LISTSERV (R) at Work - Spring 2003 Issue (American Edition)L-Soft
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LISTSERV Maestro Featured As Marketing Technology That Works LISTSERV Maestro
Leading IT market analysis firm Aberdeen Group has recognized L-Soft's LISTSERV® Maestro service in the firm's recently released report, "What Works: Best Practices in Marketing Technology." Included in this report is a profile of how L-Soft and InterImage successfully promoted the U.S. Department of Commerce's Minority Business Development Agency's week-long culmination of conferences by using digital marketing tools, such as e-mail, the Web and databases to target and personalize the interaction.
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Tech Tip

Q. How can I customize LISTSERV's responses in the Web Interface (WA)?
Answer by Nic Soudée
Programmer, L-Soft

A little-known yet useful feature available in the WA templates is the +SB operator. It behaves much like a +BB conditional block except that it is more powerful. The +SB operator evaluates the contents of a string, checking whether it contains a specific word or phrase. For example, if you want to modify the standard LISTSERV response, "A confirmation request is being sent under separate cover" on the subscription page, you can make the following changes to the subscription template. Assume that the &+MSG; variable is a response from LISTSERV.

+SE STRING &+MSG;
+SB A confirmation request is being sent under separate cover.
<p>Customized message...</p>
+ELSE
<p>&+MSG;</p>
+EB

Let's look closely at what happens. First we assign the contents of &+MSG; to the template variable STRING. The +SB operation looks at the STRING variable and checks whether it contains the phrase "A confirmation request is being sent under separate cover." If it does, the condition evaluates to true, and WA will write the customized message that we inserted. If it evaluates to false, WA skips everything until the +ELSE and will instead write the standard LISTSERV output, &+MSG;.

With this substring-evaluation condition, it is theoretically possible to customize everything that LISTSERV responds to WA. There are numerous other applications, but this is one of the most interesting. Now, instead of cryptic messages, you can use +SB to offer alternate messages or perhaps even translate these responses into other languages.

Note: Responses originating from WA can be edited in the LOGIN-MSGLIB template.

To submit questions for future issues of the newsletter, please contact editor@lsoft.com.


L-Soft Interviews Industry Expert

L-Soft interviews Gabe Goldberg, a technology consultant/writer/editor.
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For more information or a customized quote, please contact sales@lsoft.com.

For an L-Soft press kit or to send comments about this newsletter, please contact editor@lsoft.com.

In the Next Issue

If there is a topic that you would like to see addressed in a future issue, please contact editor@lsoft.com.

Do I Need a CRM Solution for E-Mail Marketing Campaigns? Do I need a CRM Solution for E-Mail Marketing Campaigns?
The short answer is a resounding "No." CRM, or Customer Relationship Management, is a concept that has become well known over the last five years. The term CRM is rather vague but can best be described as "comprising of the methodologies, software, and Internet capabilities that help a company manage customer relationships in an efficient and organized manner." The downside of CRM solutions is not in principle but in what they actually deliver for the price.
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EASE Maestro Hosting Service Replaces EASE Express
EASESM Maestro is replacing the EASESM Express hosting service. The new EASE Maestro service is based on the LISTSERV® Maestro e-mail marketing software, which includes an easy-to-use Web interface that simplifies campaign management by guiding campaign administrators through every step of preparing e-mail messages for delivery. With EASE Maestro, you have the ability to directly access the service 24 hours a day and to manage and track your e-mail campaigns at your convenience.
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Interactive Demo

Success Story: University of Valencia
The University of Valencia introduced LISTSERV® to enhance communication and interactivity between lecturers and students. There are now more than 600 active e-mail lists. The lists are easily managed by faculty and support staff via LISTSERV's user-friendly Web interface without the need for technical assistance.
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To browse more client success stories, visit L-Soft's case study page. If you or your company would like to be featured as an L-Soft success story, please contact editor@lsoft.com.

Events

Internet World Essentials
April 15-17, 2003, in San Jose, CA

L-Soft will exhibit in Booth #530.

L-Soft Vice President of Marketing Gabriela Linares will co-present the Lifetime Television case study with Shobhit Kapoor, Director of Internet Technology at Lifetime Television, at 1 p.m. on April 17.

eMarketing Association Annual Conference
May 21-22, 2003, in Boston, MA

Gabriela Linares will give a presentation titled, "Advanced eMail Marketing Strategies" at 2 p.m. on May 21.

Gabriela Linares also gave the keynote presentation, "E-mail Marketing, the Marketing Tool You Can't Afford to Ignore," at the eMarketing Association event on January 15, 2003, in Beverly Hills, CA.


Quote of the Issue

"L-Soft came highly recommended to us by other universities, so we knew the company's software worked. We just didn't know how well. LISTSERV® Maestro drastically reduced our overhead costs by handling everything in one complete system, and reduced process time by 75 percent. Before, it took weeks to send an electronic newsletter. Now, it takes days."

Daryl Weitz,
Analyst/Developer,
University Advancement,
University of Denver

Copyright 2003 L-Soft