Maestro Template and Image File Import

Overview

Using Maestro for email marketing and communication requires the use of a University-approved and provided standard template. This article will provide step-by-step instructions for importing a template and accompanied banner image.

Prerequisites

  1. Before beginning, you must have received a University-provided template or templates.  Typically, two options can be provided - one for general department communications and another for a newsletter.  You can contact DoIT-ServiceManagement@csulb.edu about a template, and DoIT can coordinate this with Strategic Communications.
  2. You must have attended a Maestro training, which leads to the creation of Maestro department and user accounts.  You can contact DoIT-ServiceManagement@csulb.edu about training.
  3. Depending on the audience of your Maestro email communications, you are required to obtain pre-approval from your area leadership.  Emailing to university-wide moderated lists (such as all-employees, all-students, all-faculty), requires appropriate Vice President approval.  Otherwise, you must create and maintain your own lists for sending your communications through Maestro.

Importing a Standard Template

Please see prerequisite #1 above. These instructions assume you have already received and saved your provided template files of HTML code and images, of which you will need to access for file import to your Maestro account.  Once logged in to Maestro (https://maestro.csulb.edu/lui/), you will be in your main Dashboard view. Be aware that Maestro will open a separate browser window after you are logged in.

  1. Within your main Dashboard view, select New > Content Template > Empty Template. 
    Maestro dashboard view showing the creation of an empty template
  2. Select Code at the top of the tool bar.
     selecting Code button from the available tool bar menu
  3. Now you will access the text file containing your template's HTML code.  You will need to select all the text in the file by using your mouse or keyboard functions and right-clicking and selecting Copy or using the Ctrl+C shortcut keys. 
  4. Back in Maestro in the Code view, you will see some stock HTML there.  You can highlight all of that code and delete it.  Now Paste the code you copied from from the provided template file.  Now click the OK button at the bottom right corner of the screen to accept the changes. You will immediately be presented with an HTML preview of your template so far.
     Pasting copied code into the template
  5. Next you will go to the left side navigation pane and right click on the current template which will be called "New Template" and right-click on it to select Open Template Definition.
     Selecting open template definition
  6. Next, you will update the template to include your department's header image.  Go to the top of the presented screen and double click on the default header area. In this case, it's where it says BMAC Building.  This will open the Image/Video Properties window where you will click the "Select Image/Video" button.Change header image
  7. Next window will default to the Uploaded image stored in the template option, which you will keep and click the Choose File button to select the image file that you have been provided by DoIT or Strategic Communications. After selecting your image file, click OK.  Image/Video selection screen showing choose file button
  8. Next you will update the department name below the header image to the appropriate name of your department for communication purposes. Changing department name heading
  9. Click OK to save changes to your template.
      Showing the OK button
  10. Rename your template to an appropriate title that suits your needs by going to the left navigation pane and right-clicking your template  Selecting Rename option
  11. Finally, select your renamed template by right-clicking on it and selecting Enable, so that it activates your completed template. Enabling the template
  12. At this point you can begin using this template for first-time use by following the next section of instruction. 

Using Template for First Time

  1. Select New > Standard Mail Job.
     New standard mail job
  2. Give this mail job a Job Title. This is an internal name you designate for a communication, for example - "Fall 2022 Newsletter." New job title screen
  3. Click the Define Message option from the job's workflow screen.
     Define Message step in workflow screen
  4. Select Open Template Gallery.
     Open template gallery option
  5. Select the User Defined Template tab. This will allow you to select the new template you just created on the left side of listed templates.User-defined templates tab
  6. After selecting your template click OK in the bottom right corner. Click "edit the HTML content" link in the upper right corner and it will open in edit mode, where you can begin updating the content.
     Edit mode of a new email job

Training

To use Maestro, you should have attended training for learning how to build complete jobs for sending to your targeted email lists.  Please contact DoIT-ServiceManagement@csulb.edu or submit a ticket (mention Maestro) if you have not attended training.