Creating and sending customized email messages with LISTSERV
Maestro is a multi-step procedure. Some of the steps can be done at any time during the process, and other steps are dependent on the completion of previous steps.
To begin creating a new email job, click Mail Job > New from the Toolbar. By default, the individual who initiates a new email job becomes the “owner” of that job
1. A job owner:
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 may 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. The prefix will appear at the beginning of the system generated Job ID and will be separated from the generated part by a hyphen. Depending on the settings 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 identify jobs or group jobs for reporting or billing purposes. For more on Job Titles and Job IDs, see the LISTSERV
Maestro online help or the LISTSERV
Maestro Administrator’s Manual.
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The second way is by selecting the Copy settings (content, recipients, etc.) and job category from job option, which automatically takes the settings from an existing job as the basis for the new job. Once you select this option, click the drop-down menu and select the job you want to copy information from.
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A new, empty job needs to have the email message defined as well as the sender and recipient 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.
Once you’re finished selecting your job setting, press [OK] to continue or
[Cancel] to return to the previous screen. If you pressed
[OK], then the Job Details screen opens. See the following section for more information on defining your job details.
Tip: 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. Or, a new product announcement could contain the same message but be sent to different recipient lists.
To display the advanced options, click the Show Advanced Options link (to hide them again, you can click the
Hide Advanced Options link).
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Delivery Notification – Enter the email addresses to which a delivery notification message will be mailed after the delivery of this job. The notification mail will also include the delivery status (success or failure) of the job.
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Authorization Due By – If you have a special date and time by which the mail job is supposed to be authorized for delivery, then you can enter this information here. The due date will then be displayed in the Open Jobs screen and also on the Dashboard in the Jobs Due Next section as a reminder of which open jobs need your attention most. You can also define or change this date at a later time (up until the job is finally authorized for delivery).
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Auto-Archive – Defines if and when the job will be automatically moved to the archive. The following options are available:
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Automatically move this job to the archive – The job will automatically be archived a certain number of days after the job’s delivery (or failure). Enter the number of days into the field that appears when this option is selected.
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Note: This feature can be used to keep the list of handled jobs clean by automatically removing jobs that are "older" than a certain threshold. However, in contrast to actually deleting the old jobs, this feature moves the job into a special archive folder. The archived jobs no longer appear in the normal LISTSERV Maestro User Interface (they will appear to have been deleted), but can, if necessary, be restored by the LISTSERV Maestro administrator.
Important: Use this feature with care so that only jobs that you really are not interested in anymore (that are "old enough" to be uninteresting) are archived automatically. And, remember that only the LISTSERV Maestro administrator will be able to restore such an archived job, and when it is restored, the job will appear "frozen" in the state that it had at the moment it was archived (for example no further tracking events will be collected for this job).
Once a new job has been created, the next steps are to define the recipients of the message and create the email 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 Summary diagram. These diagrams serve to guide account holders through the proper sequence of events for defining an email job. Both of these displays chart the process of creating an email job and contain links that allow each step to be edited.
The Workflow Diagram is a visual representation of the process of creating an email job. To reach this diagram, click on the Workflow tab from the Job Details screen. Clickable icons represent 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 a wizard in LISTSERV
Maestro that defines and edits that step of the email 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 email job. To reach this 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.
Tip: 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 3.1
User Interface Preferences for more information.
The Test Reports tab only becomes active once an email 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 information on using the Test Reports functions, see Section 9.1
Delivery Testing for a Job.
An A/B-Split Job lets you define a list of recipients with several different message content and tracking definitions in the form of variant jobs, which are sub-jobs of the A/B-split job. During delivery, the list of recipients will be evenly split between all of the variant jobs, and each variant job will then be delivered to its recipient share.
If tracking is defined for the variant jobs, then the tracking results can later be used to assess the "success" of each variant job in comparison to the other variants. These results give you valuable insight into which kind of content has the most impact and which should be used to optimize future jobs.
Each section of this screen contains information pertinent to the job along with its status. If each section is successfully fulfilled, then a green shield is shown. To enter or change job information, simply click the
Edit link associated with that section. The following sections need to be completed before delivery can be authorized:
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A/B-Split Job – This section lets you edit the job title, job category, job-ID prefix, delivery notification, "authorization due by" date, and auto-archive settings. Not all settings may be editable at all times, depending on the A/B-split job's state.
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Recipients – This section lets you define the recipients of the A/B-split job. This section may not always be available, depending on the A/B-split job's state.
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Job List – This section lets you define the variant jobs that are part of the A/B-split job. Each variant job is displayed in a separate row, with job ID, job title, and with four icons for the four aspects that are unique to each variant job: Content, Tracking, Sender, and Test. These icons reflect the states of the corresponding workflow steps.
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Tip: From the Job Details screen, you can also copy the details from a different variant job. To do so, click the
Mail Job menu and select
Copy Settings from Other Variant.
Click the Add Variant Job link at the bottom of the list to add another variant job to the A/B-split job. In addition, a
Delete link may appear next to each variant job, allowing you to delete the corresponding variant job (the link does not appear if only the minimum number of variant jobs is present in the A/B-split job). Adding, editing, or deleting variants is only possible if the A/B-split job's state still allows it.
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Delivery – This section lets you schedule the delivery of the A/B-split variant jobs to take place immediately after authorization or at a future date and time relative to a selected time zone. The delivery settings apply to all variant jobs equally, as does the authorization. This means that the A/B-split job can only be authorized when all variants have been completed (all four states of all variant jobs are complete and marked with the green checkmark), and once the A/B-split job is authorized, all variants are authorized (and will be delivered according to the delivery settings defined here). For more information, see Section 8.2.2 Scheduling Delivery for A/B-Split Jobs.
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An A/B-Split Job with Sampling is a special version of a normal A/B-split job. It contains two types of job categories – Sampling Variants and a Main Variant – and, combined together, they create the sub-jobs of the A/B-split job. The bulk of the recipients are reserved for the main variant, while only a smaller part of the recipients are evenly divided among the sampling variants. The sampling variants are authorized and delivered first, while the main variant is held back. The tracking results of the sampling variants are then used to assess the "success" of each variant (just like a normal A/B-split job). With these results, you can copy the content of the most successful sampling variant into the main variant (maybe with some additional changes). After this is done, you can finally authorize the delivery of the main variant (which contains the bulk of the recipients). By holding off the delivery of the main variant, you can use the insight gained from the sampling variants so that the bulk of the recipients receive the message that has proven most successful (in contrast to normal A/B-splitting, where the insight can only be utilized for the next job). The drawback of A/B-split sampling is that some recipients will get the message earlier (the recipients that are used in the sampling variants), while the bulk of the recipients will receive the message later (when the main variant is authorized and delivered).
Each section of this screen contains information pertinent to the job along with its status. If each section is successfully fulfilled, then a green shield is shown. To enter or change job information, simply click the
Edit link associated with that section.
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A/B-Split Job – This section lets you edit the job title, job category, job-ID prefix, delivery notification, "authorization due by" date, and auto-archive settings. Not all settings may be editable at all times, depending on the A/B-split job's state.
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Recipients – This section lets you define the recipients of the A/B-split job. This section may not always be available, depending on the A/B-split job's state.
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Job List – This section lets you define the variant jobs that are part of the A/B-split job. Each variant job is displayed in a separate row, with job ID, job title, and with four icons for the four aspects that are unique to each variant job: Content, Tracking, Sender, and Test. These icons reflect the states of the corresponding workflow steps.
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Tip: From the Job Details screen, you can also copy the details from a different variant job by selecting
Copy Settings from Other Variant from the the
Mail Job menu
Click the Add Variant Job link at the bottom of the list to add another variant job to the A/B-split job. The variant jobs list is additionally separated into two tabs labeled Sampling Variant Jobs and Main Variant Job. The first tab contains all sampling variants while the second tab contains only the main variant in the A/B-split job.
In addition, a Delete link may appear next to each variant job, allowing you to delete the corresponding variant job (the link does not appear if only the minimum number of variant jobs is present in the A/B-split job). Adding, editing, or deleting variants is only possible if the A/B-split job's state still allows it.
Note: The main variant can never be deleted, and the Main Variant Job tab does not contain a link to add more variants because only one main variant is permitted.
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Delivery – There are two separate delivery settings that need to be defined – Sampling Delivery, which applies to all sampling variants, and Main Delivery, which applies only to the main variant. Because of this, the delivery settings are located on both tabs – the Sampling Variant Jobs tab and the Main Variant Job tab. Similarly, the authorization of the sampling variants and the main variant happen after each other. The sampling variants have to be authorized first, and, similar to a normal A/B-split job, it is only possible if all sampling variants are complete (with green checkmarks). Once the variant delivery is authorized, all sampling variant jobs will be delivered according to the Sampling Delivery settings. Authorization of the main variant is in turn only possible after the delivery of all sampling variants has been completed (either successfully or with failure). Also, the main variant job must of course be completed first (with green checkmarks). Once authorized, it will then be delivered according to the Main Delivery settings. For more information, see Section 8.2.3 Scheduling Delivery for A/B-Split Jobs with Sampling.
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This Workflow Diagram serves as a visual representation of the process of creating a new email 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 email 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.
Note: If the
Authorization Due By date and time have expired, then a warning will appear on the Workflow 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 email 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.
Individual account holders may set a personal preference in the User Settings that will open the Summary Diagram first when entering the Job Details screen instead of the Workflow diagram. See Section 3.1
User Interface Preferences for more information.
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.
Note: If the
Authorization Due By date and time have expired, then a warning will appear on the Summary Diagram.
To access the Team Collaboration settings, simply click Mail Job >
Team Collaboration from the Toolbar. These settings make it possible to set up a team of people to collaborate on a job. From the Summary Diagram, the Team Collaboration settings are at the bottom 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.
The Team Collaboration screen displays 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 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.
Tip: Separating responsibilities for different aspects of an email 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.
