LISTSERV Maestro 8.1-4 Help

Subscriber List Statistics

The left pane displays the LISTSERV Maestro explorer tree, with the "Subscriber Datasets" subtree. This subtree contains all subscriber datasets and lists. In this tree, each dataset has its own little subtree, with the main dataset node as the root, and two or three child nodes. The Lists node is such a child node.

This Lists node is in turn the root node of a small subtree that contains all list folders and lists of the subscriber dataset.

While one of the list nodes is selected in the Lists subtree, the pane on the right shows the statistics of this list.

The panels at the top show the current list size, i.e. the number of subscribers currently on the list, and a summary over how this size has changed over time.

The two tabs below show various in depth reports. You can maximize these reports by clicking the icon at the top right corner of the tab.

Statistics Tab

This tab contains two charts:

The Total List Size chart plots the list growth over time, i.e. how its recipient count changed, up to 1000 days into the past.

The Subscribes / Unsubscribes chart shows the same period of up to 1000 days into the past, but only up to 100 days at once, broken down into daily subscribe/unsubscribe statistics:

The zero-line of the chart is in the middle, and for each day, a green bar that grows upwards from this line shows how many new recipients were added to the list on this day, and if they subscribed themselves or were added by the list owner. If there is no green bar for a given day, then no new recipients subscribed on this day.
A red bar that grows downwards from the zero-line shows how many recipients were removed from the list on this day, and if they unsubscribed themselves, where cleaned up automatically after bouncing, or were removed by the list owner. If there is no red bar for a given day, then no subscribers were removed on this day.
The blue line shows the difference between the green bar and the red bar, i.e. it shows the number of new subscribers minus the number of subscribers that were removed. As long as the blue line stays above the zero-line, the list subscriber count grows. If it falls below the zero-line, the list subscriber count shrinks.

You can page this report to the left and right to cover the whole report period of up to 1000 days by clicking on the little arrow icon buttons to the left and right of the chart title.

You can download the statistics report in PDF, spreadsheet and CSV format via the menu: Edit -> Download Statistics Report.

Demographics Tab

This tab displays a demographic breakdown report of the subscribers on the list.

This report allows you to answer questions like "How many subscribers are there from each city?" or "How many subscribers are interested in each of the hobby-topics the list offers, broken down by gender?"

There are two versions of this report:

• The Single-Field Demographic Breakdown report allows you to analyze the values in a single profile field, displayed as a pie chart (with percentages). For example, you can examine the percentages of how many subscribers there are from each city.

• The Multi-Field Demographic Breakdown report is more advanced and allows you to analyze the demographic distribution of several profile fields at once. For example, you can view which hobbies the subscribers have selected, broken down by gender.

Single-Field Demographic Breakdown

Use the single-field demographic breakdown report to analyze how the values in a certain single profile field are distributed among the subscribers. Select the profile field to view from the drop-down list at the top of the chart. The system will then analyze the subscribers' values in this profile field and will show you a breakdown of how many subscribers have selected each value (as a percentage of the total list size). This result is shown as a pie chart with a corresponding legend.

Note that this report is best suited for profile fields that have only a small number of different values over all subscribers (no more than 20 unique values) because if there are too many different values (or if there are values with low percentages), then the chart may automatically group together several values as "Other", in order to not let the pie chart deteriorate with too many slices, or slices that are too thin.

Create Target Group / Create Mail Job / Create A/B Split Job: Each slice in the chart describes one particular demographic sub-group of the subscriber base. The Create Target Group, Create Mail Job and Create A/B Split Job links allow you to use this demographic information to define the recipients set for either a target group, a mail job or an A/B-split job. When you click one of these links, a popup dialog opens. In this dialog, check one or several of the checkboxes next to the demographic sub-groups. Then click the confirmation button in the dialog to create the target group, mail job or A/B-split job, with a ready-made recipients definition.

To switch to the multi-field version of the demographic breakdown report (see below for details), click the Switch to advanced multi-field demographic breakdown link at the top right of the chart.

Multi-Field Demographic Breakdown

The multi-field demographic breakdown is more advanced and powerful than the single-field report because it allows you to analyze the demographic information of your subscriber list in more detail. However, it also requires a more detailed configuration to extract the desired information.

The multi-field report is displayed as a combined profile table and bar chart.

The profile table shows the profile structure that is currently being examined by the report. This structure consists of one or several of the profile fields that are available. The names of the selected profile fields appear at the top of the table, as table column headers. The table then displays one row for each profile value combination (for the selected profile fields) that occurs among the subscribers.

Each unique profile value combination is displayed only once, as one single row. This in turn has the effect, that if there are several subscribers with the same profile values (for the selected profile fields), then those subscribers will be grouped together into a single row.

The bar chart in turn displays this subscriber count: For each profile row, the number of subscribers that are grouped into this row is displayed in form of a bar right below the profile row, where the length of the bar shows the count of subscribers that were found for this profile. The count of subscribers for that profile is also displayed at the left of the bar.

You can now modify this profile table / bar chart to get a deeper understanding of the demographic composition of subscribers:

• Changing the Sort Order
  
  The table/chart displays only the first 100 entries of the report. If the report has more entries, then any entries after the first 100 (in regards to the current sort order) are not displayed. So changing the sort order may not only impact the order in which the entries are displayed, but may also have an effect on which entries are displayed at all.
  For example: Assume that you have a report with 300 entries. If you sort after "High Counts First", then of those 300 entries, you will see the 100 entries with the highest profile counts. If however you sort after "Low Counts First", then you will instead see the 100 entries with the lowest profile counts.
  
  To change the current sort order, click on the Sort Order link at the top right and then select any of the available options:
   
  • High Counts First: The entries are sorted after the profile count (i.e. after the column at the very left of the table), where entries with a higher count come first. If two entries have the same count, then their order is determined by comparing their profile values, with alphabetical ordering (similar to sort order type "Profile Fields, A -> Z", see below).
     
  • Low Counts First: The entries are sorted after the profile count (i.e. after the column at the very left of the table), where entries with a lower count come first. If two entries have the same count, then their order is determined by comparing their profile values, with alphabetical ordering (similar to sort order type "Profile Fields, A -> Z", see below).
     
  • Profile Fields, A -> Z: The entries are sorted after their profile values, in alphabetical order: The values from the first profile field are compared and the one which alphabetically comes first, also comes first in the table (i.e. "A" before "B", etc.). If two entries have the same value in the first profile field, then they are sorted according to their second profile field values (or if those are the same too, after the third field etc.).
     
  • Profile Fields, Z -> A: The entries are sorted after their profile values, in reverse alphabetical order: The values from the first profile field are compared and the one which alphabetically comes last, comes first in the table (i.e. "Z" before "Y", etc.). If two entries have the same value in the first profile field, then they are sorted according to their second profile field values (or if those are the same too, after the third field etc.).
  
  
• Changing the Profile Field Order
  
  The order in which the profile fields appear in the table can also be changed, i.e. you can move columns to the left or right (in respect to other columns). To do so, click on the little or icons which are displayed just above the column headers.
  
  If you change the column order, then at first the table/chart will be disabled. This is because the table/chart does not immediately reflect the reordered columns: After the columns are reordered, the report has to be re-executed before it reflects the new column order. Depending on the amount of data involved, executing the report can take a moment. But when reordering the columns, it is often so that you do not only want to move a single column for just one step, but instead you often want to move the column several steps or want to move several columns. If the report was re-executed each time a single column was moved one step, then such order changes would trigger several re-executions, with the corresponding wait times in between.
  
  To avoid this, the report table/chart is at first only disabled when you start reordering the columns, but the report is not yet re-executed. Once you have completed the re-ordering, you then tell the system to apply the new ordering and re-execute the report. To do so, click on the [Apply] button in the Column Structure Changed notification that appears as soon as the table/chart is disabled.
  
  Note: Changing the column order may also impact the sort order of the report entries, i.e. of the report rows. Especially if you have selected the sort order "Profile Fields, A -> Z" or "Profile Fields, Z -> A". This is because in these cases, the sort order of the rows depends on the values in the profile fields, where the profile rows are initially sorted after the values in the first profile field, and if that field has the same value for two profiles, they are sorted after the second field, and so on. Therefore, if you use the profile column reordering to make a different field the new first field, then this may have the effect that the profiles are now sorted into a different sequence than before.
   
• Selecting the Visible Profile Fields / Grouping Profiles
  
  In addition to changing the ordering of the profile columns, you also have the option of hiding some of the columns altogether, i.e. to include only some profile fields and exclude others.
  
  To hide a profile column, click on the little icon which is displayed just above the the column's header. If you have hidden one or several columns and want to show them again, click on the More Columns link that appears at the top right (this link appears only if there is at least one hidden column). Once you click the link, a little popup list opens, with the names of all fields that are currently hidden. Simply click on the field that you want to show again. A column for the selected field will be added to the table at the right of all previously visible columns. You can then use the arrow icons to move it to its desired position (see "Changing the Profile Field Order" above).
  
  If you hide or show a profile field, then at first the table/chart will be disabled, similarly to how it is disabled when changing the profile field order (see above). This is for similar reasons as explained above: If a field is hidden/shown, the report needs to be re-executed. To avoid unnecessary re-executions, you can first hide or show as many columns as you like (and reorder them) and once you are done you tell the system to re-execute the report by clicking the [Apply] button. See "Changing the Profile Field Order" above for more details.
  
  Hiding one or several profile field will also have the effect of grouping the profiles: The fewer profile fields are included in the examined profile structure, the more subscribers will actually turn out to have the same values for these fields, which means that they are grouped together into one profile row in the report.
  For example, if you include only the profile field "CITY" in the report (and hide all others), then all subscribers with the same "CITY" value (i.e. which live in the same city) will be group together, so you can see how many subscribers there are from each city. If you include both "CITY" and "GENDER", then you will see how many female and how many male subscribers there are from each city, and similar other reports.
  
  Note: When the report is initially displayed, all profile fields are still included in the report, except for fields of a certain type: Fields of type Multiple Select and Tracking Permission can not be included in a demographics breakdown report for technical reasons and are therefore also left out from the initially created report. In addition, the EMAIL profile field is never included in the demographics breakdown report because this field is by definition always a unique field, i.e. all subscribers will always have a unique value in this field. So if this field were included in the report, then there would be no grouping at all, but there would simply be one profile row per subscriber (which essentially would then be the same as you already have on the browse/edit page).
  Therefore, to already start off with some minimal grouping, the EMAIL column is not included in the initial form of the report and you can also not add it to the report at a later time.
  If you have similar unique profile fields (for example for the social security number, or for a unique customer ID), then those fields will also have the effect that there will be no grouping in the report. However, since LISTSERV Maestro does not know if a user-defined profile field has unique values or not, those profile fields will still be included in the initial report. You will usually want to hide such unique fields manually, to get a meaningful grouping effect in the report.

Create Target Group / Create Mail Job / Create A/B Split Job: Each bar in the report describes one particular demographic sub-group of the subscriber base (e.g. "All female subscribers in the northwest region"). The Create Target Group, Create Mail Job and Create A/B Split Job links allow you to use this demographic information to define the recipients set for either a target group, a mail job or an A/B-split job. First, check one or several of the checkboxes next to the report result bars. If you plan to use the recipients set for a one-time-only mailing, click the Create Mail Job or Create A/B Split Job link to create a corresponding job with a ready-made recipients definition. If instead you plan to reuse the recipients set for several mail jobs, click the Create Target Group link to create a target group.

You can download the demographics report in PDF, spreadsheet and CSV format via the menu: Edit -> Download Demographics Report.