HTK Horizon | Knowledge Base

Adding a new map group

A Map Group is an area drawn on a map that tells Horizon which contacts should be included in the Group. Every time the Map Group is used, Horizon automatically works out which contacts have a location that is inside the area and will include only these contacts in the group.

To create a Map Group, wait for the map to load and then select the circle, rectangle or polygon drawing tool at the top-right of the map. Then click and drag the mouse to create a circle or rectangle area, or click on each corner to create a polygon (double-click on the final corner to complete the shape).

To zoom into the place where you want to create the shape, click on the 'Locate Postcode' tool, or move around using the mouse and the zoom controls. To erase a shape and start again, click the trashcan icon.

To check which Contacts are included in a Map Group, view the group in read-only mode and expand the "Contacts" section.

Managing interfaces

Horizon interfaces are the outbound and inbound contact points on which messages are sent and publications are hosted.

For example, for outbound messages you may have a "Sender" email address from which your emails will be sent, and a mobile number from which your SMS messages will be sent. For receiving email replies you may have a different "Reply to" email address, and for receiving SMS text messages you may have an SMS "long number".

All of these are Interfaces. The message sending interfaces are called "Outbound interfaces", and the receiving ones are called "Inbound interfaces".

Inbound interfaces can be added to an Inbound Response, so that you can set up automatic business processes (I-Modules) for handling any SMS messages and voice calls that you receive.

If you have an Inbound Interface for SMS (such as a UK long number or short code), you can optionally add "Keywords" to it, so that you can create different behaviours for handling received SMS messages. For example, you might set up the SMS Keywords "A", "B" and "C" for a text competition, and respond differently depending on which answer someone texts in to your SMS number.

Creating message content

Use message content to build your multi-channel messages, then send them in a campaign. Message content can include email, SMS and voice, so you can engage with your customers and prospects in the ways they want. Once you've created your message content you can add it to a campaign, then send the message to your contacts.

Message content can be created from scratch, or you can start with a Message Template. You can create and store as many Message Templates and as much Message content as you like; there's no limit. You can also create re-usable paragraphs of text (for example your organisation's standard email footer) and save these as Content blocks. These can be quickly inserted anywhere in your message content.

When creating message content, you need to select one or more Opt-in categories. These are a very important aspect of permission-based marketing, and ensure that messages will ONLY be sent to contacts who have opted-in to receive messages in one or more of these categories. If you don't select any opt-in categories for the message content, it won't be sent to anyone!

To create your message content, tick the types of message you want to send (you don't need to select them all, just the ones you want to use). You'll then see one or more tabs where you can add your content. The content options will vary for each type of message; for example with email you can specify a friendly 'Sender' name, the email subject line and the email message (HTML and plain text), whereas with SMS you can only choose the Sender and the SMS text message.

You can easily personalise your messages using 'Smart Insert' (click on the person icon in the message editor toolbar). This works just like a mail merge, and lets you add placeholders for things like as person's name, address and contact details. When the message is sent, these placeholders will be replaced with the actual details for each contact.

Quick SMS

The Quick SMS tool lets you send personalised SMS messages quickly and easily, whether to 1 person or 100. You simply need to add your recipients, create your SMS content and click "Send now".

SMS message recipients can be added manually or imported from a comma-separated (.csv) file, and messages can be personalised with each recipient's name or other details.

Creating web landing pages (and other publications)

Use publication content to build your web landing pages and voice (IVR) auto-responders.

Publication content can include web and IVR. Use web publications to publish information and interactive forms (eg sign-up forms or customer surveys), and IVR voice publications to publish audio information to a telephone number. Web publications can either be hosted on your Horizon domain or on your own website.

Publication content can be created from scratch, or you can start with a Publication Template. You can create and store as many templates and as much publication content as you like; there's no limit.Just like your Horizon email and SMS messages, you can easily personalise your landing page content for each prospect, to maximise your sign-up rates.

Your landing pages can also include multi-page interactive forms and customer surveys.

Managing your files

Horizon has a built-in file store, to make it easy for you to manage the documents, pictures and sound files you want to use in your campaigns and I-Modules.

Files are stored inside folders, just like on your PC or Mac. On the left of the screen you should see a list of folders, and on the right you'll see a list of the files in the selected folder (note the folder list can be hidden to give you more room to work with files).

To see the contents of a folder and a list of sub-folders, just click on it in the Folders list on the left. The contents of the folder will be shown in the Files list on the right. You can switch between a listing of the file details and a thumbnail view (useful for finding images) using the link to the right of the Files area.

To upload a new file to Horizon or create a new sub-folder, click on the 'Upload file' or 'New folder' button at the top of the Files list. When you upload a file, Horizon can automatically keep a copy of all previous versions in case you need to go back to them.

To download a file to your computer, click on the 'Download' icon in the listing of file details, or double-click on the file from the thumbnail view.

You should store your own files in the $HOME folder or in a subfolder under $HOME.

Setting up contact profiles

Profiles can be used to store extra information about your Contacts, Groups, Message Content and Users, making it easy for you to categorize and search for them (using Advanced Search).

Profile information can also be used to segment your contacts, using Rule Groups.

When you create a Profile you first need to choose what type it will be (eg a Contact profile or a Group profile), and then add one or more Custom Fields. These are the individual pieces of information that you want to use to describe the Contact, Group etc.

Each Custom Field must be given a name (used to identify it in searches and (in the case of Contacts) rule groups, and can be either a textbox (free-form text), a dropdown list (containing a list of values from which one can be selected), a checkbox list (containing a list of tick-boxes from which several can be selected), a date, a date and time or a number.

You can also choose whether each Custom Field must have a value (mandatory), and the order in which they are displayed. For dropdown list and checkbox list Custom Fields, you can also choose the order in which the individual options are displayed.

Profiles for Groups, Message Content and Users can be used straight away, but profiles for Contacts can only be used once they have been added to a Directory. When you add or edit a contact and select that Directory, the related Profile Custom Fields will appear.

Adding opt-in categories

Opt-in categories ensure that messages are only sent to contacts who have opted-in to receive them. They are the easiest way to make sure your contacts only receive relevant emails, so they'll be happy to stay signed up to your newsletters and marketing campaigns.

You create some Opt-in Categories, your contacts tick the ones they're interested in (giving you permission to contact them), and you tag each outbound message with the opt-in category or categories to which it relates. When you run the campaign, your message will ONLY be sent to the contacts who have ticked at least one of the categories that you tagged the message with.

Opt-in categories are stored separately for each of a contact's media types; so for example they could opt-in to receive music and sport messages by email but only sport messages by SMS.

You can empower your contacts to self-serve their own opt-in preferences by adding the Opt-in Categories to a web Publication.

Importing contacts

The information you store about your marketing contacts might include their name and address, their email address and mobile phone number, and their opt-in preferences for receiving marketing information from you.

Contacts can be easily imported and exported from MS Excel (.xls) and comma-separated value (.csv) files.

Adding a new combined group

Use combined groups to build advanced segments, including or excluding other groups.

Combined Groups are a way to combine other groups together; for example to include all contacts who match the rules in a Rule Group AND have a location within a Map Group area.

Combined Groups can contain any combination of other groups, including other Combined Groups, and can be set up to include all the Contacts who belong to ANY of the included groups (for example all prospects and all contacts in a specific area) or just those Contacts who belong to ALL of the included groups (for example just the prospects whose location is within that area).

Combined Groups can also be set up to exclude contacts; for example to create a group that contains all prospects EXCEPT those in a specific area.

To check which Contacts are included in a Combined Group, view the group in read-only mode and expand the "Contacts" section.

Adding a new rule group

Use rule groups to create segments that automatically work out who should be included.

A Rule Group is a set of rules that tells Horizon which contacts should be included in the Group. Every time the Rule Group is used, Horizon automatically works out which contacts match the rules and will include only these contacts in the group.

Rule Groups are really useful if you have different segmentations that you want to use over and over again, because you can define these segments once (as a Rule Group) and Horizon will automatically take care of the segmentation for you each time you add new contacts or change their details. No more slicing and dicing of spreadsheets!

To add more than one rule to a Rule Group, just click the "+" icon beside the first rule and a new one will appear.

To include Profile data in a Rule Group segmentation, set the first rule to "Directory name equals" plus the name of the Horizon Directory that contains the Profile data.

To check which Contacts are included in a Rule Group, either edit the group and click the "Check Rules" button, or view the group in read-only mode and expand the "Contacts" section.

Adding a new list group

A List Group is a list of individual Contacts. List Groups are best when you have just a few Contacts who you want to group together; for example your colleagues in the marketing team or key staff members who need to be alerted during an emergency. List Groups can also be useful if you want to import some contacts from a spreadsheet or .csv file for a one-off campaign.

The members of a List Group will only change if you manually add or remove Contacts; they're not updated automatically.

If you have a lot of Contacts and you want to segment them in different ways, or if you want segmentation to take care of itself automatically when contacts' details are changed or new contacts are imported, you should take a look at Rule Groups and Map Groups.

Adding a new contact

Use Horizon Contacts to build a better picture of your prospects and customers.

The information you store about your contacts might include their name and address, their email address and mobile phone number, and their opt-in preferences for receiving marketing information from you. Contacts are stored in Directories (think of a Directory as an address book). Contacts can be easily imported and exported from MS Excel (.xls) and comma-separated value (.csv) files.

Contact Profiles can be used to store all kinds of other information about your contacts. Go to the Admin section to create a Profile and then attach it to a Directory. When you create a new Contact, select the Directory you want to store it in and you'll then be able to add the Profile information that has been attached to that Directory.

Once you have set up your Profiles and created or imported some contacts, the next step is to create some Groups. Groups are used to segment your contact database so that you can send different messages to different types of people; for example your marketing prospects and your existing customers.

How Suffolk Constabulary is using Horizon

Suffolk Police have used HTK Horizon platform ('PoliceDirect') to help build confidence with the general public for a number of years now.

Chief Inspector Adrian Dawson gives an overview of some of the benefits the service has provided Suffolk Police.

How Birmingham Resilience Team is using Horizon

Birmingham Resilience Team needed a tool to communicate effectively and dynamically with City Council staff and local communities.

One of the main reasons Birmingham Resilience Team chose to work wih HTK was the way in which the HTK Horizon Software-as-a-Service hosted platform enables the team to manage their data and use it intelligently, to get messages across very quickly and efficiently.

Using Horizons GIS mapping and dynamic group management capabilities, the Resilience Teams database of contacts can be automatically segmented to target messages based on each individual contacts preferences and location.

Resources

Articles: Getting started with Horizon

White papers: CRM and customer experience

Articles: CRM and customer experience

White papers: Industry solutions

Articles: Horizon features (Enterprise only)

Articles

BANG: Changing the business continuity industry

Britain's Brightest Business

Building a Social Context (for better customer experience)

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