Creating an email message - the basics

Horizon makes it easy to create beautiful, mobile-friendly emails. This could include newsletters, auto-response or triggered emails and internal messages to staff. 

How to create an email message  

1. Click the 'Content' tab then 'Add new message content'
    
2. Give your message a name. Try to use a consistent naming scheme for your messages to make it easy to find later on.
   
   
3. Select a message template as the starting point for your message or follow steps 5 to 11 below. You can create message templates to make creating a message easier. To do this, go to 'Re-usable templates' under 'Message content'. Set up is the same process as below.
   
   
4. Tick the opt-in categories that are relevant to this message. Horizon will then ensure that it is only sent to contacts if they have subscribed to receive messages from one of the selected categories. For more information, see Setting up your Opt-in Categories.
   
   
5. Tick "Email".
   
   
6. Select the email address that this message will be sent from. If you're a new Horizon customer this will probably be an address ending in "htkhorizon.com", however Horizon can be setup to send emails from your own domain name - Please contact us for further details.
   
   
7. Enter the "sender name" that subscribers should see. This should be something that subscribers will recognise. You shouldn't change the sender name too often, as this leads to confusion with subscribers, resulting in lost customers and spam complaints. Always warn customers of any changes.
   
   
8. Select the email address that any email replies will go to (if a subscriber receives your email and clicks "reply"). Contact us if you'd like any additional reply address to be added.
   
   
9. Think about an engaging subject line that will encourage your contacts to open the email. You can personalise the subject line using things like the first name of each contact. To do this, click . You can also apply a variable subject line, allowing customers of different groups see a different subject line. To do this, click
   
   
10. Select an email layout as the starting point for your email design. If this email is to be sent as part of a campaign, make sure you use an email layout that contains an "unsubscribe" link or be sure to add an "unsubscribe" subscriber action link yourself.  For more information see Setting up your Subscriber Preference Centre.
    
    
11. Select a theme from the dropdown list (themes are a quick way to select things like the default colours and fonts).
    If you'd like a custom theme that matches your website branding, let us know. We can either create one for you or advise your design agency or internal team on how to do this. 

Adding custom blocks

When creating an email in Horizon, you can add building blocks by dragging them onto your email from the list of “custom blocks” on the left.

You can also move rows within the email once they have been added, by clicking the left-hand  “drag” icon and dragging the selected row to a new position:

By clicking within the custom block, you'll see a few more options

•  Allows you to change the colour of a custom block. The custom block needs to be editable for this to work. You can edit the email layout to make this possible, or if you aren't comfortable with html, get in touch with us.
•  Allows you to edit the html for that custom block. Only change this if you are confident with html. 
•  Allows you to clone the custom block.
• Allows you to delete the custom block. It will ask you to select Yes to confirm this, so as to avoid accidental deletion.  
• Allows you to click and drag the custom block to a new position in your message.

If you'd like other kinds other custom blocks to be available, let us know - the ones in our standard email layouts are there for starters, but it's very easy for someone with HTML skills to add new ones. We can either create them for you or advise your design agency or internal team on how to do this. 

Final checks

1. Click the grey 'Synchronise plain text with HTML' link to create the plain-text version of your email (you can also edit this manually if you need to).
   
   
2. Send a test message to make sure that everything looks ok and the links work. For more information see Sending a test message.
   
   
3. Save the final version of your message by clicking the at the bottom of the screen. 

Sending the message to your subscribers

To send the email message to a group of subscribers, create a new campaign and add the message to it.  
 

Check out more from the Create an email message series:

Creating an email message - Custom Blocks

Creating an email message - Styling