Knowledge base

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.

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.

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.

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 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.