information on delivery failures Important Note No recipients found is a valid reason for a delivery failure However in the context of auto repeat jobs
112. e in the 67 edit boxes using the format displayed adjacent to each box The date and time entered are dependent on the time zone selected from the drop down selection box at the bottom of the screen Local time is relative to the workstation accessing the job and not the server running LISTSERV Maestro See Appendix A for a conversion table for formatting AM and PM times to be compatible with LISTSERV Maestro Figure 55 Scheduling Delivery Schedule Delivery Supply Scheduling Information Time entered uses the 24 hour Pia format 08 00 would be 8 00 AM Deliver at the following time 20 00 would be 8 00 PM Date Do d Time hh mm Deliver immediately when authorized Click to schedule Advanced scheduling options are disable Click to enable i r l ODS Time zone to be applied to the dates and times specified above J Use my local time zone e Time zones Note Daylight saving time is taken inta account automatically accessible here OK Cancel Click OK to continue Jobs scheduled for future sending will be available in the Outbox It is possible to edit jobs in the Outbox up until the delivery time If a job is changed test messages must be resent and final approval will have to occur again before the job can be re authorized 7 4 2 Advanced Scheduling Options In addition to the basic scheduling options described in Section 7 4 1 there are also advanced options available for defining the deliv
113. e mail sent with ISO 8859 1 West European all appearances of the byte 196 in the merge values will be interpreted as the umlaut A Even if the merge value is actually a Greek word where the byte 196 should have been interpreted as a A While mixing characters from different ISO 8859 charsets will simply display the wrong character to the recipient mixing ASCII and ISO 8859 or ISO 8859 and Unicode may even result in characters that cannot be displayed at all Most importantly if the mail text uses the Unicode encoding UTF 8 then it is necessary to make sure that the merge value texts in the recipients source are also UTF 8 encoded the byte sequence that stands for each merge value must be a valid UTF 8 encoded sequence representing a string of characters from the Unicode charset Then again it is usually not possible to define a charset for the mail and then in some way make sure that the merge values in the list or in the LISTSERV database match this charset since those merge values have usually been stored long before the mail was created Therefore the best way to proceed is to check which encoding was used when the data was stored in the list or LISTSERV database again you might need to ask your administrator for that information and then use the same charset for the mail In summary for the recipient types of an existing LISTSERV list or LISTSERV selecting from a database the merge value characters that have no representat
114. e names into the English body text The effect that the chosen charset has on the merge values depends on the kind of recipients definition selected for a particular job If recipients are uploaded as a text file based on the reaction of a previous job or are selected from a database by the Maestro User Interface then all recipients and their merge values are already known to the Maestro User Interface before the job is submitted to LISTSERV for delivery LISTSERV Maestro can therefore encode each merge value with the same charset that is used for the e mail text Consequently if the values are later merged into the text their charset will match that of the text However if a merge value contains a character that cannot be displayed in the charset chosen for the text then this character will be replaced with a question mark during the encoding and this question mark will appear in the mail that reaches the recipient to which the merge value belongs In the example described above where the message body was in plain text and the recipient list was composed of recipient names from all over the world a problem could occur because LISTSERV Maestro chooses the charset based on the message text not on the recipient 131 values If the mail text itself is plain English then LISTSERV Maestro will determine ASCII as the correct encoding for the message and the recipient data If then the names of the international recipients are encoded as
115. e represents the recipient data to perform the operation on Operator characters that represent the operation performed on the data In this case the conditional expression checks that the value in the fullname column is not equal to an empty string or is not blank x c en The text to be inserted if the condition is true In this case if there is data in the field fullname it will be inserted here using the merge field to create a line that reads Dear Anne Smith for example elea The else directive is inserted to allow a different text to be used if the condition is false In this case if the field fullname has no data another salutation will be used Dear Valued Customer The text to be inserted if the condition is false In this case a generic salutation a9 End block directive 140 Nesting Conditional Blocks Conditional blocks can be nested to any depth creating opportunities to insert more than two pieces of text depending on the conditions For example if the second condition is false another variation of the text is inserted and if the third condition is false another variation of the text is inserted and so on An example of a nested conditional block looks like this WOO SOME hone On os Se ene So Sd Es ists olas masa Tae comente ist met else JOS OCC abi Lei EL dere evel Puar ed EexXt to be vneluded rf the first condition rs not met but the second Condi cron ss else text to
116. each report Click on an icon to access the options of each report 96 type The icon currently in use will have a highlighted border around it Icons that are not available for a particular report type will appear grayed out and will not be clickable Table 7 Report Icons View Report Displays the currently selected report with the latest report options Download Report Opens the Download Report Result screen From here it is possible to download report data in a zipped text file Change Results Settings Opens the Change View Settings for Report screen From here it is possible to change how the results are displayed on the report Create Report Edit Report This icon is called Create Report only if the report is a quick report In that case the Define Report screens with a new report that is pre filled with the settings from the quick report From here it is possible to save the quick report as a normal report by clicking the OK button or by clicking the Save amp Execute button which will display the report again as well as save it as a normal report For delivery tests it is not possible to save a quick report as a regular report so this icon is disabled grayed out If an existing report from the reports list is executed by clicking its title or by clicking the Save amp Execute button this icon is called Edit Report The Define Report screen opens but a new report is not created the exis
117. eader Row Yes the first raw in the file contains the headers C No the file does not have a header row Preview Mame Email Product Model_num City oe Zimmerman Zoem server company com coffee master 9595 Baltimore Mo Yvette Yosel yvette server company com espresso press 8787 Hartford ET Xavier Xero Aavieriserver company cam mr tea S454 Mew York NY Wilfred WWonderly Wilfred server company com coffee master 9595 Mew York NY Vanna vanschedule Vanna server company com espresso press 8787 Lansing MI Ursula Underhill Ursula server company com mr tea 5454 Albany NN Toby Tuttle Toby server company com mrtea 5454 Rockville MD Seth Simpson Seth server company com coffee master 9595 Buffalo NN Ron Remmingtan Ron server company com coffee master 9595 Mew Haven CT Refresh Preview Click the Next gt button to continue if the parsing is correct If LISTSERV Maestro has not interpreted the data correctly or an unconventional delimiter and or quote character has been used click on the link Specify details manually to configure the data manually Use the Specify details manually link when the delimiter separator character or the quote character is used in some of the data fields For example if the NAME field contained Tom the cool cat Jones as an entry and double quotes was the quote character for the file or if the LOCATION field contained the entry Atlanta GA where the comma was the separator character the details w
118. ecified and a repeat interval of 12 Hours is used for the first job and that job is authorized at 9 15h then the initial job would be delivered at 9 15h the first copy would be delivered at 21 15h the second copy at 9 15h of the next day and so on e If Deliver at 12 00h is specified and a repeat interval of 24 Hours is used or for the same effect 7 Day then one delivery each day at 12 00h would occur e If Deliver at 10 20h on 11 24 2003 is specified which happens to be a Monday and a repeat interval of 2 Weeks is used then this would cause a copy of the job to be delivered at 10 20h of the Monday of every second week after the initial delivery e If Deliver at 12 00h on 1 1 2004 is specified and a repeat interval of 3 Months is used a delivery on the first of each of the months of January April July and October would occur resulting in one mailing at the beginning of each quarter Auto Repeat Jobs with Dynamic Recipients or Dynamic Content Auto Repeat delivery is particularly useful together with dynamic recipient lists and or dynamic content Dynamic recipient lists are the just in time variants of recipients defined by text upload or a select from a database as well as standard LISTSERV lists or recipients selected from a database by LISTSERV What all these recipient types have in common is that the actual list of recipients a job will be mailed to is determined just in time at the moment prior to delivery If
119. ecipient information determined A job based on a copy of an existing job can reuse a previously composed message sender information testing information and recipient information The settings from the existing job can always be edited to suit the new job Press OK to continue or Cancel to return to the previous screen fip Copying an existing job can save time and effort by reusing messages and recipients lists For example a monthly newsletter would change its message each month but would be sent to the same recipient list A new product announcement would contain the same message but could be sent to different recipient lists 3 2 Defining a New Job Once a new job has been created the next steps are to define the recipients of the message and create the e mail message itself unless these components are being based on an existing job Both of these operations must take place before defining any tracking data to be collected for reports Defining the sender and scheduling the delivery can take place at any time The Job Details screen displays either a Workflow or a Summary diagram These diagrams serve to guide account holders through the proper sequence of events for defining an e mail job Both of these displays chart the process of creating an e mail job and contain links that allow each procedure to be edited The Workflow diagram is a visual representation of the process of creating an e mail job Clickable icons repr
120. ed with actual SQL code during the definition of the recipients Each parameter in a SELECT statement is designed by the data administrator to appear as a drop down menu a checkbox or a text input box The Source Details screen allows the account holder to fill in those parameters by making selections as to what data will be extracted from the database For example to select recipients from certain cities as recipients the recipients target group may appear as a drop down menu listing all the cities in the database Simply select the city or cities from the drop down menu and all recipients associated with those cities in the database will be used in the recipients definition 22 Figure 18 Drop Down Menu Recipients Target Group Define Recipients Options Source Source Details Cancel Input Yalues for Target Group Parameters Enter values for all parameters of the selected target group City E Select This is an example of a drop down menu style target group Select the city or cities from the menu The recipients will be pulled from the database based on the city or cities selected Figure 19 Checkbox Recipients Target Group Define Recipients Options Source Source Details Summary lt Back Hest gt Input Yalues for Target Group Parameters Enter values for all parameters of the selected target group Check this box to receive HTML mail v If unchecked plain text mail will be sent There can be
121. elp creating a SQL statement The recipients will be retrieved Now Just before sending 19 Click Next gt to continue The SQL statement is automatically executed to test its validity An operation in process screen will appear until the operation is completed Once completed a preview of 10 recipients will be displayed on the Recipient Details screen see Section 4 4 Recipient Details An error message will appear if there are any problems with the SQL statement or connection to the database If recipients will be retrieved now the SQL statement will be re sent to the database when entering the Summary screen If recipients will be retrieved just before sending the SQL statement will be re sent to the database right before the scheduled sending time fip Although initially it may take some assistance from the system administrator or data administrator selecting recipients from a database is a much faster method of defining recipients for a job when compared to uploading a text file Because recipient data comes directly from a database it becomes unnecessary to export the data upload a large text file and parse the file therefore saving time and system resources fip To re use SQL statements or build parameters into SQL statements making them more flexible consider creating and using recipients target groups See Section 4 2 1 Recipient Target Groups for more information on using recipients target groups and see the Data Ad
122. en when the new version is selected under Tools gt Add Ins gt Browse If this is the case an error message will appear saying the file already exists and it is not possible to have two versions of the same file To correct this situation search for all versions of the ImportTrackerStatistics xla file on your local drive and delete them Then follow all the steps above Section 11 User Settings The User Settings screen allows individual users to save and change their account specific settings in four areas e Sender Profiles This option is only available if the system administrator has given the user permission to define sender profiles Sender profiles are shared among all members of a group A group member does not need permission to create new sender profiles in order to use any existing profiles e Drop In Content Elements This option is only available if the system administrator has given the user permission to create new drop in content elements Drop ins are shared among all members of a group A group member does not need permission to create new drop ins in order to use any existing drop ins e Recipient Target Groups This option is only available if the system administrator has given the user permission to create new recipient target groups Target groups are similar to predefined recipients lists complete with a name and description Target groups are defined by a data administrator who knows where the underl
123. ences to the 26 characters from the Latin alphabet Because 7 bits have enough room for 128 characters 0 127 there are more than the 26 Latin characters in the ASCII charset First each character appears twice as upper case and lower case then there are the ten digits 0 9 various punctuation marks like comma dot semi colon colon dash slash backslash exclamation question mark and so forth There are also other characters that can act as control characters that is characters that have special meaning to certain protocols such as and amp Used almost as frequently at least in the western world are the charsets from the ISO 8859 family These charsets map 8 bit sequences to letters digits and characters from various European languages Hebrew and Arabic Since the ISO 8859 charsets use 8 bits they have twice the range as ASCII enough room for 256 characters 0 255 For convenience all ISO 8859 charsets contain the full range of ASCII in their lower 128 characters the bytes 0 127 from any ISO 8859 charset map directly to the corresponding ASCII character making ISO 8859 a superset of ASCII The differences of each ISO charset are in the upper 128 characters the bytes 128 255 For example ISO 8859 1 mapping an alphabet suitable for West European languages has the umlauts A O and U at the positions 196 214 and 220 In comparison ISO 8859 7 mapping the Greek alphabet has the Greek letters A
124. ents are defined as a LISTSERV list send the job as a standard list message The recommended method for testing mailings is to create a clone of that list within LISTSERV such as TEST listname making sure that the entire list configuration is exactly duplicated including customized templates especially the top and bottom banners if these are defined Subscribe only the test recipients to the test list In LISTSERV Maestro s Test interface enter the full address of the test list as the sole test address Remember though when using a standard LISTERV sending no mail merging is possible and only blind tracking is available fip It is important to test every facet of an e mail job including bounce settings To test bounce settings send a test message to an undefined address on a mail server Look at the bounce report if LISTSERV is handling bounces and download the address to make sure it corresponds to the one used in the testing If bounces are being sent to another address go to that address and examine the bounced message 64 fip Remember to also test both the From address and the Reply To address if one is specified To test the From address and the Reply To addresses try replying to both from the test message and examine the results 7 3 Running Test Reports Once a test message containing tracked data has been delivered and the test recipients have opened the message the Test Reports tab available from the Job Detai
125. ents who triggered an event 101 Figure 85 Sum of Events Report Variations Sum of Unique Events Sum of All Events Report Sum of Events Count Unique Events Report Sum of Events 21 Number of Unique Events Event Data Sources Summary Event Data Sources Summary For each data source bar only unique events are counted For each data source bar all events are counted a D Events Bl open up Events Sum 60 m SEA Events for ai logo http www soft com Click Through Events for link logo http www lsoft com Sum 12 een li a m ees rder leader ll click Through Events for link advanced order http www lsoft com Sum 14 s Through Events Tor a mich i AAN qeesisom Click Through Events for link sneak preview text http www widgets com Sum 10 I Click Through Events for link advanced order text http www order widgets now com r P lll Click Th eae k EE EK I Click Through Events for link advanced order text http www order widgets now com Sum 6 ick Throu vents for link sneak peek vv lsoft com B I Click Through Events for link sneak peek http www Isoft com Sum 28 za Total 125 Additional Data Sources Summary Bl number of Unbounced Messages Additional Data Sources Summary Bl Number of Unbounced Messages The total sum is not necessarily restricted to only unique events as the different data sources might cover overlapping event sets Executed Sep 30 2002 02 20 27 PM b Includi
126. eport screen From here it is possible to change how the results are displayed and downloaded Edit Report Create Report Opens the Define Report screen From here it is possible to save a quick report as a normal report by clicking the Save amp Execute button For delivery tests it is not possible to save a quick report as a regular report so this icon is disabled grayed out For more information on quick reports see Section 9 2 Delivered Jobs Reports For more information on creating and editing reports see Section 10 Tracking Statistics and Reports 7 4 Scheduling Delivery of a Job LISTSERV Maestro allows the user to immediately send out an approved e mail job or schedule a job for future sending Jobs can be scheduled to be sent only once or to automatically repeat during programmed intervals Scheduling the delivery of a message can take place at any time during the creation of the e mail job however final delivery is still subject to delivery testing and delivery authorization 7 4 1 Scheduling Information for Normal Jobs The Schedule Delivery screen opens input with selections to schedule the delivery of a normal job that will be delivered once and not repeat This is the default delivery scheduling format for LISTSERV Maestro Select the option button for Deliver immediately when authorized or Deliver at the following time If the job is scheduled for a future delivery date and time enter the date and tim
127. eport and make this relative to any time zone e Team Collaboration Click on the Edit link to change the team collaboration settings for the report Delete this Report will delete the report presently open if the user has permission 10 1 1 Adding a Data Source Adding a data source is a multi step process that has to be repeated for each separate variable in the report In Figure 71 there are seven different variables that will be plotted on the report so the data source wizard was engaged seven times to record each one To begin defining a data source click on the Data Sources tab 87 Figure 72 Define Report Data Sources Define Report Define the settings of the report Copy Settings Save amp Execute OK Cancel Title Tracking data for listing General Settings Data Sources Result Settings The folowing data sources have been defined for this report Data Source Description Qpen Up Events Open Up 1 Job Click Through Events far link logo http iiw ww soft corn Click Through 1 Job 1 Link Click Through Events for link advanced order http ve Isaft cam Click Thraugh 1 Job 1 Link Click Thraugh Events for link sneak preview test http riw ww widgets com Click Thraugh 1 Jab 1 Link Click Thraugh Events for link advanced order text http idiw ww order widgets naw cam Click Thraugh 1 Jab 1 Link Click Thraugh Events for link sneak peek http www Isaft cam Click Through 1 J
128. eport as a regular report The report title will then show up in the listing of current reports on the Tracking Reports screen Edit the settings of this new report by clicking the Edit Report icon again This option is not available for quick reports generated from delivery test data See Section 9 2 Delivered Jobs Reports for more information 10 2 3 Recipients Details Reports Recipients details reports are only available for personal or anonymously tracked jobs because this report type is linked to recipient profile data This report type displays a multi frame table that lists each data source and the column data from the define recipients file Use the table to select which data sources and which columns will be downloaded Data must be downloaded and imported into a statistical software program to generate charts and graphs Select the data sources from the top frame in the table by clicking the Select link If a data source contains more than one job all the jobs that have recipients with the same number of columns with the same column labels forming a profile structure will be grouped together into one job group If the data source has more than one job and the recipients do not share the same profile structure these jobs will have their own job groups inside the data source 104 The currently selected data source will appear in the lower frame along with the recipient column data for that job group Select the column data from th
129. erent contents depending on recipient settings e Send HTML content with a plain text alternative only to recipients that meet the following condition lsemail_type h Send content in 40L format only to recipients that do not meet the condition above but that do meet the following condition lsemail_type a Send plain text content to all other recipients OK Cancel 38 There are three possible situations that conditions can be used to deliver the message format preferred by individual recipients an HTML message with a text alternative an HTML message with an AOL formatted alternative and an HTML message with both a text alternative and an AOL alternative e HTML content with plain text alternative one condition needs to be specified for the HTML content Ifa recipient fulfills the condition the full HTML e mail including the plain text alternative is delivered to that recipient Ifthe recipient does not fulfill the condition a simple plain text e mail is delivered instead containing only the plain text alternative e HTML content with AOL format alternative one condition needs to be specified for the HTML content Ifa recipient fulfills the condition a pure HTML e mail with no alternatives is delivered to that recipient Ifthe recipient does not fulfill the condition an e mail in the special AOL format is delivered containing only the AOL format alternative e HTML content with both
130. ers with the name ref One comes from the original URL while LISTSERV Maestro added the other These two parameters with the same name would confuse the Maestro Tracker component Therefore a parameter called ref must never be used if there are merge fields used in the URL If merge fields are not being used in the parameter list of the URL then LISTSERV Maestro replaces the whole URL with the tracking URL including the parameters For example the following URL with three constant parameters no merge fields used http host domain path paraml valuel amp param2 value2 amp param3 value3 will be fully replaced by LISTSERV Maestro with a tracking URL similar to this http maestro domain trk click ref z4bx39x amp Since the parameters are also replaced by the tracking URL it does not matter if the parameter list contains a parameter called ref or not However this is only true if no merge field is used in the parameter list meaning that there are only constant parameters Section 6 Tracking The ability to track information about e mail jobs is a powerful resource for understanding how recipients respond to messages when messages are accessed and what types of recipients are actually seeing messages By understanding who the recipients are opening messages when they are opening them and clicking on links contained in them senders can precisely tailor future messages to specific recipients Recipients who are genuinely i
131. ersion Version 2 0 Cancel 7 2 Delivery Testing for a Job It is critically important to test an e mail job thoroughly before sending it especially if it is a large job being distributed to many recipients or a message containing a large amount of data Large jobs take up a lot of server time and space and affect many e mail hosts and individual recipients Sending out a less than perfect message can create a very negative reaction among recipients and damage an institution s credibility and reputation As a safeguard LISTSERV Maestro will not authorize an e mail job to be delivered before a test of the job has been sent out and approved LISTSERV Maestro will allow the user to use a previously entered group of test recipients upload and download test recipient lists or type in test recipient names and addresses The test interface displays a table for entering test data Each row represents a test recipient and the columns displayed depend on the columns that were defined in the Define Recipients stage If the recipients were defined from an uploaded text file the columns in the test screen are the same as those present in the text file If the recipients were defined from a LISTSERV list the test screen displays the TO and NAME columns that are available in a LISTSERV list as well 62 as any fields for additional merge columns if those were defined in the recipients wizard for a LISTSERV list Valid Internet e mail addres
132. ery schedule The advanced options are disabled by default The Click to enable link expands the Schedule Delivery screen If you want to disable the advanced options at a later time use the Click to disable link that appears when the advanced options screen is exposed The advanced options are enabled or disabled on a per job basis The advanced options available are e Deliver only once Do not auto repeat With this option the job will be delivered only once at the delivery time specified in the basic options at the top of the screen This is the default setting for delivery It is also used when the advanced delivery options are disabled e Auto repeat delivery of this job With this option the job will start an auto repeat sequence upon delivery The job will be delivered for the first time at the time specified in the basic options Right after the job has been delivered an exact copy of it will automatically be created and authorized for delivery with a delivery time that is scheduled at a given interval after the first delivery Once this copy of the job has been delivered another copy will be created and authorized again with a scheduled delivery time that is offset from the previous delivery by the same interval and so on until the defined auto repeat end condition is met 68 If this option is chosen a delay interval must be supplied between each repeated delivery of a copy of the original job by entering a positive v
133. es and then click Yes to continue Figure 33 Load Results The following files are referenced by the HTML page Linked Remoted Files Inline Local Files 1s line gif 3224 Bytes 1s ling gif 1472 Bytes The total size of the page including inline files is 8924 Bytes Do you want to proceed with the upload Click Yes to continue The LISTSERV Maestro applet will also check to ensure internal and external references to linked or embedded image files are valid Linked files are not sent with the message embedded files inline are sent with the message One advantage of using linked files is that the message will be smaller in size However a live Internet connection is necessary to view linked files If the image server is down they will not be visible Also some firewalls strip HTML messages that contain links to outside sources thus rendering the image invisible Embedded files on the other hand will be visible without a live Internet connection and if the image server is down They will make the message larger but they will not in most cases be stripped from the message by a firewall Consider the use of images linked or embedded carefully to avoid complications for the recipients Any invalid links will be counted as errors and will be reported in the Load Results dialog box LISTSERV Maestro will continue uploading the HTML file even if it contains link errors if Yes is 35 clicked The error
134. esent each of the steps the order in which they must occur and the status of each step By clicking an icon on the Workflow diagram the account holder opens up the area in LISTSERV Maestro that defines and edits that step of the e mail job After the definition or editing has occurred the account holder will be returned to the Workflow diagram to select the next step The Summary diagram is a textual listing of the process of creating an e mail job To reach the Summary diagram click on the Summary tab from the Workflow diagram Each area of LISTSERV Maestro is listed in the left column the status of the step is listed in the middle column and an Edit link is listed in the right column Access to each function is obtained by clicking the Edit link After the definition or editing has occurred the account holder will be returned to the Summary diagram to select the next step fip Individual account holders can set their preference for the Job Details screen to open as either the Workflow diagram or the Summary diagram See Section 11 4 Setting User Preferences for more information The third tab at the top of the Job Details screen is called Test Reports and will only become active once an e mail job had been completed through the delivery test phase At that point it becomes possible to run quick reports on the test messages containing tracked links for open up and click though events For information on using the Test Reports funct
135. ess First select the type of report to create LISTSERV Maestro can produce four basic types of reports depending on the type of recipients and recipient data used in the job e Event distribution over time This report type produces a simple line graph showing number of responses over time Time is plotted on the x axis of the chart and events are charted on the y axis For more information on event distribution reports see Section 10 2 1 Event Distribution Report e Sum of events This report type produces a bar graph that shows the number of recipients who clicked on each URL and or opened up the e mail message The number of recipients is plotted on the y axis and the number of events is plotted on the x axis Two types of sum can be chosen for the report Sum of unique events or Sum of all events Sum of unique events plots only a single event of each type for each recipient This chart will register 0 zero events if blind tracking has been selected for the tracking type during the tracking definition because blind tracking cannot count any 81 event as unique Sum of all events counts all events triggered for each recipient and is available for blind tracking For more information on sum of events reports see Section 10 2 2 Sum of Events Report Recipients details Recipients details reports are only available for personal or anonymously tracked jobs because this report type is linked to recipient profile d
136. et ISO 8859 1 matching an alphabet suitable for West European languages the position number 196 represents the umlaut A The same position 196 using the charset ISO 8859 7 the Greek alphabet matches the Greek letter A As a result the same position number in the table will result in different characters being displayed depending on the charset used for the encoding For more information on this subject see Appendix B in this guide LISTSERV Maestro defaults to the ISO 8859 1 Latin 1 character set for encoding e mail messages unless a different default setting has been preset by the system administrator LISTSERV Maestro supports other charsets and if users are given the right to use other character sets an active link will appear at the end of the sentence Language Mail will be sent with language charset for on the Define Content screen The link will be different depending on whether a different selection has previously been made The default link is West European Latin 1 charset ISO 8859 1 40 To choose a different charset click the active link after Language The Language Charset Settings screen will open Select a charset from the drop down menu and click OK Figure 36 Language Charset Settings Language Charset Settings Please define the language charset that is to be used for the mail during sending If your mail contains characters which are not displayable in the chosen language charset then those charac
137. ets com I Click Through Events for link advanced order text http www order widgets now corn I Click Through Events for link sneak peek http www lsoft cor Additional Data Sources Summary Bl number of Sent Messages The total sum is not necessarily restricted to only unique events as the different data sources might cover overlapping event sets Executed Aug 19 2002 01 06 05 PM Including events from Aug 15 2002 12 20 00 PM until Aug 15 2002 06 56 00 PM Report Tracking data for listing No accumulation over time o c o gt D o LL o E gt a To Aug 15 2002 06 56 00 PM Time intervals The values for the intervals are not accumulated from interval to interval From Aug 15 2002 12 20 00 PM Event Data Sources Summary a Open Up Events E Click Through Events for link logo http Z www Isoft com Wi click Through Events for link advanced order http www Isoft com Click Through Events for link sneak preview text http www widgets com EH Click Through Events for link advanced order text http www order widgets now com I Click Through Events for link sneak peek http www Isoft com Total 125 Additional Data Sources Summary Bl number of Sent Messages Sum 28 Executed Aug 19 2002 12 49 28 PM Including events from Aug 15 2002 12 20 00 PM until Aug 15 2002 06 56 00 PM The same data is shown below in a different rep
138. f Add Ins available then click OK Under View gt Toolbars gt Uncheck Tracker Statistics the little feet icon should disappear Under View gt Customize gt Toolbars tab gt select the Tracker Statistics listing from the menu do not check the box gt Click Delete Close Excel Log in to LISTSERV Maestro Create a quick report or regular report of the type Event Distribution or Sum of Events Click the Download Report icon Click the download link to download the Excel Add In 114 10 Right click the ImportTrackerStatistics xla link 11 Select Save Target As from the menu 12 Save the file on a local drive If there is an existing version of this file in the same location the new file is being saved in a query will ask to replace the existing file Click Yes 13 Open Excel 14 Under Tools gt Add Ins gt click Browse 15 Browse for the ImportTrackerStatistics xla file that was downloaded and select it 16 If there is an existing version a query will ask to replace the existing file Click Yes The little feet icon should re appear on the toolbar 17 Click the little feet icon click Start and follow the directions from there e Important If the new version of the ImportTrackerStatistics xla file is downloaded and saved in a different location than the old version the existing file will not be replaced after answering Yes to the query The old file may remain associated with Excel ev
139. for your account Click on a report title to execute and view that report ar click on the edit link if any to edit delete it Lise the New Report button to create a new report Click Report Title to execute and view the report Click the Edit link to edit the report Report Title Date Time saved Yan 3 2002 09 53 32 AM Sample HTML Job Recipient Response 73 it Jan 3 2002 10 00 17 AM Sample Report tor Access to L Soft Homepage it Jan 3 2002 10 07 47 AM Tracking data far Sample HTML Mail Jab it Aug 16 2002 11 31 28 AM Clicking the New Report button or the Edit link will open the Define Report screen There are four top buttons and a text box to type in a report title Copy Settings Copies settings from a previously generated report to the new report Save amp Execute Saves the report and executes the collection of the selected data A graph or table is produced based on the settings OK Saves any selections or entered information such as a title Cancel Cancels any settings or entered information Figure 70 Define Report Top Part of Screen Define Report Define the settings of the report Copy Settings Save amp Execute DK Cancel Title Below the buttons is a tabbed table Click on the tabs to toggle between the sections General Settings Defines the time period of the report including time zone and team collaboration settings Data Sources Opens the data source wi
140. g all columns in alphabetical order but not the COUNT column downloading that report and then uploading it as the recipients list of a newly created job The link takes the user to the Start New Job screen where it is only necessary will to type in a title for the new job After that a new job with recipients already defined is created Edit Report Create Report with This as Template To change the definition of the current report click the Edit Report icon The Define Report screen opens if the user has the right to edit reports The current report s General Settings Data 107 Sources and Result Settings can be edited and saved to reflect any changes in the current report or they can be saved as a new report See Section 10 1 Tracking Reports and Figures 68 and 69 for more details If the current report is a quick report from Delivered Jobs clicking the Create Report icon will allow the user to create a new report based on the settings of the quick report Type in a title for the report and then click the Save amp Execute button to save the quick report as a regular report The report title will then show up in the listing of current reports on the Tracking Reports screen This option is not available for quick reports generated from delivery test data See Section 9 2 Delivered Jobs Reports for more information 10 2 4 Event Details Report Event Details reports are available for personal anonymous unique and blind tracking
141. gets com Sum 35 Additional Data Sources Summary Bl Number of Unbounced Messages Additional Data Sources Summary Bl number of Unbounced Messages Sum 100 Executed Sep 30 2002 02 16 49 PM a Including events from Aug 15 2002 12 20 00 PM until Aug 15 2002 06 56 00 PM The total sum is not necessarily restricted to only unique events as the different data sources might cover overlapping event sets Executed Sep 30 2002 01 54 59 PM Including events from Aug 15 2002 12 20 00 PM until Aug 15 2002 06 56 00 PM Download It is possible to download the data from a sum of events report by clicking the Download Report icon Data downloaded will be in the form of a zipped text file Select the time zone that will be used to format the data from the drop down menu Click the Download button to begin downloading the data Click the download link to download an Excel Add In to import the data into Excel See Section 10 3 Using the Excel Add In for more information 102 Figure 86 Download Sum of Events Data Report Sum of Events Count Unique Events Download Report Result Report of type Sum Over Number of Events during the Time Period To download the report result in form of a zipped text file select the time zone to be used to format the result and click the download button below use my local time zone Download You can also download an Excel 2000 Add In to import the downloaded text file into
142. hange Delivered Jobs NEWS 0208084 Widget Company September Newsletter 0208058 August Newsletter Y Body C plain Text HTML with Alternatives M AOL Format M Text Format OK Cancel Subject Monthly Newsletter HTML Preview HTML Code AOL Preview AOL Code Text Preview Text Attachments Conditional content is enabled for this job Change HTML condition amp mail type 1 Drop in content is enabled for this job HTML formatted message with AOL and plain text alternatives Your Monthly Newsletter from Widget Company Dear amp F NAME Thank you for your continued interest in the Widget Company It is our pleasure to announce the new product line for Fall of 2002 You will be delighted with all the new features and ease of use Click on the tabs at the To get a sneak peek visit www widgets com To place an advance order point your browser to www order widgets now com top to toggle between message parts AOL code or plain text We wanted to remind all our customers who purchased the Executive Writer model number directly in the amp INTEREST 1 that the recall is still in effect To receive your new product please ship the old product to text boxes anargy Conditonal content is We will send you a new Executive Writer immediately enabled for this job Use the buttons at the New Contact Address bottom to upload or o download the message We have relocated to a larger facility to bet
143. hanumeric characters are by definition URL safe It is important to know how recipient IDs are generated by a registration script for example in order to know if they are indeed URL safe e Ifthe possibility exists that all merge values are not be URL safe then use the special LISTSERV function amp URLENCODE to make them so Simply enclose the merge field in the URL in the parenthesis of this function In the example if there were any doubt that the ID merge field s values were URL safe the sample URL could be written like this http host domain path visitorID amp URLENCODE 81D page home The function s URLENCODE amp ID tells LISTSERV to retrieve the value of the 1D merge field then apply the s URLENCODE function to it that is to encode all unsafe characters and then merge in the result in place of the whole amp URLENCODE 81D string 46 Important The parameter name ref is a reserved name that is used by LISTSERV Maestro to transfer the tracking information to the Maestro Tracker component seen in the example above Therefore ref cannot be used in any parameters if there are also merge fields in the same URL If a URL looked like http host domain path ref amp ID The tracking URL generated from it for the user with ID usr15 would look something like this http maestro domain trk click ref z4bx39x amp ref usr15 This URL contains two paramet
144. hat points to the server running the Maestro Tracker component so that LISTSERV Maestro can count each click on the URL and then redirect to the actual target URL So for the user with the ID usr15 the URL in the mail would look something like this http maestro domain trk click ref z4bx39x amp visitorID usri5 amp page home Each user that clicks on this tracking URL will be counted and will be redirected to the actual target URL using the URL parameters for that user For example the server at host domain will receive the correct visitorID usr15 and page home parameters for other recipients the visitorID would have different values 7 5 7 1 URL encoding of Parameters URL parameters may only contain characters that are safe to use in a URL Some characters are not safe to use other characters have a reserved meaning for example the ampersand amp which has the special meaning of separating two parameters Therefore all characters that are not valid for use in a URL parameter value must be URL encoded URL encoding is a standard that encodes unsafe characters into safe characters When using field merging in URL parameters there are two options to ensure that all parameters are URL safe e Make sure that the values of all merge fields that are used of all recipients are actually URL safe For example if all recipient IDs only contain alphanumeric characters the ID values are already URL safe because alp
145. he individual who triggered them Very specific information can be gathered about an individuals interaction with a message such as how many times a link has been clicked This data can be related to personal information on the individuals being tracked Anonymous Tracking The collected tracking data can be traced to specific individuals but those individuals are associated with an anonymous profile where no identifiable data is connected to them but demographic information such as age gender or zip postal code can be Unique Tracking Records the number of times unique open up and click through events occur but is not associated with individual users or other identifying data Blind Tracking Collects unspecific tracking data recording only the number of times open up and click through events occur The number of events is simply recorded they are not necessarily unique and are not linked to Individual users Click Next gt to continue If Personal Tracking or Anonymous Tracking is selected the Type Details screen appears For Personal Tracking Type Details is used to select a value that is unique for each recipient For Anonymous Tracking Type Details is used to separate columns containing identifying information such as a name or telephone number from columns containing anonymous information such as age gender or city There are three versions of the Type Details screen 57 This version is for personal tracking when
146. he program Start New Job Begins the definition of a new e mail job Resume Job Lists all jobs that have been started but have not yet been approved for delivery Jobs listed here can be edited Outbox Contains a listing of jobs that have been defined scheduled and approved for delivery but have not yet been sent The Outbox also lists jobs that have failed during delivery for some reason Delivered Jobs Lists all the e mail jobs that have been delivered From here it is possible to generate quick reports on a selected delivered job Tracking Reports Engages the reporting wizard to produce graphs and reports from the tracking data collected from delivered messages User Settings Stores information about sender profiles drop in content elements and recipients target groups Also listed here are individual user preferences and change password options These icons are repeated along the left side of every screen for navigational purposes Section 3 Using LISTSERV Maestro to Define an E mail Job Creating and sending customized e mail messages with LISTSERV Maestro is a multi step procedure Some of the steps can be done at any time during the process of defining an e mail job and other steps are dependent on the completion of previous steps e Anew job is started and assigned a title and a job ID e The message is created and recipients are defined e Tracking is set up if desired e The sender of the me
147. he readme txt file will contain a summary of the report type and other information The other file named for the type of data downloaded such as distributionReport txt or uniqueSumReport txt contains the data that will be imported into Excel Start Excel and click on the Visualize Tracking Statistics button in the toolbar it looks like two small footprints see the diagram above The Visualizing Tracker Statistics import dialog box will open Select the mport and convert a downloaded tracking data file option button to create a new workbook and generate a chart based on the downloaded tracking data Select the Convert the current worksheet option button to create a new chart in the current workbook based on the data of the current worksheet 112 Figure 95 Using Tracker Add In with Excel Import Dialog Box LISTSERY Maestro Visualize Tracking Statistics select one of the following options to visualize LISTSERV Maestro tracking data as an Excel chart f Import and convert a downloaded tracking data file Let Excel create a new workbook with the data fram a previously downloaded tracking data file and generate a chart fram the Imported values Convert the current worksheet Let Excel create a new chart in the current workbook based on the data of the current worksheet ae Click the Start button A file selection box will open Navigate to the txt file with the tracking data previously downloaded and open this file Excel wi
148. header field does not fall under the constraints regarding charsets and text merging The name in the To header field will always be encoded with the charset that is optimal for exactly this name Users may safely write an e mail message in English and send it to international recipients Each recipient will see his or her name with the correct characters in the To header so that a German recipient will correctly see umlauts a Russian will see Cyrillic and a Greek will see Greek letters under the condition of course that the original recipient list was in Unicode format and contained the names of the recipients with their respective international characters Just remember that with such a mixed language list of recipients merge values you should not also merge the name into the text body itself unless the text is encoded as Unicode UTF 8 as well due to of the problems described earlier When using recipients that are defined by sending to an existing LISTSERV list or by letting LISTSERV select from a database then again the bytes from the name merge value will be merged into the To header correctly by LISTSERV without the Maestro User Interface having a chance to encode them And because it is very improbable that the names the byte sequences representing them already contain the special MIME header encoding necessary for non ASCII To header fields make sure that only ASCII characters are allowed in recipient names when c
149. hether to retrieve recipients Now or Just before sending The SQL statement is entered in the text box at the bottom SQL statements can be copied and pasted into this text box from another source Database plugins are available from L Soft and should be installed by the system administrator when LISTSERV Maestro is first installed These plugins allow LISTSERV Maestro to communicate with many different types of databases If there is any uncertainty about the selection of database plugins contact the system administrator the database administrator or see Section 5 in the LISTSERV Maestro Administrators Guide Retrieving recipients Now means building a complete recipient list by querying the database while in the define recipients wizard The recipients will be gathered from the database and saved at the moment the wizard is finished by clicking the Summary link Any changes in the database between the time the wizard is completed and the time the mail is sent will not be reflected 18 Retrieving recipients Just before sending means that the database will be queried for the complete recipient list just before the mail is sent for delivery Any changes in the database that occurred between the time the recipients wizard was completed and the time the mail is scheduled for delivery will be reflected Figure 14 Define Recipients from a Database Select Database Plugin Define Recipients Options Source lt Back
150. holder will be replaced by actual content at the time the message is sent It is possible to see what the drop in will look like within the context of the message by clicking any of the preview tabs Text Preview HTML Preview or AOL Preview Figure 29 Drop In Content Settings Drop In Content Settings Enable or disable the drop in content function for the job To create 4 new drop in content element or edit an existing one go to User Settings then click on the Drop In Content Elements link If drop in content is enabled define the opening and closing tags that are used to enclose drop in content placeholders so that LISTSERV Maestro can recognize them For example if the opening tag is 14 and the closing tag is EE you would create a drop in placeholder that looked like this HPLACEHOLDER MAMETE C Disable drop in content for this jab iv Enable drop in content for this job Use the following placeholder tags Opening tag E Closing tag n OK Cancel The default setting for drop in content tags are double open and closed curly brackets 4 and An example of a drop in content placeholder using the default settings would be company address It is possible to change the open and closed tags to other characters but the characters must not appear in the actual name of the drop in content element itself For instance if the name of a file to be used as a drop in element were dec header
151. ick Next gt to continue to the Source Details screen 14 4 2 2 Send to an Existing LISTSERV List The option Send to an Existing LISTSERV List uses the identified list s subscriber names and addresses to create the recipient list for the e mail job Select the list by using the drop down menu Contained in this menu are all the LISTSERV lists available to the LISTSERV Maestro instance Two options for the type of list message are available send the message as a standard list message to subscribers which will limit the tracking options but allow for the use of Topics see Section 4 3 1 LISTSERV Topics or as a special list message that allows for mail merging and more tracking options If the message is sent as a standard list message the From address field in Define Sender must be an authorized sender for that list If the message is sent as a special list message then the LISTSERV Maestro e mail address must be an owner of the list By choosing Send job as special list message an additional link Special distribution options available here becomes active Click this link to expand the screen and display conditions and options for the list The screen needs to remain expanded in order to use the selections made in the expanded version Figure 10 Define Recipients from a LISTSERV List Define Recipients Options Source Recipients Details Summary lt Back Next gt Recipients Source Send to
152. ick Through Events for link sneak peek http www Isoft corn Additional Data Sources Summary Bl Number of Sent Messages Executed Aug 19 2002 12 49 28 PM Including events from Aug 15 2002 12 20 00 PM until Aug 15 2002 06 56 00 PM g Aug 15 2002 06 56 00 PM Bl Open Up Events Sum E Click Through Events for link logo http www Isoft com Sum Wi click Through Events for link advanced order http www lsoft com Sum Sum Events distribution over time chart with the percentage of the total number of messages sent and non accumulation of events percentage of the total number of unbounced messages sent and accumulation of events Report Tracking data for listing Pecentage of the total number of unbounced messages From Aug 15 2002 05 20 00 PM To Aug 15 2002 11 56 00 PM Time intervals The values for the intervals are accumulated from interval to interval The values are shown as percentage of unbounced sent messages Event Data Sources Summary Bl open up Events E Click Through Events for link logo http www Isoft com Bl Click Through Events for link advanced order http www lsoft com A Click Through Events for link sneak preview text http www widgets com EH Click Through Events for link advanced order text http www order widgets now com I Click Through Events for link sneak peek http www lsoft com Additional Data Sources Summary Bl Number of Sen
153. ick on the Job ID of an individual job to open the Delivered Job Details screen This screen is composed of two tabbed pages Summary and Reports The Summary screen lists details for the selected job The Reports screen contains options and links to generate a quick report on the selected job 9 1 Auto Repeat Sequences in the Delivered Jobs List Only the first job of an auto repeat sequence is normally shown in the list of delivered jobs This is to avoid making the list overly long filled with many jobs with the same job title but with different Job IDs and delivery times The first job of a sequence is marked by the sequence icon shown next to the list entry By clicking on the sequence icon the sequence is unfolded and displays all jobs in that sequence From there select any of these jobs by clicking on its Job ID To hide the sequence jobs simply click on the sequence icon again or click on the icon of a different sequence which will unfold that other sequence and hide the sequence that was previously unfolded Only one sequence can be unfolded at a time T Figure 62 Delivered Jobs Delivered Jobs Denotes a sequence of auto repeat jobs Jobs that Click on the icon to view all delivered v were processed successfully jobs in the sequence Y were processed previously and failed during delivery All previously delivered jobs for your account Click on the Job ID to review the selected job Job Tit
154. idgets com Select All with same Alias All with same URL Selected advanced order http www Isoft com sneak peak http www Isoft com Unselect Click Next gt to continue The fourth screen Data Source General Properties defines the name of the data source and the color it will appear as in the graph or data table as in the case of Recipients Details and Event Details reports Enter a name for the data source in the text box Pick a name that will be descriptive of the data source when it is viewed in the report The name of the data source will be the only way beside color to identify what the source is in the report Select the color of the line bar or table for the item that is tracked For most reports it is usually best to select a different color for every different data source for the report but it is not necessary Figure 76 Data Source General Properties Report Data Source Definition General Summary Cancel lt Back Next gt Data Source General Properties Data Source Name Click Through Logo Color Eu Select a different color by clicking on any of the color patches below Click Next gt to continue 91 The last screen of the data source wizard is Data Source Summary A summary of the selections made on the previous pages is displayed Changes can be made to the data source definition by clicking the lt Back button Click Finish to save the da
155. ign each line of text instead of the correct right alignment Occurrences such as this are subject to the mail client itself and out of the scope of LISTSERV Maestro 134 Appendix C About Comma Separated Format Recipient Files The term comma separated format or tab separated format or CSV is often used as a catchall term for all kinds of text based data formats where the data is formatted in a line by line fashion Each line contains one data record and a number of columns per line where the different columns are separated by comma or tab or some other separator character LISTSERV Maestro can correctly interpret comma separated text files in various formats as long as the following rules are applied e Any character may be used as the separator character although a comma tab or semicolon is conventional e The same separator character must be used in all lines for the entire file e All lines in the file must have the same number of columns which means the same number of separator characters e Empty columns may be created in order that the same number of separator characters is present in every line of the file e Having two separator characters in direct succession without any characters in between creates an empty column e Ifa line begins with the separator character then LISTSERV Maestro assumes the line begins with an empty column e Ifa line ends with the separator character then LISTSERV Maestro as
156. ile Note It is not necessary to fill out all rows Only those rows where the e mail column field is filled in are used the other rows are ignored Click Send Delivery Test Messages to continue Click Save amp Close to save the test recipient data but not send the test message Once the messages have been sent review the results It is usually a good idea to include the job owner and any team members in the test recipient list SO test results can be viewed firsthand Select the option button next to No and click OK if the test results were not as expected This will prevent the job from being approved for sending and allow the user to make any necessary changes by bringing up the Job Details screen Select the option button next to Yes and click OK if the test results were as expected This will allow the job to be authorized for delivery Select the option button next to Verify Later and click OK to view and verify the delivery test results at a later time If this option is selected the job will not be approved for delivery The next time the Delivery Test icon or link is clicked from the Job Details screen the user will be returned to the Delivery Test screen Click the link Go directly to the validation page without another delivery test under Advanced Options to return to the validation screen of the test 63 that was saved for later verification Click the option button next to Yes and then click OK to proceed
157. ill be displayed in the Maestro User Interface However if there are mistakes in the syntax of the conditional statement that turn up when the conditions are evaluated for each recipient the test messages will not be sent although they will appear to because LISTSERV cannot process the job with incorrect coding No error message will be displayed in the Maestro User Interface Errors of this nature will be reported in the LISTSERV logs and an e mail message will be sent to the LISTSERV Postmaster If your test messages are not delivered in a reasonable amount of time contact your LISTSERV administrator for assistance diagnosing the problem Presented in Figure 1 is an example of a detailed plain text e mail message using mail merge and complex conditional blocks Each variable and combination of variables needs to be tested before the job is sent out Some of the resulting test messages for particular combinations are presented in Figures 2 and 3 142 Figure 1 Plain Text Message with Conditional Blocks Happy tolrinday To celebrate the occasion XYZweb is pleased to credit your account with lO 200 Sine E e aeda ieredres VOtcan Spend these credits on anyehing ins ot online store but there s a catch They will expire in a week if you do not use them So wait no further and go to your personalized web page at amp PERS URL Special offer for people who turn 18 bb amp age 18 Now Ernst you are Lbs you can finally do what yon have
158. in the default mode the drop in would appear as dec header It would not be possible to change the open or closed tag to an underscore because it appears in the name of the drop in element 32 To include a drop in content element in a message simply type the drop in element s name with the exact spelling and case and surround it with the opening and the closing tags that have been defined For a list of available drop ins click the link Show Merge Fields and Drop Ins at the bottom of the text box on the HTML Code AOL Code or Text screen Copy and paste the name of the drop in into the message to ensure the correct name and tags To define a new drop in content element click on the User Settings icon and then select the Drop In Content Elements link Figure 30 Available Merge Fields and Drop Ins Available Merge Fields and Drop Ins Selected Job October Widget Company Newsletter ID NEWS 0208094 Available merge fields This list contains all available merge fields and drap ins for the selected job To use one of these fields in your mail content please select the value copy it and paste it into your mail Please use the Available drop ins Refresh link to update the list if you have selected another job or the opening and closing tags of the drop ins have changed 5 2 Creating Text Messages To add a plain text message to LISTSERV Maestro select the Plain Text option button next to Body
159. ion in the charset that was chosen for the mail text will be displayed as a different character whichever character from the actual charset that has the same byte value like A from ISO 8859 1 and A from ISO 8859 7 or may not be displayed at all if there is no corresponding byte value in the charset International Character Set Recipient Names in the Mail TO Header The previous section outlined the problems of mixing a mail text in one language with merge values from a different language As an example an English text mail was described with an 132 international recipient list where the recipient names contain characters from many languages with the languages possibly differing between recipients from different countries The recipient s name as a merge value is probably one of the most common uses for merging fields to be able to merge the recipient s name into the text of the message to personalize the mail If this is done the problems described earlier need to be considered However the recipient s name is also often used in the To header field of the mail so that the mail appears to the recipient with the recipient s own name visible in the To field which is usually displayed by the e mail client in some fashion personalizing the e mail one step further When using recipients uploaded as text files or selected from the database by the Maestro User Interface then the use of the name in the To
160. ions Event distribution over time chart with non accumulation of events Event distribution over time chart with accumulation of events Report Tracking data for listing Number of events From 4ug 15 2002 12 20 00 PM To Aug 15 2002 06 56 00 PM Time intervals The values for the intervals are accumulated from interval to interval Event Data Sources Summary Bi open up Events T Click Through Events for link logo http www Isoft corn Wi click Through Events for link advanced order http www lsoft com E Click Through Events for link sneak preview text http www widgets com B Click Through Events for link advanced order text http www order widgets now com I Click Through Events for link sneak peek http www lsoft com Additional Data Sources Summary Bl number of Sent Messages Executed Aug 19 2002 12 40 54 PM Including events from Aug 15 2002 12 20 00 PM until Aug 15 2002 06 56 00 PM Events distribution over time chart with the Report Tracking data for listing na Ex m n3 No accumulation over time Number of events F Aug 15 2002 12 20 00 PM ibi Time interval The values for the intervals are not accumulated from interval to interval Event Data Sources Summary ma Click Through Events for link sneak preview text http www widgets corn a Click Through Events for link advanced order text http www order widgets now com I Cl
161. ions see Section 7 2 Delivery Testing for a Job 3 3 Using the Workflow Diagram This flow chart serves as a visual representation of the process of creating a new e mail job Clicking on each icon opens up the interface for defining the components or details of the job As components are defined the next steps for the job become available For example it is not possible to define tracking data for a job until the message and the recipients are defined Once all the components of the e mail job are defined they can be edited in any order from this screen or the Summary diagram If an earlier step is edited the later steps must be revisited For example if the recipient list is changed under Define Recipients the Delivery Test step will have to be redone The job owner can delete the current job from this screen by clicking the Delete Job button The job owner can change the Job Title Job ID and Team Collaboration by clicking the Change Job Info button Figure 4 Workflow Diagram on Job Details Screen Job Details Change Job Info Delete Job workflow Summary Test Reports To complete a job you need to execute the steps below Some steps are dependent on other steps and must be completed in sequence A green Y means that the step has been successfully completed T Define A Define Recipients Message Yellow arrows mean that the step is waiting eme to be completed O Define Tracking 0 Schedule Delivery
162. jobs This report type displays a multi frame table that lists each data source Use the top frame to select the data source and the bottom frame to select the time zone and file encoding to be used to format the downloaded data Data must be downloaded and imported into a statistical software program to generate charts and graphs Figure 90 Event Details Report Selected Job October Widget Company Newsletter ID NWEWS 020871B Report Tracking data for October Widget Company Nevisletter Download Report Result Report of type Raw Information of Events Collected During the Time Period To download the repart result in farm of a zipped text file choose from the list below for which jobs from which data source you want ta download the events Then select the time zone and file encoding to be used to format the result and click the download button Click Select to add the data source to the download Data Source Open Df Events Select NY DE21B October Widget Company Newsletter p Click Through Events for link advanced order http www Isoft com Data Source Click Through Events for link logo http wwuw Isoft com Select NEWS 020821B October Widget Company Newsletter Data Source Click Through Events for link sneak peak http www Isoft com Currently selected Data source Open Up Events with jobs e HEWS5 0208218 October Widget Company Newsletter Select a different time zone Time zone use my local time zo
163. k OK to save the new password Username beth Old Password New Password Confirm Password Ok Cancel 11 5 Setting User Preferences Each account can set individual application preferences by clicking the Preferences link Preferences fall into three categories interface preferences job part preferences and report definition preferences Preferences serve as default settings for new jobs so that individual users can customize their work environment and save time Preference settings can always be changed for individual jobs at the job level Click on the corresponding link to set or change preferences 121 Figure 108 User Preferences User Preferences Individual application preferences Please select the user interface part for which you want to set your Individual preferences General Preferences Display Preferences Please select the job part far which you want to set your individual preferences Job Definition Recipients Definition Content Definition Tracking Definition Delivery Test Definition Schedule Definition Please select the report part for which you want to set your Individual preferences Report Definition General Preferences Select the date time and number format for the user interface from the drop down menus Figure 109 General Preferences General Preferences On this page you can set your general user interface preferences Date Format Specifiy the format that
164. ks were being tracked in a message they would appear as one line or bar on the chart Click Through events all links separate This option creates separate variables for each click through event that is tracked For example if three links were being tracked in a message each link would appear as a separate line or bar on the chart Open Up and Click Through events all links bundled This option puts all the open up events into one variable and all the click through events into a second variable charted on the report It is only available for HTML messages Open Up and Click Through events all links separate This option creates separate variables for each of the open up and each of the click through events It is only available for HTML messages Other data sources can be added to the chart by selecting any or all of the Aaditional Statistics option buttons These additional data sources can provide comparison data in the chart so that it is possible to see the total number of messages sent in relation to the number of open up events that occurred for example Three Additional Statistics types are available Number of Sent Messages Adds the number of messages that were sent to LISTSERV as a constant reference value in the report Number of Unbounced Messages Adds the number of unbounced messages as a constant reference in the report This value shows the number of messages that were sent and not detected as bounces by L
165. l buttons at the top of the Authorize Delivery screen a message will appear summarizing the selections made for the delivery If this is an auto repeat job the auto 12 repeat sequence time delay will be listed as well as other notes on the screen Normal jobs will have a shorter message summarizing the delivery schedule Clicking Authorize Delivery Now will do exactly that and the job will be sent immediately or at the scheduled day and time Clicking Cancel will go back to the Job Details screen so that any part of the job may be edited or the job can be deleted The Details link will display a copy of the message alternative text attachments and tracking information The message can be downloaded to a local file as well If a job is authorized for delivery at a future date and time delivery authorization may be revoked by going to the Outbox and selecting the job For more information see Section 8 Outbox The scheduled delivery time shown on this screen is always displayed relative to the local time of the user If the user selected a time zone different from his her location on the schedule page then the time displayed in the job summary may at first glance appear incorrect For example if the user enters the time 10 00 with zone GMT as the scheduled delivery time but the user s location is not in the GMT zone the delivery time displayed on the Authorize Delivery page will be different than the 10 00 time selected because the
166. l defined profiles for your account Click on a profile to edit delete it or use the button to create a new profile Profile Title Date Time saved Amy Kitter Jan 9 2002 11 04 07 AM Corporate One Jan 9 2002 11 05 25 AM Mew Profile 116 Figure 100 Creating and Editing Sender Profiles Create Sender Profile Edit Sender Profile Profile Title CO Profile Title Corporate One E mail 4ddress Fo E mail Address corpi ourcompany com Sender Name Fo optional Sender Name opoe optional Reply To Address Fo optional Reply To Address FT optional Bounce Handling Bounce Handling Handle bounced messages automatically Handle bounced messages automatically Send bounced messages to C Send bounced messages to OK Cancel OK Cancel Delete Fill in the required fields and click OK to save a profile e Profile Title Give the profile a title that will identify it when it appears on the user s list of all saved profiles e E mail Address Fill in the e mail address of the sender of the message e Sender Name This is an optional field but if it is filled in the sender s name it will appear in the from field of the e mail message If the sender name is left blank the from field will be filled in by the e mail address e Reply To Address This is an optional field Include an e mail address if replies are an option for recipients and if the reply to address is different
167. le MailType Date Time of Delivery 0311048 Form Submission HTML Dec 3 2003 11 24 19 AM 0311248 URL Parameters VISTORID JOBID HTML Mov 24 2003 04 02 36 PM 03111272E URL parameters 2 HTML Mov 19 2003 12 04 37 PM 0311054 Testing URL parameters HTML Mov 12 2003 04 40 58 PM 0310060 October Newsletter HTML Oct 6 2003 02 10 25 PM O31006C Newsletter HTML Oct 6 2003 01 39 52 PM O30926C SANAZ sList 09 29 HTML Sep 29 2003 02 31 50 PM 030917 SANAZ s List 09 17 HTML Sep 25 2003 10 52 40 AM 0304295 Form Submit Tracking Sample HTML Apr 29 2003 09 40 30 PM Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y O20725C Sample Personal Tracking Job HTML Jul 25 2002 11 28 14 AM It should be noted that a job might be processed successfully but still fail to be delivered The processing state only describes the success or failure of the act of transferring the job to LISTSERV If LISTSERV then for some reason fails to actually deliver the job no messages will be sent but the job will still be in the successful state inside of LISTSERV Maestro For example if a job is sent to a LISTSERV list with the Standard list submit option and using a sender address that is not authorized to post to the list the job will be successful but LISTSERV sends an error message to the non authorized e mail address and no messages to recipients are actually delivered fip If a user suspects that a job that is shown as successful was actually never sent for ex
168. ll automatically open a new workbook Once the workbook has been created successfully save it using the Save Statistic File dialog box After the file had been saved a message will appear saying the data has been successfully imported and saved as an Excel Workbook Click OK to close the message The new workbook has two sheets The first sheet shows the imported tracking data in chart form Figure 96 Example Excel Graph Event Distribution Over Time Bice Excel A SL AS ie Ek vem quet Prol jmb Chart Winder Heb l ER Duc AT Bg gx RE ee SC Bea E 2 mora 080i om t bree hb sta Tracking Statistica Event distribution over tine H k Ee Ei m F HH CO RAELE HUBO Roe Bra Tan EHHH eo Reed fia eH Le Tn Ti Ho EH teh ridi d oe ETENE LE De A CD I LT eo ea Ee EHH HH ee DUE AO 1 Se led is ral Elli oia ercer MA Mh insien sanu ch i TEX TE pr Ready SS AA las la li par n ia 113 The second sheet contains a value table with the downloaded tracking data Figure 97 Example Excel Data Table EN bber E ecl dntebrberHeport LA m ES iape EM yee peer el Jed poa quedes rele gin Dae est SA Lux wre Be es lt erp Exa Sx 2 5A th T H 0 E Ham Fa A A A A pe ee pee SHAT OOO EH H ET 08 O i r a zE ET iE ae HAT oe Bd H HET 0C O tae ie igi 2 ili mu E gre eur HAT 0x 2c 20 H HET Oc SOC m Fibs mE PIE AH HIT LO 2G EL HIT TE EREOE Aum aT 1 E 55 81 n E JT EROGO KH A TAI j Iidem 341
169. ll data Mail system related errors 15 0 7 1 019 1 529 2 039 Check Uncheck All To download the list of bounced addresses check the error groupis you are interested in see checkboxes at the right of the chart and click the download button below Download only the e mail addresses Download Select the information to download Bounces count not yet updated Update Bounce Count 80 9 3 Delivered Jobs Reports Click on the reports tab to generate a Quick Report on the current job as long as tracking has been switched on for the job in question Quick Reports are predefined report types that create a temporary report based on the selected report settings and the active e mail job Figure 65 Delivered Jobs Quick Reports Delivered Job Details Detailed information about the selected jab Team Collaboration Delete Job summary Reports Define what kind of report you want to view for the selected Job Report Type f Event distribution over time Sum of events C C Event details C Recipient details Show Report Over Open Up events Click Through events all links bundled Click Through events all links separate Open Up events and Click Through events fall links bundled Open Up events and Click Through events all links separate Additional Statistics Y Number of Sent Messages Number of Unbounced Messages F Number of Bounced Messages Creating a quick report is a multi step proc
170. lly separate the recipient data into columns or otherwise quantify the data the next steps are to define the column that identifies the e mail address decide whether to use additional recipients data for mail merging and tracking and to edit the column headers if necessary The Recipients Details screen is split into three sections to accommodate these steps 4 4 1 Usage of Recipients Data LISTSERV Maestro needs to know if additional recipient data will be used for mail merging and tracking or whether this information is to be ignored and the job sent as bulk e mail If the Use additional recipient data for mail merging and tracking option button is selected columns from the text file or database can be used in the e mail message to create personalized messages These columns can then also be used to identify recipients for more detailed tracking reports For more information on using mail merging see Section 5 6 Merge Fields and Conditional Blocks If the Ignore additional recipient data and send job as bulk e mail option button is selected any additional columns that were uploaded with the file or that appear in the database will be ignored by the system It will not be possible to use mail merging Tracking for the message will be limited to blind tracking meaning that the tracking data available from the job will not be associated with identifiable individuals or other demographic information It is possible to enter an a
171. ls 18 00 7 00 PM equals 19 00 8 00 PM equals 20 00 9 00 PM equals 21 00 10 00 PM equals 22 00 11 00 PM equals 23 00 12 00 AM equals 00 00 128 Appendix B E mail and International Character Sets Computers store all information in the form of bits or their 8 bit conglomerations bytes Bits are also the entities that are transferred from the sender s computer to the recipient s computer whenever an e mail message is sent E mail programs take the message and convert it to bits The message is sent and the receiving e mail client program translates these bits back into a readable message for the recipient This process takes place seamlessly for the sender and the recipient The sender first creates a text message and the recipient receives a text message all the converting remains behind the scenes In order for characters from an alphabet to be converted into bits for transmission and then converted back into the message the bits have to be arranged into sequences representing each character in the alphabet Matching the bit sequences to alphabetical characters is called mapping Mapping bit sequences to alphabets has resulted in several different so called character sets short charsets that have been defined and standardized by the international community In the English speaking world probably the most widely used charset is ASCII sometimes also called US ASCII which is a charset that maps 7 bit sequ
172. ls screen becomes active Click on the tab to open up a definition page to generate a quick report on the test message data Quick Reports are predefined report types that create a temporary report based on the selected report settings and the active e mail job Figure 54 Test Reports Change Job Info Delete Job Workflow Summary Test Reports Define what kind af repart you want to view for the selected jab Report Type Event distribution over time C Sum of events C Event details Show Report Over Open Up events Click Thraugh events fall links bundled Click Through events all links separate Qpen Up events and Click Through events fall links bundled A Qpen Up events and Click Through events all links separate Additional Statistics Number of Sent Messages Number of Unbounced Messages Number of Bounced Messages First select the report type by clicking the corresponding option button There are three different report types that are available depending on the type of tracking selected e Event distribution over time Produces a simple line graph showing number of responses over time Time is plotted on the x axis of the chart and events are charted on the y axis e Sum of events Produces a bar graph showing the number of recipients who clicked on each URL and or opened up the message The number of recipients is plotted on the y axis and the number of events is pl
173. lse If the condition specified in bb evaluates false then execute the code in this part of the block End conditional block Must be the last line of any block Precedes comment lines A conditional block always starts with the BB directive followed by a condition on the same line The EB directive ends the conditional block Fields used in a condition are preceded by an ampersand s but are not followed by a semicolon 139 The syntax for a basic LISTSERV Maestro conditional block looks like this Polo Conc roman ole mea cesa text to be included when the condition is met Nu The ELSE command is used to execute the code in the block if the condition is false Instead of not including any text if the condition is false a different text can be included For example if you wanted to add the recipient s name to the salutation of a message so the greeting starts with Dear fullname but not all of the recipient records have a name entered in the fullname field the use of a conditional block can ensure a salutation for all messages Those recipients that have a name in the fullname field condition is true would receive a message with their name inserted and those that do not have a name in the field condition is false can have a generic greeting inserted into the message instead ouch a conditional block might look like this bb amp fullname Begin block directive Ampersand and column nam
174. m Collaboration button becomes available if there are other account holders in the group This function makes it possible to set up a team of people to collaborate on a job From the Job Details Summary screen Team Collaboration is the bottom listing and can be edited if the Edit link is active The job owner can choose team members and assign each person privileges rights to perform certain functions within that job The job owner always has privileges to all the functions of his her job and other account holders may not revoke these privileges Other team members can have different responsibilities for different aspects of a job Team members can also share responsibilities for the same aspects of a job Figure 6 Change Job Information Screen Change Job Information Job Title November Newsletter Jab ID Prefix placed before the system generated Job ID This button becomes active when there are other account OK Cancel holders in the job owner s group Team Collaboration Clicking Team Collaboration reveals other account holders in the job owner s group The job owner can choose the privileges to grant or revoke by clicking in the check boxes next to each account To grant or revoke a certain privilege for all accounts in the group click on the corresponding privilege in the title bar To grant or revoke all privileges for a certain account click on the account holder s name To grant or revoke all privileges for all
175. mation and preference Delimiter The character or symbol that is used to separate one item from another In text files imported into databases commas are often used as delimiters E mail Job In LISTSERV Maestro an e mail job is the creation of a customized list of recipients matched with a customized e mail message that is scheduled for delivery and then sent out E mail Merge Placing variables that are extracted from a database into an e mail message template This operation permits individual personalization of otherwise bulk e mail messages Encoding Is the transformation of data into digital form With text encoding different character sets encode text files differently based on language and other variables If a special character set was used to encode a text file that same encoding scheme needs to be used to interpret the data correctly LISTSERV Maestro allows for the selection of encoding based upon the original encoding scheme of the uploaded text file For example if special encoding was used to initially create and save the text file e g ISO 7 encoding for a file with Greek characters or a Unicode encoding the same encoding will have to be selected in LISTSERV Maestro so that the system interprets the uploaded data in the same way it was saved Header A special row of data that defines and labels the columns in a database file Link Alias Gives each link to be tracked a special name Aliases can be used
176. mber of unbounced messages as a constant reference in the report This value shows the number of messages that were sent and not detected as bounces by LISTSERV This option is only available if LISTSERV handles bounces automatically selected during the sender definition e Number of Bounced Messages Adds the number of bounced messages as a constant value in the report This value shows the number of messages that were sent but were detected as bounces by LISTSERV This value can go up over time depending on the type of bounce LISTSERV detected This option is only available if LISTSERV handles bounces automatically selected during the sender definition Select a report type a source data type and any additional statistics using the option buttons Click OK to continue A temporary report with the settings selected will be generated and displayed on the screen This report will not be saved it can always be run again from the Delivered Jobs screen unless the Create Report icon located at the bottom right of the screen is clicked This will open the Define Report screen where it is possible to save the quick report as a regular report using the quick report s settings as a template Located at the bottom right side of the delivered jobs reports are four icons Each icon opens a page with different functions and options The currently selected icon will be highlighted with a blue border Icons that are unavailable will appear grayed
177. ministrator s Manual for how to create recipients target groups 4 2 7 Letting LISTSERV Select Recipients from a Database The option Let LISTSERV Select Recipients from a Database relies on a pre existing configuration of LISTSERV connected to a database or databases whereas LISTSERV acts as the communicator between the database s and LISTSERV Maestro This option may only be used if LISTSERV has been set up to work with a database The site administrator should consult the LISTSERV Developer s Manual for details If LISTSERV is connected to multiple databases enter the server name defined in LISTSERV s configuration in the Database Server text box Enter the SQL statement selecting the recipients in the SQL Statement text box Figure 16 Define Recipients from LISTSERV Connected Database Define Recipients Options Source Cancel lt Back Next gt Recipients Source Let LISTSERY select recipients from a database Specify the SQL Statement that will be executed by LISTSERV to retrieve the recipients for the e mail job Database Server optional leave empty to use the default database SQL Statement SELECT FROM CUSTOMERS WHERE EMAIL AOL COM executed by LISTSERV Click Next to continue 20 4 3 Source Details The Source Details link will only become active if LISTSERV Maestro needs to interpret or quantify data that has been uploaded or otherwise selected If recipient data is
178. more than one parameter on the Source Details page so be sure to scroll down the page to make sure all values have been selected After selections have been made click the Next gt button and the SELECT statement will be run against the database The Summary screen will appear listing all the recipients who matched the criterion and make up the recipients list 4 3 3 Uploaded Text File In the case of an uploaded text file LISTSERV Maestro will try to determine how the columns of data are separated and how each column or field of data is labeled In order to send out an e mail job LISTSERV Maestro must correctly interpret which column is the name of the recipient and which column is the e mail address of the recipient Other fields may be included and will appear in the results table located on the lower half of the screen 23 Figure 20 Define Recipients Source Details Parse Recipients Define Recipients Options Source Source Details Recipients Details Cancel z Back Next gt Parse Recipients The uploaded source file needs to be interpreted correctly before being Usable as a recipients list The preview below shows the result of the parsing performed using the settings specified on this page Character Encoding Column Separator and Quote Character The system will interpret the recipients file with standard encoding and will try to determine the separator and quote character automatically Specify details manually H
179. n a navigational or functional icon before successfully completing it once acts the same as clicking Cancel gt Caution Do not use the browser s back button to navigate within the program because entries may not be automatically saved Figure 8 Define Recipients Options Screens Define Recipients Options Cancel Options Select the type of Recipients to use for the Job Use existing recipients C Send to a Recipients Target Group C Send to an Existing LISTSERV List Determine Recipients Based on Reaction to the Job Define recipients C Upload a Recipients Text File Select Recipients From a Database Let LISTSERV Select Recipients From a Database 12 4 2 Source The next step is to define or upload a Source for the recipient data Depending on the Options selected in the previous screen different prompts will appear on the Source screen requesting different information in order to create the recipients list 4 2 1 Send to a Recipients Target Group Recipient target groups are pre selected groups of recipients organized around a set of criterion such as demographic information or other data that is stored in a database There are many advantages to using recipients target groups e They can be fixed pulling recipients in a predefined fashion such as all males or all cat owners above age 40 e They can include parameters giving the account holder the freedom to select a sub set of
180. n buttons to select whether tracking will be on or off for new jobs Delivery Test Definition Enter a default test line for all new outgoing delivery tests Schedule Definition Select the default delivery type and the default time zone from the drop down menus for new jobs Report Definition Use the option buttons and drop down menus to set a variety of default report options including Report Type Time Period Time Zone Download Encoding and Team Collaboration 123 Figure 111 Report Definition Preferences Report Definition Preferences On this page you can set your individual repart definition preferences Default Report Type O Let the system use the last Report Type Use the following Report Type Event distribution aver time Event distribution over time Default Period Type Sum of events Recipient details C Let the system use the last Perlevent details Use the following Period Type Report period is automatically sized to fit the registered events Default Time Zone Let the system use the last Time Zone Use the following Time Zone use my local time zone Default Download Encoding O Let the system use the last Download Encoding Use the following Download Encoding E Select Default Team Collaboration Click on the following link to change the team Edit Edit and Execute Only Execute After making any preference selections click OK to save the settings or Ca
181. nal Icons Ej Home brings the user back to the opening screen the LISTSERV Maestro home page Y Up One Level brings the user up one level in the program not necessarily back to the previous screen x Log out ends the LISTSERV Maestro session and closes the account T Help provides access to page specific online help LISTSERV Maestro s functionality centers on characterizing the various parts of an e mail job A job refers to all of the elements that make up the creation scheduling delivery and tracking of customized e mail messages Throughout LISTSERV Maestro documentation job and e mail job are used interchangeably and represent the same thing the summation of the multiple functions that make up the definition and distribution of customized e mail messages Figure 2 LISTSERV Maestro Home Page O 1 2 2 J 1 Starts a new e mail job O 2 Jobs that have been defined but not ready for delivery Start New Job Resume Job V 3 Jobs that have been approved but not yet sent v 5 4 Jobs that have been delivered and quick reports MUL 5 Create tracking reports and download tracking data Cys Outbox Delivered Jobs Tracking Reports o 6 User settings saved profiles drop in content elements recipient target groups user password O O User Settings The center of the opening screen of LISTSERV Maestro contains six large icons that activate the major functional areas of t
182. ncel Click OK to save alias definition To track a link 1 Click on the link in the message in the main center frame If the link is a form submission click on the submit button of the form The link will appear in the bottom frame 2 Click Track with Alias or Track without Alias Figure 43 Track with or without Alias Selected Link Click the link in the body of the message Target URL http www soft com then click Track with Alias Alias hone or Track without Alias Status This link eing tracked Track with Alias Track without Alias 3 For tracking with an alias enter an alias in the text box labeled Define New Alias or select an existing alias from the drop down menu Click OK to save the alias definition The new definition will appear in the right frame 4 Links tracked without an alias will appear in the right frame It is possible to add an alias by clicking Select Link under the URL in the Currently Tracked Links table in the right frame and then following step three 5 To edit or remove a tracked link click Select Link under the URL in the Currently Tracked Links table in the right frame and then click the Edit Alias or Do not track this Link button in the bottom frame 91 Figure 44 Edit Tracked Link Selected Link Target URL http jiw ww soft com Alias advanced order E Click Edit Alias to change an alias Status This link is bel Click
183. ncel to not save the settings and return to the User Preferences screen 124 Glossary of Terms Attachment A file linked to an e mail message Many programs use MIME encoding to attach files Click Through Event A trackable occurrence available with text and HTML e mail messages that records each time a URL contained in the message is clicked Column A vertical set of data as in a table or spreadsheet Database A large collection of data organized for rapid search and retrieval and managed by a DBMS Database Plugin Is used to connect LISTSERV Maestro to a database and to allow the user to select recipient data from a database table in the recipient wizard The user selects the matching plugin for the database he she wants to access then provides the connection data like host name port user name password etc and LISTSERV Maestro is then able to access that database to select the recipients DBMS Stands for Data Base Management System A complex set of programs that control the organization storage and retrieval of data for many users Data is organized into fields records and files A database management system must also control the security of the database Examples of Database management systems are Oracle Sybase and Datacom A DBMS provides the possibilities for users to connect LISTSERV to a database back end and hence send out personalized messages to customers according to demographic infor
184. nconnonannnnononnnnononcnnononnos 28 Figure 26 A LISTSERV Selected Database ooccccconoccccocnococonnnnncnncnnconannnononnnnnnnnnnnnnnannnnonannnnnnnnnnncnnanans 29 Figure 27 Recipient Summary and Duplicate ElimMinatiON ooooccncococcnnononnncnnanonnnnoncnnononnnnnonarononnnonos 30 gera BI uoi de 31 Figure 29 Drop In Content SelllbgS uu qe pem cesta cd 32 Figure 30 Available Merge Fields and Drop in esee nenne 33 Figure 31 Grant Permission to Install Applet ooocccocccncoconococoncconnncconnnoconononanononanononanononnncnnanonenanos 35 F 48892 Browse tor Fle aliada acia 35 FIQUrS 33 Load ResullS ss T e 35 Figure 34 Conditional Content Settings ooocococonnoncccononccconnnccnanononnanonnnnnnnnnnonnnnnnnannnnonannnnennnnnnnnnanoss 38 Figure 35 Define Content Attachments cccccccsssceccseseeeceesseeceueeecceeeeecseaseesseaseeessageesseaseeessasseesssageees 40 Figure 36 Language Charset Selliligjs ani aeann a SiE 41 Figure 37 Available Merge Fields and Drop in cccccccceeecceeeeeceeeeeneeeeseeeeeeeaeeeseeeeeseeeeseeessaeeessaeeeesaees 42 Figure 36 Merge Fields Exalead 42 Figure 39 Conditional Block Example cccccscccccssscecceseeecceseeecceuseeessaeeeceegseessseeessageeeesageeesssasseesssagenes 43 Figure40 Tracking OM OM Offas si ltda M 48 Figure 41 Tracking DEMANA ana 49 Figure 42 Click Threugh Tracking DeflnitiO
185. ne File encoding Select z Select file encoding Deva Executed Aug 26 2002 04 08 47 PM Including events froin Aug 26 2002 11 09 00 AM until Aug 26 2002 03 07 00 PM Download in Events Details Report Data Select the data source from the top frame by clicking the Select link The currently selected data source will appear in the lower frame Select the time zone from the top drop down menu and the file encoding from the bottom drop down menu Click the Download button to download the raw data to a local drive 108 The downloaded data CVS file contains comma separated and quoted lt gt tabular data with the following columns EVENT TYPE The date and time to the second when the event was triggered RECIPIENT ID ID of the recipient who triggered the event If the tracking type is personal then the RECIPIENT ID will be the actual ID of the recipient as defined by the account holder in the recipients wizard If the tracking type is anonymous this field will contain a 1 based integer number which is an internal identifier of the anonymous profile that matches the recipient who triggered the event This number cannot be used to identify an individual recipient who triggered an event but can be used to determine if two events were triggered by a recipient with the same anonymous profile the same number will be used or not This number is also used internally in the Recipients Details report to d
186. ned Tracking Open Up Tracking ON Click Thraugh Tracking ON Tracking Type Personal Sender E mail Address bstinson mlsoft corm Sender Mame Beth Reply To Address Bounce Address Handle bounced messages automatically 9 2 1 View Bounce Details From the Summary screen of Delivered Jobs it is possible to update the bounce count and generate a graphical representation of the number and type of bounces for the job Click on the View bounce details link to open the Bounce Details screen The Bounce Details report is comprised of color coded bars that represent the number and type of bounces The top bar displays the total number of al bounces The bars below represent the total number of bounces divided into different bounce types or reasons Bounce types are based on RFC error codes that define the characteristics of why the message bounced The codes are documented in RFC 821 Simple Mail Transfer Protocol RFC 1893 Enhanced Mail System Status Codes and RFC 1894 An Extensible Message Format for Delivery Status Notifications For more information on RFCs see http www ietf org rfc html LISTSERV Maestro groups bounces into reasons based on these current e mail RFCs 79 The reason groups LISTSERV Maestro uses are e Unknown delivery errors RFC 1893 4 0 x and 5 0 x All otherwise unspecified errors e Address related errors RFC 1893 4 1 x and 5 1 x Includes errors like Unknown user at host or
187. ng events from Aug 15 2002 12 20 00 PM until Aug 15 2002 06 56 00 PM 2 Executed Sep 30 2002 11 08 34 AM Including events from Aug 15 2002 12 20 00 PM until Aug 15 2002 06 56 00 PM Sum of Unique Events as Percentages Sum of All Events as Percentages Report Sum of Events Report Sum of Events ia Bercentage of Unique Events 107 160 g q Percentage of All Events The values are shown as percentage of sent messages Event Data Sources Summary The values are shown as percentage of sent messages For each data source bar only unique events are counted Event Data Sources summary Bi open up Events E Click Through Events for link logo http www Isoft corn Wi click Through Events for link advanced order http www Isoft cor E Click Through Events for link sneak preview text http www widgets com I Click Through Events for link advanced order text http www order widgets now comn Bi Click Through Events for link sneak peek http www Isoft com I Click Through Events for link advanced order text http www order widgets now com Sum 21 Bl Click Through Events for link sneak peck http www lsoft com 32 For each data source bar all events are counted a Open Up Events Sum 214 E Click Through Events for link logo http www lsoft com Sum 42 Wi click Throuah Events for link advanced order http www lsoft com Sum 50 Click Through Events for link sneak preview text http www wid
188. ng the content there is a special item for this on the content definition page or tell LISTSERV Maestro that it should attempt to automatically determine which charset is the optimal one for the text contained in the message 130 In the latter case LISTSERV Maestro scans the written text to determine the optimal charset If the message uses characters that can be displayed with the ASCII charset the case with most English language texts LISTSERV Maestro will choose the ASCII charset If the message contains characters outside of the ASCII range but that can still be displayed with one of the supported ISO 8859 charsets then LISTSERV Maestro will choose the corresponding ISO 8859 charset And optionally only if LISTSERV Maestro is set to allow Unicode the message has characters that cannot be displayed with one of the ISO 8859 charsets for example Asian characters or there are mixed characters from several ISO 8859 charsets then LISTSERV Maestro will choose Unicode as the charset Once a charset is chosen LISTSERV Maestro encodes each character as a bit sequence according to that charset The e mail that is sent is then augmented by the information of which charset was used to encode it This information is then used by the receiving mail client to decode the bit sequence into characters that can be displayed to the recipient For example with ASCII charset where each 7 bit sequence denotes one character the sequence 1000001 w
189. ngs of the account the Job ID prefix may already be set or limited to pre set options If a choice of Job IDs has been pre set by the system administrator a drop down menu will be available instead of the Job ID Prefix text box Use the prefix to further identify jobs or perhaps group jobs for reporting or billing For more on Job Titles and Job IDs see the LISTSERV Maestro online help or the LISTSERV Maestro Administrators Guide Once a Job Title and Job ID have been assigned they will appear in the upper left side of the screen on every screen that is associated with that particular job Figure 3 Start New Job Screen IE Start New Job Job Title widget Company September Newsletter oa optional text placed before the system generated Job Job ID Prefix news ID Initial Job Settings C Choose all new settings Copy contents recipients and sender settings from job 5 Select y Undelivered Jobs doz0225 listing 020225D recipients3 AE 8 Outbox 020225C recipients2 020222E jeff A new job can be created one of two ways by selecting the option button choose all new settings which means entering in all new information or by selecting the option button copy contents recipients and sender settings from existing job which takes the settings from an existing job as the basis for the new job A new empty job needs to have the e mail message defined as well as the sender and r
190. nk can be tracked 39 To attach a file to a message click the Attachments tab on the Define Content screen Click Add Attachment to browse for a file from a local drive When content from one job is copied to another job attachments are copied as part of the message content Figure 35 Define Content Attachments Define Content Define the Subject and the Body of the message Get Content from other Job Subject Body Plain Text HTML Plain Text Attachments CyberSpeak doc 8375 Bytes delete download READ_ME doc 35328 Bytes delete download Click the delete link to remove the attachment Click the download link to download the attachment to a local file Add Attachment 5 5 Setting the Language Character Set A character set also called charset character encoding code page or character page is simply a table that matches numbers the digital information sent by computers over the Internet to letters or more precisely characters Due to the nature of digital information and e mail all data is reduced to numeric code there is a finite number of positions in this table to correspond to letters and other symbols of a language Therefore different charsets have been developed to correspond to the different letters and symbols for different languages A charset will not translate one language to another it only encodes data to match positions in the table to specific characters For example in the chars
191. nnnnanenons 17 4 2 6 Selecting Recipients from a Database ccccccsssecccceseeecceseeeeceeeeecsauseeceeuseeessaueesssegseessagees 18 4 2 7 Letting LISTSERV Select Recipients from a Database occcccconcccccnccnconoccnnnnonnnncnnnconconanennnnnons 20 43 SOUR CSS TAA m T H 21 ESMAS TS ER TOP OS TI Lm 21 4 3 2 Recipients Target Groups that Include ParameterS occccoccncccccnccccnncocnnonncnnnnnnnncnncnononcnnnncnnnos 22 NS II eae eee tees 23 4 34 NIMC Pornoda Detallada 26 A ace daa net dea docs ae cue ee antes acess eee eee 2f 4 4 1 Usage of Recipients Da l a otra etait co e ia 2f 4 4 2 Recipient Identification COJUMNS cooccccconcnccccnncccnnncncnnononnnononnnnnncnononononnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnonenenonaness 27 44 3 Header DE IAN oca 2f Ao SUMMAN 5 ees aces 29 Section 5 Defining and Editing Content for an E mail Job ooccconnnciconiciccnncococoonanocnonanconnnnnnnnanarennnnanos 30 dl DFO HII COME ne gett ep e os beu dials ea Eudes gisele 32 5 2 Creating Text Message ii illa 33 9 9 Greating Fil ME Messages uc e Dtuc da cedent stel edes A anu ie ee 33 5 4 Alternative Content and Conditional Content occcccoccnncccccnnconoccncononcnnonnncnncnnnnnnononcnnnnnnnnnnonanennnnnnans 36 5 4 1 Alternative Text for HTML Messages
192. ns are not correct repeat the process and click Refresh Preview to see the new changes 4 3 4 Time Period Details In the case of a recipients list generated by reaction from a previous job the Source Details screen opens so that a time frame can be set to define the reactions of the previous recipients in relation to a time period Figure 22 Time Period Details Summary lt Back Next gt Recipient actions will only be considered if they occur in the time period that is specified on this page Define Recipients Time Period Details Start Time Send time of the original job 020225B Feb 25 2002 01 35 PM this time is relative to your local time zone The following time 02 26 2002 Format mm dd yyyy hh mm 02 26 2002 Time is optional If left out 00 00 is used End Time C Send time of the current job The following time 02 28 2002 Format mm dd yyyy hh mm 02 28 2002 Time is optional If left out 23 59 is used The given date and time values are relative to this time zone Use my local time zone y Select an option button for the Start Time Use the original job s send time or enter in another date Select an option button for the End Time Use the new job s send time or enter in 26 another date Next select the time zone that the time values are relative to from the drop down menu Click Next gt to continue 4 4 Recipients Details Once LISTSERV Maestro can successfu
193. nt the e mail from being delivered From this screen it is possible to download the validated recipient list and the list containing recipients who have been rejected If available a sample of the recipient list will appear at the bottom of the screen The sample recipient list will not show up for a LISTSERV list or for a LISTSERV selected database For job response recipients the sample list from the original job is displayed LISTSERV Maestro can also eliminate duplicate recipients Click on the Define duplicate elimination button to initiate this function Duplicates can be removed based on one or more selected criteria To select more than one criterion for removing duplicates hold down the SHIFT key or the CTRL key and click on the columns desired fip Removing duplicates from recipient data can be a useful way to ensure that multiple messages are not sent to the same recipient It is common practice for one person to have more than one e mail address for example a work e mail address and a personal e mail address By creatively selecting one or more criteria to remove duplicates it is possible to avoid sending multiple messages to the same person with different e mail addresses Similarly several recipients may use the same e mail address for example family members sharing an ISP may also share an e mail address In this case it might be desirable to send multiple messages to the same address shared by multiple recipients but addressed to
194. nterested in the information contained in a message are much more likely to open and interact with the message Senders who understand their recipients needs and interests and target messages appropriately will experience higher levels of user satisfaction and enhance their own reputation Tracking and recording recipient and user information has ethical and legal implications L Soft expects that each user will utilize the software responsibly Responsible use of the software includes but is not limited to observation of all laws and legal requirements that apply to use of the software and specifically privacy concerns of the recipients It is the full responsibility of the user to be apprised of all relevant ethical and legal implications regarding use of the software 47 LISTSERV Maestro can track a variety of different information about recipients and how they interact with a sent message Tracking statistics reports are available in a number of formats Tracking data can also be downloaded so that it can be used in other statistical and reporting software packages With a special Microsoft Excel Add In downloaded statistics can be easily imported to generate tables and graphs in Excel For more information see Section 10 3 Using the Excel Add In Note It is not necessary for tracking to be enabled to send out an e mail job Tip Let recipients know that they are being tracked and how tracking information is being used by providing
195. number of messages sent C Percentage of total number of unbounced messages sent Unique or Total Events Defines if only unique events or if all events are counted Count only events unique for each recipient C Count all events Execute Changing the settings above only affect the resulting diagram produced when you click the Execute button To permanently change the report click on the Edit Report icon below Executed Sep 30 2002 04 26 07 PM Including events from Aug 15 2002 12 20 00 PM until Aug 15 2002 06 56 00 PM m Click the Execute button to change the View screen the chart or graph and change the downloadable data Edit Report Create Report To change the definition of the current report click the Edit Report icon The Define Report screen opens if the user has the right to edit reports The current report s General Settings Data Sources and Result Settings can be edited and saved to reflect any changes in the current report or they can be saved as a new report See Section 10 1 Tracking Reports and Figures 68 and 69 for more details If the current report is a quick report from Delivered Jobs clicking the Create Report icon will allow the user to create a new report based on the settings of the quick report Type in a title for the report and then click the OK button to save the quick report as a regular report Or click the Save amp Execute button to execute the report again display it and save the quick r
196. o work cooperatively with each other on the Internet Understanding the rules is often helpful for understanding and troubleshooting problems See Appendix D for links to various RFCs Select Statement A SQL statement in form of a query that is issued to a database to retrieve data Separator Character A character or symbol used to separate one item from another In databases commas are often used as separator characters 126 SQL SQL stands for Structured Query Language It is a language used to create maintain and query relational databases SQL uses regular English words for many of its commands making it easy to use It is often embedded within other programming languages URL URL stands for Uniform Resource Locator formerly Universal Resource Locator URLs are Internet addresses that tell browser programs where to find Internet resources The URL for L Soft is http www Isoft com 127 Appendix A 24 Hour Clock Time Conversion Table Use the table to convert conventional AM and PM times to LISTSERV Maestro compatible format 1 00 AM equals 01 00 2 00 AM equals 02 00 3 00 AM equals 03 00 4 00 AM equals 04 00 5 00 AM equals 05 00 6 00 AM equals 06 00 7 00 AM equals 07 00 8 00 AM equals 08 00 9 00 AM equals 09 00 10 00 AM equals 10 00 11 00 AM equals 11 00 12 00 PM equals 12 00 1 00 PM equals 13 00 2 00 PM equals 14 00 3 00 PM equals 15 00 4 00 PM equals 16 00 5 00 PM equals 17 00 6 00 PM equa
197. ob 1 Link Number af Sent Messages Sent Messages 1 Job Add Data Source e Data Source Description Lists the defined data sources available for use in a report Click on the title of the data source to open the data source wizard and edit the selections Click on the copy link to make a copy of the data source Click on the delete link to delete the data source e Add Data Source Opens the data source wizard a series of screens that leads the user through the process of creating or editing a data source There are five screens to the data source wizard e Type Defines the type of event to report on e Jobs Defines which job or jobs those events are from e Links Defines which URLs to include from click through events e General Defines the color for the data source e Summary Displays a summary of the selections for the newly defined data source The first screen of the wizard defines the data source type Select the type of tracking event Open Up or Click Through Or select one of the three Sent Messages and Bounce Count Statistics options to be the data source type 88 Figure 73 Data Source Type Report Data Source Definition Type Cancel Data Source Type Tracking Events Select the event types to include in the data source Open Up Events O Click Through Events C Sent Messages and Bounce Count Statistics Select the type of mail count statistics to include in the data sour
198. ocessing time is much faster e Anonymous Tracking A unique ID is assigned to each recipient that cannot be followed back to identifying information about the individual recipient but that is associated with non identifying demographic information such as age gender or zip postal code It is the responsibility of the user to analyze the data and determine what is and what is not identifying data For example if the data contains one zip code that corresponds to just one recipient then the zip code becomes identifying data for that recipient and should not be used unless the input data is changed so that sparsely populated zip codes are all lumped together into an other category for the purposes of tracking Anonymous tracking is available For recipients uploaded as a text file and the option Use additional recipient data for mail merging and tracking chosen on the Recipients Details page in recipients wizard For recipients selected from a database by LISTSERV Maestro and the option Use additional recipient data for mail merging and tracking chosen on the Recipients Details page in recipients wizard For recipients defined Based on Reaction to a Previous Job chosen on the Options page in recipients wizard as long as Use additional recipient data for mail merging and tracking is chosen on the Recipients Details page in recipients wizard 54 When anonymous tracking is
199. ode in the form of its UTF 8 variant UTF 8 is a transfer encoding for the 16 bit Unicode charset which maps Unicode characters to one two or more bytes in a way that more common characters like ASCII characters need fewer bytes than uncommon characters Again for convenience the first 128 characters of Unicode 0 127 are exactly the same as in the ASCII charset while the first 256 characters 0 255 are the same as in ISO 8859 1 West European A large percentage of all other letters of world languages are assigned values from 256 to 65535 although not even the large range of Unicode is enough to accommodate all letters from all languages LISTSERV Maestro and International Character Sets What happens when international characters are used in e mail messages written and delivered in LISTSERV Maestro Internally LISTSERV Maestro uses pure Unicode allowing for the mixture of any characters in e mail including the subject line and any data merged from uploaded files or selected from a database as long as there is a way of inputting them For some languages this simply requires the installation of a special keyboard and display driver for that language Other languages such as Asian languages may require a special keyboard this depends on the language and on the computer s operating system For sending LISTSERV Maestro needs to decide on a charset that it can use to encode the message Specify the charset to use while defini
200. of messages sent that have not been bounced yet For example if 300 messages were sent and 50 bounced there would be a total of 250 unbounced messages And if 150 events have been counted then the bar length for that data source will be 60 because 150 is 60 of 250 e Unique or Total Events Select whether to count all events that are tracked or only unique events triggered by recipients O Count only events unique for each recipient For each recipient only one event of each type is counted For example if open up and click through events are being tracked and a recipient opened the message twice and clicked on the same link three times only two events would be counted This method of counting is recommended when one of the percentage result calculations is selected Count all events For each recipient all triggered events are counted Using the example above five events would be counted using the Count all events option 103 Figure 87 Change View Settings for Sum of Events Report Report Sum of Events Count Unique Events Change View Settings for Report Report of type Sum Over Number of Events during the Time Period To modify the display of the report and the format of the downloaded results change the settings below and click on the Execute button Result Calculation Defines how the result shown as the length of the bars in the chart is calculated Total number of events C Percentage of total
201. onably assume that most recipients have received the message and have opened it data from selected open up and click through events can be gathered This data can be used to generate reports in two ways The first way is by clicking on the Delivered Jobs icon covered in Section 9 2 Delivered Job Reports The second way is by clicking the Tracking Reports icon Both of these methods are available from the home page or on the left side of most screens e Delivered Jobs Lists all of the e mail jobs that have been delivered in a tabbed table format The first tabbed page contains a summary table listing details about each job The second tabbed page contains access to predefined reports quick reports for that job available only if tracking is switched on for the job in question Click on the type of report desired and a temporary report is automatically generated based on the selected settings This temporary report is not automatically saved To save the quick report click on the Create report icon at the bottom of the report This opens the Define Report screen Click on OK to save the report and return to the reports list or Save amp Execute to execute the report again display it and save the quick report as a regular report e Tracking Reports Opens the list of current reports if any Clicking the New Report button opens a series of pages that guides the user through the process of building a new customized report by defining data
202. ooccccoccnccconncoccncconcnonononononnnonannnnnnnnononenononononos 106 r Idure 99 Event Details FRED OI esci Gace i iino Ma Oe RN tuac cda Mu 108 Figure 91 Excel Add In for Tracking Statistics IMport ccoooccccccconcnnoconcnnconncnnonononnonnncnnonnanonnnnanennnnnas 111 Fig re 92 installing Tracker Add M M 111 Figure 93 Browse tor Add in File aiii ASS 112 Figure 94 New Excel Tool Bar Button sarita litio 112 Figure 95 Using Tracker Add In with Excel Import Dialog BOX ooocccooccccoccccoccncconcnononcncnnncncnnnnnnoninonos 113 Figure 96 Example Excel Graph Event Distribution Over Time oocccccccnccccncccccnccnnnncnnnnnconononononenoninonos 113 Figure 97 Example Excel Data Table s in prisci anaa aa diaaa aaa aaa iia anadai 114 Figure 9S User SOWING S secano ici a iii iciaala 116 Vi Figure 99 Managing Sender PrOmles aora dani laa 116 Figure 100 Creating and Editing Sender Profiles ooocccccooccnnococnncooonononnononnnnnnnonnonanonononennnnnnns 117 Figure 101 Manage Drop In Content Elements occccooccncccoccnnccccccncononcnnonnncononnnnonononcnnonnnrnnnnnancnnonanrnnnnnns 118 Figure 102 Edit Drop In Content Element TeXt ooocccoonncncococcnncccncncononononnnnconononcnnnonnnrnnononnnnnnnnnrnnnnarnnnnnnns 118 Figure 103 Edit Drop In Content Element File ooccccccoccnccocccnnconocnnnononcnncnnaconnononononnncnnconanennonancnnnnnnns 119 Figure 104 Edit
203. or EVehls REDO stent secondes Deo se tinta gie Sect eto en Stadt a a Tar 101 10 2 3 Recipients Details Reports 2 3 ope eie it iba 104 10 2 4 Event Details Repo i e E dtr ete na a uie uisa eo ctetu ci 108 10 5 Usmo The Excel AGE uos teatri biting bcd cu uM icu b da v ticos 110 10 3 1 Downloading the LISTSERV Maestro Excel Add In ooooccccccocncccoccnnconoconconononcnnncononnns 110 10 3 2 Installing the LISTSERV Maestro Add In into Excel ooccccocccocccocconocooconconocononononcnnoncnnnnnos 111 10 3 3 Using the LISTSERV Maestro Excel Add In nesine aae a A 112 10 3 4 Removing an Existing Version of the Add D ooccoonccccconcnnccncccnnonoccnnononnnnconccnnononennononcnnnnnos 114 sectioh 11 User Setlihgs caia ada 115 11 1 Managing Sender Profiles cccccssscccceeseeeceesececceuseecceaseessageeecsauseeessseeessseeessaueesssaseeeessageees 116 11 2 Creating Drop In Content Elements idad 117 113 Recipient Target Groups usce rnt m ad is 120 11 4 Changing User Passworde o cts crac hasten us e lode uelut eddie bad a dlc pto vend ee Du dena aora 121 11 5 5ethg User Prefereribes xn e on eot ope Ea oou eo dde d 121 Glossary OF Eerfis 2o rio Dudas Non 125 Appendix A 24 Hour Clock Time Conversion Table 11 e e eceeeeeeeee seen n nennen nnne nnn nnn 128 Appendix B E mail and International Character Sets eeeceeeeeeee creen eene nennen 129 LISTSERV Maestro
204. or personal anonymous unique and blind tracking jobs The report type displays a table that lists the report type time period of the report allows for the selection of encoding for downloading the data and allows for the selection of the time zone to reference the downloaded data There are no other options available for this report type Figure 81 Result Settings Event Details Define Report Define the settings of the repart Title General Settings Data Sources Result Settings Result Type Event distribution over time Sum of events C Recipient details v Event details 10 2 Executing Reports There are several ways to execute reports using LISTSERV Maestro LISTSERV Maestro can produce quick reports that are instantly viewable on the screen from the Test Report tab on of the New Jobs screen see Section 7 3 Running Test Reports for more information and from the Reports tab of the Delivered Jobs screen see Section 9 2 Delivered Job Reports for more information LISTSERV Maestro can also produce reports from the Tracking Reports page as described in Section 10 Tracking Statistics and Reports Each of the four basic types of reports Event distribution over time Sum of events Recipient details and Event details has its own unique appearance Each report type also has its own set of options for viewing downloading manipulating and editing represented by four icons located at the bottom right side of
205. ore information on creating and editing reports see Section 10 Tracking Statistics and Reports in this guide Figure 66 Line Chart Report of Events Distributed Over Time Report Tracking data for listing Number of events A To Aug 15 2002 06 56 00 PM Time intervals The values for the intervals are accumulated from interval to interval From Aug 15 2002 12 20 00 PM Event Data Sources Summary Bl open up Events E Click Through Events for link logo http www Isoft corn Wi click Through Events for link advanced order http www Isoft cor a Click Through Events for link sneak preview text http www widgets corn Click Through Events for link advanced order text http www order widgets now com I Click Through Events for link sneak peek http www Isoft com 23 ULAR 125 Additional Data Sources Summary Bl number of Sent Messages 28 Sum Executed Aug 19 2002 12 40 54 PM Including events from Aug 15 2002 12 20 00 PM until Aug 15 2002 06 56 00 PM Figure 67 Bar Chart Report of the Sum of Unique Events Count Report Tracking data for listing Event Data Sources Summary For each data source bar only unique events are counted Bl open up Events Click Through Events for link logo http www Isoft com Wi click Through Events for link advanced order http Z vwwiw Isoft corn E Click Through Events for link sneak preview text http www widg
206. ort form Figure 68 Bar Chart Report of the Sum of Unique Events Percentage Report Tracking data for listing 0 25 50 The values are shown as percentage of sent messages Event Data Sources Summary For each data source bar only unique events are counted Bl open up Events E Click Through Events for link logo http www Isoft com Wl click Through Events for link advanced order http www Isoft corn E Click Through Events for link sneak preview text http www widgets corn I Click Through Events for link advanced order text http www order widgets now corn I Click Through Events for link sneak peek http www Isoft com Additional Data Sources Summary Bl Number of Sent Messages The total sum is not necessarily restricted to only unique events as the different data sources might cover overlapping event sets Executed Aug 19 2002 01 12 42 PM Including events from Aug 15 2002 12 20 00 PM until Aug 15 2002 06 56 00 PM To save a quick report as a regular report click the Create Report icon This opens the Define Report screen Click the Save amp Execute button and the quick report will be saved as a regular report with the same name Instructions for further editing and using tracking reports are covered in Section 10 Tracking Statistics and Reports 84 Section 10 Tracking Statistics and Reports Once an e mail job has been sent and enough time has gone by to reas
207. otted on the x axis 65 Two types of sum can be chosen for the report Sum of unique events or Sum of all events Sum of unique events records only a single event of each type for each recipient This chart will register 0 zero events if blind tracking has been selected for the tracking type during the tracking definition because blind tracking cannot count any event as unique Sum of all events counts all events triggered for each recipient Event details Displays a table that lists the report type time period of the report allows for the selection of encoding for downloading the data and allows for the selection of the time zone to reference the downloaded data Click the download link to download the raw data to a local drive Raw data can be used in Excel or other statistical software to create detailed reports Event detail reports are available for personal anonymous unique and blind tracking jobs Next select the source data for the report type Each data source will create a line or bar on the chart There are up to five choices depending on the type of message Plain Text or HTML as well as the tracking events defined in the message Open Up events This option charts all the open up events for a job It is only available for HTML messages Click Through events all links bundled This option bundles all click through events together into one variable charted on the report For example if three lin
208. ould have to be specified manually See Appendix C About Comma Separated Format Recipients Files for more information 24 Figure 21 Define Recipients Source Details Character Encoding Define Recipients Options Source Source Details Recipients Details Cancel lt Back Next gt Parse Recipients The uploaded source file needs to be interpreted correctly before being Usable as a recipients list The preview below shows the result of the parsing performed using the settings specified on this page Character Encoding Column Separator and Quote Character Specify how the columns in the file are separated Columns are separated by Comma Ph Specify if and how the columns in the file are additionally enclosed Columns are not enclosed by a quote character C Columns are enclosed by Other 7 Specify the language that the file is encoded with Character Encoding west European 150 1 Let the system try again Header Row Yes the first row in the file contains the headers No the file does not have a header row Preview Mame Email Product Model_num City Zoe Zimmerman z e bserver company com coffee master Baltimore Mo Yvette Yosel yvette server company com espresso press Hartford CT Xavier Xero Xavieriserver company cam mr tea Mew York NY Wilfred WWonderly Wilfred server company com coffee master Mew York WY Vanna vanschedule Vanna server company com espresso press Lansing MI Ursula Unde
209. ould mean the character with the decimal value 65 which is the Latin A With the ISO 8859 1 charset where each 8 bit sequence denotes one character the sequence 11000100 would mean the character with the decimal value 196 which is the umlaut A But with the ISO 8859 7 charset also 8 bit the same value 196 would mean the Greek letter A instead Consequently the decoding scheme or charset that makes the message readable to the recipient is very important LISTSERV Maestro takes care to include this information in the e mail so that it is not lost during the transfer Merging Fields with International Character Sets The issue of international character sets in combination with merging fields needs to be considered very carefully to make sure that the results of the merging appear to the recipient as intended The main problem when merging fields containing text using international charsets is to decide which charset to use Potentially the characters in the body of the message require a certain charset while some of the merge values may require a different charset For example a message may have English text as the body of the message but a recipient list with recipients from all over the world with names that contain letters from various languages It is likely that these international names would be encoded using a different charset than the text of the message It is important to consider what happens when merging thes
210. out These icons appear on all test report quick report and regular report pages Table 6 Delivered Jobs Report Icons View Report Displays the currently selected report with the latest report options Download Report Opens the Download Report Result screen From here it is possible to download report data in a zipped text file Change Results Settings Opens the Change View Settings for Report screen From here it is possible to change how the results are displayed on the report Create Report Edit Report This icon is called Create Report only if the report is a quick report In that case the Define Report screens with a new report that is pre filled with the settings from the quick report From here it is possible to save the quick report as a normal report by clicking the OK button or by clicking the Save amp Execute button which will display the report again as well as save it as a normal report For delivery tests it is not possible to save a quick report as a regular report so this icon is disabled grayed out If an existing report from the reports list is executed by clicking its title or by clicking the Save amp Execute button this icon is called Edit Report The Define Report screen opens but a new report is not created the existing report is simply opened the same way it is opened from the report list when the Edit link next to the report title is clicked 83 For m
211. ownload the profiles that triggered certain events If the tracking type is unique this field will contain a O based integer number that was given out to the recipient during sending This number cannot be used to identify which recipient triggered which event but it can be used to determine if multiple events were triggered by the same recipient the same number will be used or not If the tracking type is blind the field will always contain the default value DEF and cannot be used to find anything out about the recipient CLIENT ADDRESS The IP address of the recipient who triggered the event This is only present for personal tracking and will appear as 0 0 0 0 for all other types of tracking EVENT TYPE Either click for click through or openup for open up will appear depending on the type of event BODY TYPE For EVENT TYPE openup this field will always be empty because only HTML messages can track open up events For click through events the body part of the message containing the event will be listed Possible body types are plain URL in the body of a plain text message alt URL in the text alternative of the HTML message html URL in the HTML body of the message xaol URL in the AOL format alternative of the HTML message URL For EVENT TYPE openup this will always be empty For EVENT TYPE click the URL that was clicked is listed ALIAS For EVENT TYPE
212. pients list 11 e Upload a Recipients Text File A text file uploaded into the system defines recipients The text file may contain columns of data with or without headers The system administrator may limit the availability of this option and or may limit the size of the uploaded file For more information on text files see Section 4 2 5 Upload a Recipients Text File and Appendix C e Select Recipients from a Database Recipients are defined by a LISTSERV Maestro defined database that is connected to by a plugin installed and configured by the LISTSERV Maestro system administrator e Let LISTSERV Select Recipients from a Database Recipients are defined by a database that has been configured so that LISTSERV has direct access to it Select the option button next to the type of recipients that will be used to generate the recipients list The types Determine Recipients Based on Reaction to the Job and Use Recipient Definition from Job also require the further selection of the job from the drop down menu Click Next gt to continue The lt Back and Next gt buttons navigate to the previous and following pages automatically saving any changes on the current page Click on any active link to go immediately to that screen saving any changes on the current page Click Cancel to close the wizard without saving changes and return to the Workflow or Summary diagram Exiting the wizard by closing the browser or clicking o
213. re 25 Recipients Details from LISTSERV List Define Recipients Source Options Recipients Details Summary Cancel lt Back Hest gt Recipients Details Specify the names of the columns you want to use for mail merge Recipient Identification Columns E mail Column TO NAME Additional Mail Merge Columns Mame Column Supply the names of the columns that will be used far mail merging ane per row Merge Columns optional Iz 28 Figure 26 A LISTSERV Selected Database Define Recipients Options Source Recipients Details Cancel lt Back Hert gt Recipients Details Specify the names of the recipient identification and additional merge columns Recipient Identification Columns Supply the names of the columns that identify the recipients e mail address and name E mail Column Name Column optional Additional Merge Columns Supply the names of the additional columns that will be used for mail merging one per row Merge Columns al optional Click the Next gt button to continue An Operation in Progress message will appear during the processing time When the operation has concluded successfully the Summary screen will open 4 5 Summary A Summary of all the recipient list selections is shown on the last page of the define recipients function LISTSERV Maestro will validate the recipient list data file checking for errors in the e mail addresses that would preve
214. reating the list or database data for these recipient types LISTSERV Maestro and Bi Directional Character Sets Of the ISO 8859 charset family there are two charsets which contain letters from languages that have a standard reading direction of right to left These are the charsets ISO 8859 6 Arabic and ISO 8859 8 Hebrew both of which are supported by LISTSERV Maestro Actually LISTSERV Maestro will not use the charsets with the names ISO 8859 6 and ISO 8859 8 but will instead use the special bi directional versions ISO 8859 6 i and ISO 8859 8 1 These charsets contain the same characters as their non i suffix counterparts but the i suffix tells the receiving mail client that the text should be displayed with right to left reading direction Without the i suffix in the charset name many e mail clients would probably display the correct characters but in the for that language incorrect left to right reading direction Even with the i suffix the recipient might require a special mail client version or even a special mail client that is prepared to display text with right to left reading direction properly and is also able to properly display bi directional text text that mixes characters with left to right and characters with right to left reading direction in the case of a Hebrew text that contains English names for example Some clients may only display the characters with the right direction but 133 still left al
215. rge fields This list contains all avallable merge fields and drop ins for the selected job To use one of these fields in your mail content please select the value copy it and paste it inta your mail Please use the Available drop ins Refresh link to update the list if you address have selected another job or the opening and closing tags of the drop ins have changed The following example demonstrates how overdue book notices can be customized using specific recipient data in the form of the fields EMAIL NAME IDNUM BRANCH BOOK1 BOOK2 BOOK3 A text message merging the fields might look like this Figure 38 Merge Fields Example Dear amp NAME The following book s borrowed using library ID card amp IDNUM are overdue amp BOOK 1 amp BOOK2 amp BOOK3 Please return them to the library at 8BRANCH as soon as possible Sincerely Your Librarian kkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk Note This e mail was sent to amp EMAIL if you wish to change the e mail settings for library ID amp IDNUM please visit http library example com mylibrary kkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk In an HTML message the HTML source would be altered to include the merge fields being careful to respect the resulting HTML code In an HTML message with alternative text or alternative AOL remember to put the merge fields in both the HTML sourc
216. rhill Ursula server company com mr tea Albany NN Toby Tuttle Toby server company com mrtea Rockville MD Seth Simpson Seth server company com coffee master Buffalo MN Ron Remmingtan Ranaserver companwv cam coffee master Mew Haven CT Refresh Preview LISTSERV Maestro has four selections for choosing separator characters e Tab t e Comma e Semicolon e Other if this is chosen type the character into the adjacent box 25 Columns can be defined as not enclosed by a quote character or select the quote character from three choices e Double Quotes e Apostrophe e Other if this is chosen type the character into the adjacent box In addition to interpreting the separator character and the quote character LISTSERV Maestro will select the encoding used to create the text file If the original data file was created with a specific character set such as Greek characters the file encoding will have to be changed to match that character set Use the drop down menu to select the encoding for the file if it is different than the default For more information on encoding see Appendix B E mail and International Character Sets After separator and quote characters have been entered and any encoding change made click Refresh Preview to have LISTSERV Maestro attempt to parse the file again with the new settings The new columns will then be displayed If the columns are now separated correctly proceed If the colum
217. rl24 amp gyahoo com Bubbles kicker bbandwidth com Buttercup smaelly338npr org Click Finish to save all settings and return to the Job Details screen and to the Summary or Workflow diagram The recipients can always be edited by selecting the Edit link from the Summary diagram or clicking on the Define Recipients icon from the Workflow diagram Section 5 Defining and Editing Content for an E mail Job The next phase of creating a new e mail job is defining the content of the e mail message to be sent to the recipient list LISTSERV Maestro will copy content from a previously defined e mail job original content can be uploaded or entered as plain text as HTML AOL rich text or a combination of formats can be used 30 Special Drop In Content elements consisting of predetermined pieces of content in the form of text links files or a database can be added to the message It is possible to include attachments to messages as well as select the language character set used to encode the message Figure 28 Define Content Copy Content Select the job to copy the content from Define Content Click to select content Existing Job Select from another job Undelivered Jobs n Define the Subject and the Body of the message 020225E listing 020225D recipients3 Get Content from other Jab Outbox 020225C recipients2 020222E jeff Drop In content is enabled for this job with tags and C
218. s opened by a recipient Parse A software routine that analyzes a statement in natural or artificial language and resolves it into a form that can be understood by the computer In LISTSERV Maestro a database file exported as a text file will be parsed sorted into categories or columns of data before it can be used by the system Plugin A LISTSERV Maestro database plugin allows the Maestro User Interface to gain access to different databases Plugins need to be registered and configured by the LISTSERV Maestro system administrator For more information see Section 9 in the Administrators Guide Quote Character In a SQL statement a character usually the single quote used to enclose string literals to set them off from the rest of the SQL statement In a text file CSV file containing data a character or symbol used to surround a separator character that is used in the actual data in a column so that the separator character is not confused with the character that appears in the data For example if a comma is used as the separator character in a database file all the fields of data are separated by a comma If the comma is also used within a field a quote character must surround the entire field If the quote character is used in a field it must be used twice or escaped RFC Stands for Request for Comments These documents explain the rules that e mail and other software products must follow in order t
219. select the recipients of the message Recipients can be selected from a past job or a new recipient definition can be created LISTSERV Maestro also gives the user the option of eliminating duplicate recipients based on e mail address or other unique column identifiers 10 Generating a recipient definition is a multi step process The recipients definition wizard is composed of the following steps that will guide the account holder through the process Options Deciding where the recipient data will come from Source Selecting the source information and or uploading a source file from which the recipient data will be generated Source Details Interpreting the recipient data file into labeled columns such as name and e mail address Recipient Details Adding or editing header information labels for columns Summary Displaying the interpretation of the recipient data in a table for review Depending on the selection of options for each step subsequent steps and options will become available 4 1 Options The first screen that opens in the define recipients process is the Options screen There are seven options split into two categories that can be selected to define the source for a recipient list The Use existing recipients category contains four options that are based on the existence of predetermined recipients Send to a Recipients Target Group Allows account holders to select pre defined
220. ses are necessary for all the fields in the column that is specified as the e mail column The test messages will be sent to these addresses This works very similarly to the define recipients functions The subject line for a test message can be changed Changing the test subject line will not affect the subject line of the final message The optional test line allows the user to enter a line of text that will appear above the body of the message when it is delivered Use this to more easily recognize test messages and different versions of test messages If nothing is entered into the optional test line box then no text is added to the test messages A test line will never be added to a final e mail job Figure 52 Delivery Test Delivery Test Specify Delivery Test Recipients E mail Column EMAIL Name Column NAME Subject fest Test line testing 12 cthistextwillbe added to each test message Click the Add Row link to add a blank row to the table Clear Row Tony tiger anycorp com Clear Row immy doc biotech net Click Clear Row to delete the Clear Row Beth lwriter company com data from that row Send Delivery Test Messages Save amp Close Cancel Advanced Options Use the Advanced Options links to copy Copy recipients and test line from another job test recipient data from another source U load delivery test reci oients from a text file ownlaad delivery test recipients or download test recipients to a local f
221. spond with the zip codes members have provided Don t overload recipients with too many messages only offer truly special deals Don t cram too many messages into a single e mail or send large attachments that may clog subscribers inboxes Don t neglect to test messages for formatting errors especially when sending HTML messages or when contacting AOL users Don t rely on your e mail program s spellchecker have several colleagues proofread your message for spelling and grammatical errors Don t sell or rent your e mail lists to other organization unless you have been given specific permission to do so Don t expect every campaign will be an immediate home run crafting quality messages takes time and requires feedback The full text of this award winning article Successful E Mail Marketing Practices can be viewed and downloaded at http www Isoft com info wp email marketing pdf 146 This page intentionally left blank 147
222. ssage is defined e Testing takes place e The message is scheduled for delivery e Final approval is recorded and when the scheduled time arrives the message is delivered e Tracking data if requested can then be retrieved as messages are received and opened by recipients 3 1 Starting a Job To begin creating a new e mail job click the icon Start New Job The individual who initiates a new e mail job becomes the owner of that job A job owner e Automatically has the rights privileges to all the different functions of the job from assigning a job title to final approval for delivering the message e ls the only account holder that can change the Job Title and Job ID e ls the only account holder that can designate team members that are allowed to participate in creating the job called Team Collaboration e ls the only account besides the Administrator account that can delete a job The first step to creating a new job is to assign it a Job Title and a Job ID Prefix A Job Title is the way individual users identify specific jobs by name The Job Title can be composed of letters and numbers and contain spaces The Job ID is generated by the system to ensure each ID is unique and is used by the system to identify each individual job Job owners can enter a Job ID Prefix which appears at the beginning of the system generated Job ID and is separated from the generated part by a hyphen Depending on the setti
223. sumes the line ends with an empty column e fthe character that is used as the separator character also appears as part of the value of one or several of the column fields then it is necessary to enclose the fields in quotation marks or another quote character e Any character can be used as the quote character quotation marks or apostrophe are conventional except for the separator character e The same character must be used for the opening quote and for the closing quote lf quotes are used in some records in a file especially records that appear near the end of the file it is important to manually define the separator and quote character instead of allowing LISTSERV Maestro to attempt to parse the file automatically By manually defining the separator and quote characters LISTSERV Maestro is forced to look at the entire file and parse it according to the values entered for these characters If LISTSERV Maestro attempts to parse the file automatically when it contains quote characters in some lines but not all those records may be parsed incorrectly or may be rejected as invalid If there is a need to include the quote character inside of the value of a field then this character must be escaped Escape the quote character by using it twice in direct succession The double appearance of the quote character will be interpreted as a single appearance that is part of the field value Follow these basic rules for separator and quot
224. t Element Database Edit Drop In Content Element Enter a name that will serve as the placeholder in the message Mame Description elect Plain lext or ext Type Database to reflect the file contents The drop n contains Plain Text C HTML Tex Any nested drop ins are enclosed in and t Enter a SQL statement H Test SQL Statement YClick this link to test the SQL statement Cancel Delete Click OK to save the new drop in content element Click Cancel to discard any changes and return to the Manage Drop In Content Elements screen Click Delete to delete the drop in 11 3 Recipient Target Groups Creating recipient target groups requires specific knowledge and access to underlying data sources databases These data sources are queried to retrieve recipient data to create a recipients list for e mail jobs Most general users of LISTSERV Maestro will not have this knowledge or access and therefore will not create recipient target groups They will most likely use them once they have been created by a data administrator How to use existing recipient target groups is covered in Section 4 Defining Recipients of an E mail Job The data administrator is a user that has been granted permission to create new recipient target groups by the system administrator Creating recipient target groups is covered in a separate document called the Data Administrator s Manual Recipient target groups fall under two main types
225. t Messages Executed Sep 27 2002 09 18 44 PM Including events from Aug 15 2002 05 20 00 PM until Aug 15 2002 11 56 00 PM 98 Report Tracking data for listing Percentage of the total number of mesages sent Executed Sep 27 2002 09 03 07 PM 5 Including events from Aug 15 2002 05 20 00 PM until Aug 15 2002 11 56 00 PM View Reports From Aug 15 2002 05 20 00 T To Aug 15 2002 11 56 00 PM ime intervals The values for the intervals are not accumulated from interval to interval The values are shown as percentage of sent messages Event Data Sources Summary A Open Up Events E Click Through Events for link logo http www Isoft corn WB Click Through Events for link advanced order http www Isoft corn 8H Click Through Events for link sneak preview text http www widgets com EH Click Through Events for link advanced order text http www order widgets now com I Click Through Events for link sneak peek http www Isoft com Additional Data Sources Summary Bl number of Sent Messages Downloading Event Distribution Report Data It is possible to download the data from an event distribution report by clicking the Download Report icon Data downloaded will be in the form of a zipped text file Select the time zone that will be used to format the data from the drop down menu Click the Download button to begin downloading the data Click the download link to download an Excel
226. t are calculated Total number of events Displays the total number of events counted per time interval For example if 123 events were counted for an interval the resulting line height for that interval would be 123 Percentage of total number of events Displays percentages in relation to the total number of messages sent For example if 300 messages were sent and if in one interval 150 events were counted the line height for that interval would be 50 because 150 is 50 of 300 Percentage of total number of unbounced messages sent Displays percentages in relation to the total number of messages sent that have not bounced at the time the report is executed For example if 300 messages were sent and 50 messages bounced there would be a total of 250 unbounced messages And if in one interval 150 events were counted the line height for that interval would be 60 because 150 is 60 of 300 99 Interval Size Events are counted as occurring within a certain amount of time This amount of time is referred to as an interval Intervals can be set as hours days or weeks Result Accumulation Defines whether the values accumulate from one interval to the next O No accumulation Each interval s events are counted and plotted for only that time period The resulting line on the chart displays as a series of peaks and valleys Accumulate interval values Each interval s events are counted and plo
227. t are inserted into a message based on a conditional statement If the condition is true a particular section of text will be inserted into the message If the condition is false the text will not be inserted An ELSE clause can be included as part of the conditional statement so that a different section of text will be inserted into the message when the condition is false e Important Conditional blocks use a significant amount of processing time Use with care for jobs with a large volume of recipients If messages will be substantially different for different recipients it may be more efficient and easier to test if the recipients are split up among multiple jobs with fewer conditional blocks rather than trying to fit many different messages into one job with a complex conditional block structure Syntax for Conditional Blocks The syntax of a conditional block is composed of directives and operators A conditional block is coded by using the BB begin block the EB end block and the ELSE directives Comments can be added without appearing in the final message by placing a before the text containing the comment Each directive must be on a line by itself starting as the first character of the line Conditional directives are not case sensitive Table 1 Conditional Directives Begin a conditional block Must begin any block and must contain the condition to be evaluated on the same line Conditional e
228. t be a value that is unique for all recipients ID Column email 58 Type in the column that contains the unique recipient ID in the box labeled D Column Click Next gt to continue Anonymous tracking is independent of recipient type but columns have to be selected as either anonymous or traceable Traceable columns contain information about individual recipients than can be used to identify them such as name and telephone number Using traceable columns in recipients profiles creates profiles that are not anonymous and could violate recipients privacy Anonymous columns on the other hand contain information about individual recipients that cannot be used to identify them such as gender age or city Using anonymous columns creates recipient profiles that will not identify individual recipients See Section 10 2 3 Recipients Details Reports for more information on running reports from anonymous tracking jobs and downloading demographic information Figure 49 Anonymous Tracking Type Details Tracking Definition On Off Tracking Details Type Type Details Summary lt Back Next gt Tracking Type Details Anonymous Tracking Anonymous tracking creates and stores an anonymous profile of each recipient Select which of the columns are anonymous and which contain values that could be traced back from the value to the recipient like name phone number or address Anonymous Columns Traceable Columns GENDER
229. ta source definition and return to the Define Report screen Figure 77 Data Source Summary Report Data Source Definition General Summary z Back Finish Data Source Summary You have specified the following data source properties General Mame Click Through Logo Color EM Event Types The data source will repart Click Through events Jobs Date Time of Sending NEW S 0208094 October Widget Company Newsletter Sug 15 2002 12 12 00 PM NEWS 0208084 Widget Company September Newsletter Aug 9 2002 11 12 21 AM 0208054 Widget Company August Newsletter Aug 5 2002 11 51 19 AM Alias URL advanced order http www lsoft com sneak peak http www Isoft coam 10 1 2 Result Settings The third tab of the Define Reports screen is Result Settings Select the type of report to generate as well as how the report data will be displayed There are four basic types of report listed under Result Type The type of report selected will determine the other options that appear in the lower half of the screen Some report types will have many other options to choose and other report types will have no additional options to select 92 Result Settings for Event Distribution Over Time The Event distribution over time Result Type produces a simple line graph showing number of responses over time Time is plotted on the x axis of the chart and events are charted on the y axis Options available for this report type include e
230. taken from a database or a LISTSERV list without defined topics the data has already been interpreted and no Source Details screen will display If recipients are being used from a LISTSERV list that has topics defined then LISTSERV Maestro will have to know which topic s to send the message to There is also the option of hiding the topic in the subject line of the message If recipient target groups are used that include parameters the input values for those parameters will have to be selected in the Source Details screen by making selections in drop down menus checkboxes or typing data in a field If a text file is uploaded LISTSERV Maestro will have to attempt to understand the way the data is arranged and parse it according to separator and quote characters If recipient data is based upon reaction to a previous job an optional time frame limitation for reaction can be defined This time frame definition is optional By default time will not be considered when determining the reaction Sometimes a time frame limitation might be needed for example if the sender of a job wishes to offer special bonuses to all recipients that reacted very quickly 4 3 1 LISTSERV Topics Large active LISTSERV lists often use sub groups within the list to give subscribers the opportunity to receive only the posts to the list they are most interested in Sub groups are created in LISTSERV by defining the keyword Topics in the list header Lists can ha
231. ter serve our customers If you would like to contact the Widget Company please send correspondance to Use the Language link tinew address at the bottom to select the language encoding Or call us at iphones Upload HTML Download HTML 31 5 1 Drop In Content Drop in content is similar to merging fields except that the same content is merged into the e mail message for all recipients For more information on merging fields see Section 5 6 Merging Fields and Conditional Blocks Drop ins can be used to create pre defined content parts that can then be inserted into any message For example a drop in content element could be created with a company logo and easily added to all the outgoing e mail messages simply by including the name of the drop in element in the content For more detailed information about creating drop in content elements see Section 11 2 User Settings Drop In Content Elements Drop in content must first be enabled before it can be used in a message The Define Content page will display a green enabled if drop in content can be used A red disabled will appear if drop in content is not available Click on the Change link to toggle between enabled and disabled When enabled special tags need to be defined so that LISTSERV Maestro will recognize drop in elements if they appear in the message The tags surround the name of the drop in content element creating a drop in placeholder This place
232. ters will be replaced with question marks in the outgoing mail Please be also aware of the potential problems that are associated with using one of the advanced language options see list below Please see the help pages for more information about the possible problems and how to avoid them West European Latin 1 charset IS0 8859 1 West European Latin 1 charset O Y East European Latin 2 charset IS0 88593 2 South European Latin 3 charset 150 8859 3 North European Latin charset IS0 8859 4 Advanced please select LISTSER Maestro determines optimal charset automatically but nat Unicode LISTSERV Maestro determines optimal charset automatically fallow Unicode West European plus Euro Currency Symbol IS0 8858 15 Cyrillic Charset 150 8859 5 Arabic Charset 150 5859 6 fip If LISTSERV Maestro is being used to send mail to recipients in a single language environment either with plain English or with one of the common West European languages the safest choice for a character set charset is always ISO 8859 1 Latin 1 charset It contains all 26 common characters both in upper and lower case all the common punctuation characters and the more common special characters like and others In addition it contains the characters required for most West European languages like 0 a c and others It is not always necessary or possible to change the charset for e mail messages Using other
233. the delivery authorization was revoked This happens because the job is no longer an exact copy of the previous jobs in its original sequence Instead it will by itself be the first and still only job of a new auto repeat sequence Figure 59 Auto Repeat Authorization for a New Sequence Authorize Delivery Review the job summary to verify that the job settings are correct If you authorize the delivery of the job the job will be sent Dec 17 2003 11 24 AM The job will also start a new auto repeat sequence and will automatically authorize and deliver a copy of itself every 2 weeks after the first delivery until Dec 31 2004 12 01 PM Note A job is defined as changed since authorization was revoked if the recipients definition content definition tracking definition or sender definition of the job has changed since the delivery authorization was revoked If these four parts remained unchanged the job is interpreted as unchanged In this respect changes on the Delivery Test or Schedule Delivery screens are not interpreted as changes to the job Section 8 Outbox The Outbox is a repository of e mail jobs that have been approved for final delivery but have not reached their targeted delivery date are in the process of being delivered or have encountered a problem during delivery Open the Outbox by clicking on the Outbox icon from the opening screen or the side navigation bar Jobs in the Outbox can be edited as long as they are
234. the recipients are defined from a text file or from a LISTSERV Maestro selected database Figure 47 Tracking Type Details Tracking Definition onfoff Tracking Details Type Type Details Summary Cancel Tracking Type Details Personal Tracking with recipient list uploaded as a text file Select the column fram the recipient list that contains the recipient ID The recipient ID must be a value that is unique for all recipients in the list EMAIL catm yahoo com mousethotmall com Fred stoneage umass edu Wilma primativeirarch edu au Betty lass sass goodrich edu Blossom flowergirle yahoo cam Bubbles kicker bandwidth com Buttercup smelly33 npr oarg Select the column from the recipient list that contains the recipient ID using the drop down menu The recipient ID must be a value that is unique for all recipients on the list This means that the value can never be repeated for any other recipient and is never empty for any recipient Click Next gt to continue This version is for personal tracking when the recipients are defined from a database selected by LISTSERV or by a LISTSERV list with the option Special list message selected Figure 48 Personal Tracking Type Details Tracking Definition OnfOff Tracking Details Type Type Details Summary lt Back Next gt Tracking Type Details Personal Tracking with recipient list from LISTSERY Specify the column that contains the recipient ID The recipient ID mus
235. the type of message and the tracking selected for the job Open Up events This option charts all the open up events for a job It is only available for HTML messages Click Through events all links bundled This option bundles all click through events together into one variable charted on the report Click Through events all links separate This option creates separate variables for each click through event that is tracked Open Up and Click Through events all links bundled This option bundles all the open up events into one variable and all the click through events into a second variable charted on the report This type of data source is only available for HTML messages Open Up and Click Through events all links separate This option creates separate variables for each of the open up and click through events This type of data source is only available for HTML messages Other data sources can be added to the chart by selecting any or all of the Additional Statistics option buttons These additional data sources can provide comparison data in the chart so that it is possible to see the total number of messages sent in relation to the number of open up events that occurred for example Three Additional Statistics types are available Number of Sent Messages Adds the number of messages that were sent to LISTSERV as a constant reference value in the report 82 e Number of Unbounced Messages Adds the nu
236. this may actually be an acceptable state if there are no recipients to fit the conditions of the job In the dynamic recipients example a message was supposed to be delivered to all recipients with a negative account balance on the first of each month If in a given month there are no recipients with a negative account balance no mail would be sent out for that month and the job instance for that month would fail with No recipients found as the reason for failure In this case the failure should be interpreted as a valid state because there simply were no recipients to deliver mail to on that day The auto repeat sequence would continue with another copy for the next month so if any recipients have a negative balance on the first of the next month they would then get the reminder mail Auto Repeat Jobs and System Shutdown Auto repeat jobs are treated differently than normal jobs during a system shutdown For a normal job if the system is down at the scheduled delivery time the job will be delivered immediately when the system is started the next time The system will recognize that the delivery time of the job has passed while the system was down and will immediately start the delivery to make up for the lost time If the system is down at the scheduled delivery time of an auto repeat job the system will recognize that the delivery time of the job has passed while the system was down Instead of starting delivery immediately the job will
237. ting report is simply opened the same way it is opened from the report list when the Edit link next to the report title is clicked 10 2 1 Event Distribution Report An event distribution report plots the occurrence of events open up and or click through over time A simple line graph shows the number of responses over time Time is plotted on the x axis of the chart and can be measured in intervals of hours days or weeks Events are charted on the y axis and can be measured as the number of events or as a percentage of either the total number of messages sent or the total number of unbounced messages sent Viewing Event Distribution Reports The View page of an event distribution report displays the collected data in a chart format The View page of this report type changes to reflect different options set on the Change Result Settings screen Depending on what options are set events on the y axis can reflect the total number of events or a percentage of either the total number of messages sent or the total number of unbounced messages sent Events occurring over time can be reflected as a total accumulation each set of measured events is added to the previous set so the plotted data continuously accumulates until events stop and a plateau is reached Or events occurring over time can be reflected as unaccumulated numbers plotting the data as a series of peaks and valleys 97 Figure 82 Events Distributed Over Time Report Variat
238. ting systems browsers or browser versions are not supported The client does not necessarily have to have the same operating system as the LISTSERV Maestro server A Linux client can be used to access LISTSERV Maestro on a Windows server and vice versa It is important to note that recipients of e mail being tracked by LISTSERV Maestro may use whatever browser they wish to access the URLs contained in the message Tracking will occur no matter which browser is used by e mail recipients 1 2 Accessing Maestro Once the system administrator has installed the program and created user accounts set a compatible browser to http Your Maestro Host lui A user name and password are required in order to login and access the program If an account is a member of a group the group name will also be required at login Figure 1 LISTSERV Maestro Login Screen LISTSERY Maestro 1 2 Login User lismith Password eeeeee Group marketing Enter user name password and group if required and then click the Login button User names and groups are not case sensitive Passwords are case sensitive and must have a minimum of five characters Section 2 Understanding the LISTSERV Maestro Interface The opening screen of LISTSERV Maestro s interface contains various sets of functional and navigational icons The top right of each page in the LISTSERV Maestro interface includes all or a subset of these four small icons Table 1 Navigatio
239. to collect and how to view or download that data Clicking on the Edit link of an existing report opens a series of pages that guides the user through the process of editing the report LISTSERV Maestro can generate several different types of reports with either of these methods or data can be downloaded for use in other statistical analysis programs For quick reports on delivery tests click on the Test Reports tab on the Job Details screen For more information on test reports see Section 7 3 Running Test Reports Tip In many cases it is easier to start from one of the quick reports available from the Delivered Jobs interface save it and then make changes using the edit reports pages rather than to start from scratch 10 1 Tracking Reports Editing tracking reports is a more detailed way to generate custom reports Unlike the quick reports available from Delivered Jobs or Test Reports for delivery test data it is possible to combine data from multiple jobs as well as custom design the color of each data source To create a new report or edit an existing report click on the Tracking Reports icon A listing of previously created reports appears unless no reports have been generated Click on a report title to execute and view that report Click on the Edit link to open an existing report or click the New Report button to create a new report 85 Figure 69 Tracking Reports Tracking Reports The list below shows all reports defined
240. ton to turn highlighting tracked links off Show HTML page Click this link to show the HTML message in the center frame Show alternative text Click this link to show the alternative text of a message in the center frame OK Click the button to save all the tracking selections and return to the Tracking Details screen Cancel Click this button to discard any tracking selection and return to the Tracking Details screen e Main Center Frame Displays the body of the e mail message All trackable links in the message body either text links or image links are clickable When a link is clicked it will appear in the bottom frame under Selected Link If the URL is clicked from the bottom frame a separate browser window will open to that URL This is a good way to check the validity of URLs in the message If the body is composed of plain text or the alternative text of an HTML message then all links enclosed in quotation marks and start with http or https are clickable e Right Center Frame Contains the link Track all Links a fast way to select all links for tracking Records each selected link to be tracked and an alias if one has been created Edit an alias or remove a tracked link by clicking Select Link under the URL e Bottom Frame Shows the details of the selected link and allows the user to define whether the link will be tracked or not If the links will be tracked define aliases to help disting
241. tted adding to the previous interval s events until the end of the report period The resulting line on the chart displays as ever increasing The incline will become less steep over time until it plateaus into more or less a straight line once recipients no longer trigger events Figure 84 Change View Settings Report Tracking data for listing Change View Settings for Report Report of type Event Distribution over the Time Period To modify the display of the report and the format af the downloaded results change the settings below and click an the Execute button Result Calculatian Defines how the result shown on the Y axis of the chart is calculated Total number af events Percentage of total number of messages sent Percentage of total number of unbounced messages sent Interval Size Defines the how many events will be grouped in each interval Events per hour Events per day O Events per week Result Accumulation Defines if values accumulate from one interval to the next No accumulation Accumulate interval values Changing the settings above only affect the resulting diagram produced when you click the 4 Execute button To permanently change the repart click on the Edit Report icon below Executed Sep 27 2002 09 18 44 PM E Including events from Aug 15 2002 05 20 00 PM until Aug 15 2002 11 56 00 PM Click the Execute button to change the View screen the appearance of the chart or gr
242. two parameters like the second ampersand right before the page parameter when it appears to denote the merge field lt ID it is acting as a token that will be replaced by the corresponding value of the recipient before the mail is sent out Therefore this string will not be present in the final e mail that appears to the recipient Instead it will have been replaced by the merge value of that recipient If the URL from above were sent to two recipients where one recipient has an ID merge value of usr15 and the other has a value of usr317 each would receive an e mail message with different URLs like this http host domain path visitorlID usri5 amp page home Or http host domain path visitorlID usr317 amp page home By employing LISTSERV Maestro s mail merging features it is possible to insert URLs that contain constant and individual parameters for each recipient into e mail messages LISTSERV Maestro is able to track all of these URLs if they are marked for tracking As a result if a URL that contains a merged parameter is selected for tracking LISTSERV Maestro will count all clicks of all recipients on this URL and each recipient will be directed to the actual URL using his or her own individual parameter 45 For example the imaginary URL below is selected for tracking http host domain path visitorID amp ID amp page home In the e mail messages that are sent out the URL is replaced by a special tracking URL t
243. uish different links that go to the same URL from one another The buttons in the bottom frame change depending on previous selections 90 Figure 42 Click Through Tracking Definition LISTSERV Maestro Tracking Definition Define the links in the message body to be tracked Click on a link in the body of the message in the pane below to display the details about the link in the bottom pane Then use the controls in the bottom pane to define the tracking details for the selected link Highlight tracked links Do not highlight tracked links Switch between HTML and OK Cancel Click OK to save tracking definitions alternative text in the center frame Tracked links are highlighted in yellow logo Your Monthly Newsletter from Widget Company hindu ieacom Dear amp NAME Thank you for your ontinued interest in the Widget Company It is our pleasure to announce the new product line for Falkof 2002 You will be delighted with all the new features and ease of use To get a sneak peak visit Waw widgets com To place an advance order point your browser to Click Select Link to www order widgets now corn select a URL and edit z its definition in the The link will open a new browser window to the URL bottom frame Alias for link to URL http ww w Isoft com Alias Definition Define New Alias Define a new alias or use an existing one Use Existing Alias Please Select Y Remove ales ca
244. ve up to 23 topics defined in the header List subscribers can elect to receive only those messages that fit into the topic s they are interested in reading Similarly list members can post their messages to only those topics their messages are relevant to For example a large list could have the general subject of Antique Autos Topics could be defined by time period by make and model of auto or by geographic area For more information on Topics see the LISTSERV List Owner s Manual If there are topics defined for the list selected in the recipients wizard they will automatically be displayed in the Source Details screen There are three ways to send the message e Normal send The message will be sent to all list subscribers that have selected the OTHER or the ALL list topic or that did not specify any list topic e Send to all subscribers of the selected list The message will be sent to all list subscribers regardless of their topic selections This setting will override topic settings of the list subscribers and should be used with care e Send only to subscribers of selected topics The message will be sent to only to those list subscribers that selected any of the checked list topics Hide or expose the selected topics in the subject line of the message by selecting the corresponding option button If the list subscribers are aware of the topics and are accustomed to using them they automatically move list messages to folders
245. ved sender profiles are available to all members of a group The only required field is the sender s e mail address but including the sender name makes the message more personalized Include a reply to address if replies are an option for recipients and if the reply to address is different than the sender s e mail address 61 Figure 51 Sender Information Edit Sender Information You can load a saved profile and or enter the sender information manually Load fram Profile Sales Select a saved profile from the drop down menu Supply Sender Dese chairman E mail Address aqitar yahoo com Sender Mame sales optional Reply To Address sales lsoft cam optional Bounce Handling Handle bounced messages automatically Send bounced messages to Advanced Sender Information Settings You may define additional x Headers here which will be added to the MIME headers of the mail during delivery Add Row X Header Name X Header Text Clear Row Clear Row Clear Row Advanced sender information settings are enabled Click to disable Save as Profile Click this link to save the sender information as a profile TUM that can be used by members of the same group Save Sender as New Profile Profile Title Graphic Arts Department E mail Address bstinson lsoft com Sender Name Graphics Reply To Address graphics lsoft cam Bounce Handling lt automatically handled gt Advanced Settings PR TE v
246. when entering the Job Details screen instead of the Workflow diagram Figure 5 Summary Diagram from the Job Details Screen Selected Job January Newsletter ID JAN 0112034 Job Details es Toggle between the Workflow diagram AUthohze Deliver Delete Jo the Summary diagram and Test Reports Workflow Summary Test Reports To change the detras of the current job click on the corresponding Edit link Job Job ID 020225E Job Title listing Recipients Recipients Information no recipients uploaded Content Subject no subject defined Mail Type Plain List of Attachments no attachments defined gt Tracking Tracking Is Sender Sender Information no sender defined Test Status Test result not tested Schedule Delivery Schedule no delivery schedule defined Team Collaboration Recipients Definition Message Authoring Tracking Scheduling Testing Delivery Use in Reports Click on the Edit link adjacent to each function to enter or change existing settings If the Edit link is not clickable it will appear grayed out or a lighter color This means that a preceding step has not been successfully completed or the user does not have permission to execute that step 3 5 Team Collaboration The Change Job Info button is located at the top of the Job Details screen displaying the Workflow diagram Clicking this button will allow the Job Title and Job ID Prefix to be changed A Tea
247. ying data source is such as a database and how to retrieve data from it using a SQL statement for example Recipient target groups are shared among all members of a group and a group member does not need permission to use any existing target groups For more information on creating recipient target groups please see the Data Administrator s Manual 115 e Change Password This option is only available if the system administrator has given the user permission to change his or her password e Preferences The user can define specific preferences for the way LISTSERV Maestro s user interface appears on the screen as well as setting defaults for the way content is input for new jobs and reports Click on any of the available links to proceed with adding users settings Figure 98 User Settings Account specific settings These settings and data are shared among all members of your group Sender Profiles Drop In Content Elements Recipients Target Groups These settings and data are specific to the account you are currently using Change Password Preferences E 11 1 Managing Sender Profiles Click on the Sender Profiles link to open the Manage Sender Profiles screen This screen displays for a listing of all saved profiles To add a new profile to the list click on the New Profile button To edit an existing profile click on the profile title Figure 99 Managing Sender Profiles Manage Sender Profiles Al
248. zard a series of screens that leads the user through the process of creating new data sources Result Settings Defines the type of report and how the data from the job is displayed 86 Figure 71 Define Report General Settings General Settings Data Sources Result Settings Report Period Automatic Report period is automatically sized to fit the registered events Defined Period From To Format mm dd wywvy hh mm Time is optional If left aut full days are used The given date and time values are relative to this time zone Lise mv local time zone Team Collaboration Edit and Execute sample Only Execute Delete this Rena e Report Period Determines the earliest and the latest points in time that are considered when the events are retrieved from Maestro Tracker Automatic LISTSERV Maestro will determine the time period to fit the registered events From all the events of all of the jobs and or URLs that are part of the report LISTSERV Maestro will set the time of the earliest event as the From and the time of the latest event as the To values of the time period If two jobs are selected for tracking LISTSERV Maestro will select the delivery time of the first received event open up or click through from either job as the start time and the time of the last received event from either job as the end time Defined Period User can determine the time period for the r

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