These are general best practices and tips for using your Maestro newsletter template provided by Strategic Communications. The intent of the template is to maintain uniform, consistent branding and formatting among all campus newsletters.
Template Usage Tips
Fonts
- Please do not change any font types. Maintain fonts as they are delivered in the original template file.
- Using bold and italics is acceptable but should be used sparingly for most effectiveness.
Images
- Images should be full width (600 pixels wide for header and footer; 500 pixels wide within the body)
- No images in section styles; put them before or after the section titles
- For a professional look, aim to use real photographs as images, and avoid using animated, cartoon-like images.
Content
- Avoid excessive text and large paragraphs. When available, hyperlink to web pages for more details.
Mail Merge
Prerequisite: Excel spreadsheet with email addresses in first column, additional columns you wish to merge (Ex: FirstName, LastName, URL, etc) and unique column headers for each column.
- In the Maestro work flow, click Define Recipients > Upload Recipients > Next > Select a file > Choose File. Browse to Excel file and click Open > Upload.
- Select radio button next to Yes, the first row in the file contains the headers > Next.
- In the column that contains the email addresses, make sure the drop down field is set "E-Mail." The merge field columns should be set to “Merge Field” and click Next > Next > Finish.
- In the Maestro workflow, click Define Message > Edit the HTML content.
- Click in the newsletter body where you want to place a Merge Field. In the Merge Field panel to the right, click the merge field you want to insert. When done, click OK > OK.
- Continue with the work flow as usual to complete the required steps.
Resources