White Papers

Introduction to Email Lists

Summary: This introductory white paper discusses email lists and how to effectively use them to further your organization's goals. It explains what email lists are, how different types of email lists are set up, and most importantly, how to effectively use them and make them work for your organization.

Email Marketing Best Practices

Summary: This white paper provides an introduction to email marketing and guidance on how this effective discipline can benefit your company. Time-tested strategies for developing successful email marketing campaigns and advice on how to get the most value out of your email marketing efforts are also discussed.

Mail Deliverability Issues

Summary: This white paper talks about email deliverability issues. It outlines a series of recommended good practices that promote success in getting your email delivered. These practices are divided into responsibilities of the sender, recipient and service provider.

Moving LISTSERV to a New Server

Summary: This white paper explains the procedure for moving a LISTSERV installation to a new server without losing existing mailing lists and settings. The steps detailed in this document presume that the operating system and LISTSERV version will remain the same.

Sending MIME Messages in LISTSERV DISTRIBUTE Jobs

Summary: This white paper provides a brief overview and examples detailing the message preparation steps required to send MIME mail as part of a LISTSERV DISTRIBUTE job.

Understanding How LISTSERV Handles Bounces

Summary: This white paper provides you with a better understanding of how LISTSERV handles bounces and some of the issues involved. It also discusses the LISTSERV tools that you have at your disposal that make bounce handling easier and take much of the burden off the list owner.

Using LISTSERV to Feed Custom-Written Mail Messages to SMTP

Summary: This white paper shows the necessary steps of taking a custom-prepared message and feeding it to an SMTP server by placing it in LISTSERV's outgoing spool directory. This can be useful if there is a third-party application writing mail messages, or if an email client is making unwanted formatting changes to messages.

Using the Microsoft IIS SMTP Service for LISTSERV Deliveries

Summary: This white paper explains how to install and configure the Microsoft IIS SMTP Service to deliver email messages generated by LISTSERV or LISTSERV Maestro.

A/B-Split Testing: Stop Guessing and Start Knowing

Summary: This white paper describes how to use A/B-split testing to measure how your subscribers respond to differences in subject line, message or layout and to increase the effectiveness of your email campaigns.

Authenticating and Encrypting Communication between LISTSERV Maestro Components

Summary: This white paper describes how to use the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) to authenticate and encrypt communication between components of a LISTSERV Maestro installation. This is different from using SSL to secure communication between the user and the LISTSERV Maestro User Interface or Administration Hub.

Creating a Collaborative Team Environment in LISTSERV Maestro

Summary: This white paper describes the team collaboration features that allow any number of users to work on email job components. This multi-user, collaborative team environment can save you time, help you control the final sending authorization and streamline productivity.

Dynamic Dashboards: Immediately Accessing Your Most Vital Statistics

Summary: This white paper explores the LISTSERV Maestro dashboard and explains how you can make the most out of this dynamic tool to facilitate your job management and monitor your communication performance.

Forward-to-a-Friend: Getting Your Message Out

Summary: This white paper describes how you can give your subscribers and recipients the freedom to share your newsletters with their friends, family and colleagues by using the Forward-to-a-Friend feature offered by LISTSERV Maestro.

Importing Data from Microsoft Access into LISTSERV Maestro

Summary: This white paper explains how to use the ODBC driver plug-in with Microsoft Access database files, allowing LISTSERV Maestro to use an Access databases as a data source. The ODBC driver plug-in is a database plug-in that allows recipient information or drop-in content to be pulled from any ODBC data source.

Importing Data from Microsoft Excel into LISTSERV Maestro

Summary: This white paper explains how to use the ODBC driver plug-in with Microsoft Excel files, giving LISTSERV Maestro access to Excel spreadsheets as if they were database tables.

Summary: This white paper explains how to use LISTSERV Maestro to create and manage accurate "last updated" fields for your subscriber data. This white paper will also show you how to send and customize messages that will allow your subscribers to easily update their data without actually logging into the membership area.

LISTSERV Maestro and Web Tracking

Summary: This white paper demonstrates one of the ways that LISTSERV Maestro can be used in conjunction with a Web tracking application to evaluate the overall effectiveness of a marketing campaign from the initial delivery of an email message to the recipients' final behavior on your Website.

Message Templates: Getting Started

Summary: This white paper explains the basics of using the built-in HTML message templates in LISTSERV Maestro.

Message Templates: Creating Your Own Templates

Summary: This white paper explains how to create your own templates using the built-in message template system in LISTSERV Maestro.

Message Templates: Advanced Techniques

Summary: This white paper explains advanced techniques to create customized HTML templates in LISTSERV Maestro.

Orchestrating a Symphony of Email with LISTSERV Maestro

Summary: This white paper uses a musical theme as an analogy to explain how LISTSERV Maestro works. LISTSERV Maestro acts as the conductor – leading, organizing and delivering email. The musicians are the people who take direction from the conductor to produce the messages. The instruments are the different parts of the hardware and software that are used by the musicians to blend all the pieces together to create a "symphony of email."

Preparing LISTSERV Maestro Mailings Based on User Preferences

Summary: This white paper describes how to use recipient data and conditional content to ensure that all recipients get their preferred mail format. The advantage of using conditional content is that it's possible to prepare a single job for recipients who prefer HTML and for those who prefer plain text, saving time and reducing the risk for errors and duplication that may occur when sending separate mailings.