Public Website & Notification Email Settings

The settings on this screen define certain settings of the public website that LISTSERV Maestro automatically provides with the subscriber list (or list group). The settings are divided in general settings and custom placeholder values.

Website and Notification Email Settings

• Public Visibility: Defines to what extent the public website is visible and accessible to the public Internet

  • Open to everyone: The website login page, the subscriber area page and the subscribe pages are visible to everyone with access to their URLs. Everyone is able to login (if they already are subscribers) or to subscribe. Everyone may choose to subscribe to any of the available lists in the group.

  • Access for subscribers only: The website login page and the subscriber area page are visible to everyone with access to its URL. However, the subscribe pages are not visible to anyone. Therefore, existing subscribers (who have been added from inside of Maestro) are able to login to the subscriber area (and from there to subscribe to lists, if the subscriber area is associated with a list group), but it is not possible for a non-subscriber to subscribe. In other words: The list is (or all lists in the group are) "by invitation only".

  • Unsubscribes only: Only the special subscriber area message page is visible, none of the other subscriber area pages are visible to anyone, including the subscriber area page, the login page and the subscribe pages. (The message page is necessary because it is shown when users unsubscribe via the {{*UnsubscribeURL}} system drop-in.) This state is helpful while still preparing the website for first use or for subscriber lists or groups where individual subscribes by outside users are not desired (all subscription is solely administered from inside of Maestro, either through manual editing or via subscriber data importers).

  In addition to the three options above, the public website also has a Runtime Status: The Closed for maintenance option means that the subscriber list (or all lists in the group) is temporarily closed for normal subscriber access (even in this mode, unsubscribes are still possible). In this state, all the visible access pages show a message that says the page has been temporarily closed for maintenance and to try again later. This is helpful when it is not desirable for subscribers to have access to the list, when at the same time maintenance (such as time-consuming imports or significant field changes) is ongoing.

• Access Pages Language: The language that is used to generate the access pages (the subscriber area pages). By default, only "English" is available. Other languages can be added by the Maestro administrator.

• Subscriber Password: Determines when the subscriber area password is to be defined by each subscriber. Available are No additional fields shown on subscribe page, defined later when needed for login and Defined through password and confirmation fields on subscribe page. This setting only affects how the initial password is defined when a user subscribes. In both cases, it is still possible for the subscriber to change his password at a later time.
  If the password is defined already when subscribing, then the subscribe step has the additional inconvenience that the subscriber must also specify the password, but the first login will be quick and easy because the password is already defined. In comparison, if the password is defined later, when needed for the first manual login, then the subscribe step is more streamlined because the subscriber is not bothered to define a password. But the first login will be more inconvenient because then the subscriber will first have to define a password and confirm this password with a second confirmation email round-trip.
  If your list group has a large number of lists that the subscribers can subscribe to or the lists have non-trivial subscription profiles that subscribers may want to edit on a regular basis, i.e. if you expect that your subscribers will login to the subscriber area regularly, then it is probably a good idea to use the "defined during subscribe" option. This is a bit more inconvenient during subscribe, but in such a situation you would expect your subscribers to need a password anyway, sooner or later, so defining it already during subscribe saves the subscribers from the hassle of having to go through an additional confirmation email round-trip before the first login.
  If your list group has only a few lists with simple subscriber profiles, i.e. if you expect that, after subscribing, the users will usually not have to login to the subscriber area at all, then the "defined when needed" option is usually the best option, as it streamlines the subscribe process and moves the inconvenience of having to define a password to the login step that will usually not be encountered by most subscribers anyway.

• Quick Login: Defines if a special "quick login" option shall be available on the login page of the subscriber area. In this case, then an additional checkbox appears on the subscriber area login page. If a subscriber checks this additional option during login, then this login information is remembered by the system; therefore, when he visits the login page again (with the same browser on the same computer), the email address and password fields are already filled out and the subscriber only needs to click the [Login] button to login.

• Notification Sender Address: The email address that is used as the "From:" address for all email sent "in the name" of the list(s), for example double opt-in confirmation messages.

• Notification Sender Name: The descriptive name associated with the address given above.

• LISTSERV Interface Link: This option is only available if an interface link to the LISTSERV server has been defined by the Maestro administrator. If enabled, then this subscriber list is also linked to that LISTSERV instance. This means, that the login passwords are shared between LISTSERV and the subscriber list. To the effect that any email address that has a password at the LISTSERV instance can use the same password to identify itself for the subscriber list (for example to subscribe or to login to the subscriber area) and vice versa. Additionally, the LISTSERV web interface (WA) displays a menu item that points back to the subscriber area of the list.

• Public Description: An optional public description that is visible externally to subscribers as the description of the list group (or list). In the description, HTML is supported, but on this screen, the HTML source code is shown instead.

To edit the public website settings, click the [Edit Settings] link.

Website Custom Values

Custom website placeholders can be used for two main purposes:

• Frequently Used Custom Texts: If you have certain text passages that you use at various locations throughout the website customization, then defining a website placeholder saves you from the need to supply the same text several times. Instead, you define the text as the custom value of a descriptive key of your choice and use the placeholder token instead of the verbatim value repeatedly.

• List-Specific Custom Texts: Maestro allows you to define list-specific values for website placeholders. If you then use the associated placeholder token at a location that Maestro shows in a situation that is specific to a given list, then the list-specific custom value is shown. The following list-specific situations are recognized:

  • Confirmation Emails: Using a placeholder with a list-level custom value allows you to create list-specific confirmation emails for subscription confirmation, password change confirmation and external profile update confirmation emails.
  • Welcome Emails: Website placeholders with list-level custom values allow you to create list-specific welcome emails.
  • Status Message Texts: Website placeholders with list-level custom values allow you to create list-specific status message texts. This is particularly interesting for status messages related to the unsubscribe workflow: You can use website placeholders with list-specific values to craft special texts that are only shown for a certain list and (for example) remain empty for the other lists in a given list group.

In all cases, you only customize on the list group level and achieve list-specific custom text by defining specific custom values on the list's Public Website Settings page.

Example: You are running a car dealership and maintain a list group with two lists, one named "New Vehicle Sales" for customers who have expressed their interest in buying a new car in the near future, and a second list named "Vehicle Maintenance Announcements" for existing customers who would like to receive timely reminders for annual car maintenance offerings.

You expect that loosing a subscriber of the "New Vehicle Sales" list constitutes a significantly higher loss of revenue than loosing a subscriber of the "Vehicle Maintenance Announcements" list and decide to show a special text only for subscribers who are unsubscribing from the "New Vehicle Sales" list, to make extra sure that none of them unsubscribes by accident.

For this purpose, you define a website placeholder named "retentionText" for the "New Vehicle Sales" list. One possible text for this placeholder could be something like "By staying subscribed on this list you make sure to receive first-hand notice of special discounts and custom offerings of new vehicles in our shop"

With this prepared, you open the Public Website Layout page of your list group and on this page, you open the customization of the Status Messages

On this screen, you customize the "List unsubscribe confirmation" message (under the "Yes/No confirmation" group) and add the token {{maestro:customValue key="retentionText"}}. Since no value is defined for this special token for the "Vehicle Maintenance Announcements" list, users who are unsubscribing from that list will not see the additional text whereas users who unsubscribe from the "New Vehicle Sales" list will see your special retention text.

Expanding on this example, you may now want to also customize the "Feedback Message After Unsubscribe" message (in the "Subscriber Area Access" group) and use the same approach to show a special text for users who not only clicked the unsubscribe link but in fact confirmed the message page question by clicking OK.

To add a custom value, click the [Add Custom Value] button. To edit an existing custom value, click the icon in the custom value's box.