Part 5: Mailings (4 of 4)

Test message checklist

Test messages are intended for you to review the content of a message prior to sending it out to your list. Your test message will look exactly the way it will when received by other recipients on the list. The following checklist may be helpful when reviewing a test message:
• Examine your test message and make sure it contains everything you wanted, especially if you specified any header or footer text.

• If your list is a discussion list, ask your other testers to respond to the test message and observe the results. Or, respond to it yourself using another account.

• Check and make sure that you've added unsubscribe information to your message. Be sure that it includes the %%email.unsub%% mail merge code. This code creates a unique unsubscribe email address for each member, containing a code which identifies the member to Lyris ListManager. You can test it by sending a message to the unsubscribe address indicated. If you're an administrator it won't work (you really don't want to unsubscribe, you're the boss). Use one of your other test addresses to unsubscribe just to see how it works.

  Please note: our Usage Policy requires that you include the Lyris ListManager unsubscribe instructions in all of your messages. You may not replace them with your own unsubscribe instructions that do not unsubscribe the member directly from the list.

Approving a message

Approving a message really means verifying that it is acceptable and ready to send, and either sending it immediately or scheduling it to be sent at later time. There are two methods to approve a message: via the web interface or via email. You can also test or schedule messages through the Mailings: Need Approval page in the web interface.

Approving via the web interface

1. Select the Mailings tab.
2. Select Need Approval.
3. Click on the ID number next to a particular message, or on the approval wizard button to review it.
4. Select Send Now to send it immediately. Or, you may test the mailing, or schedule it to be sent at a future time:

   

   Please note that there will only be messages waiting to be approved if you have your list set up that way. If not, messages just go right through, without your approval.

Approving via email

If you approve mailings yourself (recommended for security reasons), you will receive a modification notification from Lyris ListManager for any messages sent to the list via email. The message you receive will contain the following (with a different number code; this is just an example):

login yourpassword
moderate approve 16189

To approve this message reply, delete everything up to where it says "login" and replace yourpassword with your password.

To reject the message put your password above the "moderate reject..." line, instead of the approval command.

Note: Do not replace login with your name or anything, just replace yourpassword with your password above either the approve or reject command. Your response will look something like this:

login yourpassword
moderate approve 14962

or

login yourpassword
moderate reject 14962

Note that these numbers are just an example; the numbers in the messages you receive will always be different. You will receive a message from Lyris ListManager confirming the message was either accepted or rejected.

What's next?

• Part 6: Reports
• Return to the Getting Started main page