The Cruise page has four things to set up, under Four things to set up. Click Change on a step to open it, and Done to close it. Everything saves as you go.

The four steps. Each card shows its current answer, and Change opens it.
The four steps. Each card shows its current answer, and Change opens it.

1. How you sound

This step holds the details Cruise writes from.

  • Brand name: your business name.
  • Site address: your website. Buttons in Cruise emails go there, apart from a button for one of your products, which goes to that product's page.
  • Brand description: what you do and who it's for. Cruise relies on this more than anything else. Besides this and your products, the only facts it states come from your check-in replies, your Calendar ideas marked Available to Cruise, and data sets you've switched on for it. If you'd like emails to mention postage or how to order, put them here.
  • How you sound: a few lines on how you talk to customers, for example “First person, friendly, short sentences, never pushy. We say pots, not products.”
  • Brand colours: Cruise designs its emails in these. Not sure? Try a ready-made palette sets all three at once.

If you've already written things in SplashSend, click Draft my voice from my writing. It reads your check-in replies, your business description, designs you wrote yourself, your campaign subject lines, the words on your forms, your Calendar ideas and your product descriptions, then shows a draft. Designs written by Cruise or Describe & Build don't count as your writing. Click Use this to put the draft in the box, where you can edit it, or Keep what I have. If there isn't enough of your own writing yet, it says so and nothing changes.

A draft of how you sound, made from your own writing. Nothing changes until you click Use this.
A draft of how you sound, made from your own writing. Nothing changes until you click Use this.

Your logo comes from your Header & Footer. Click Edit Header & Footer to open Designs, then open the Header & Footer card at the start of the list.

2. Images to use

Cruise builds each email around your products and the photographs you've switched on for it in Media. With no photographs switched on and no products, it has nothing to show and won't write anything. This step counts the photographs that are switched on today, by shape. Click Go to Media to add more. See Choosing the photos Cruise uses.

3. Who it goes to

Leave Everyone subscribed selected, or tick the groups and lists Cruise should send to. You can tick as many as you like, and someone in more than one gets the email once. The number beside each group and list is how many people in it can be emailed.

Cruise never emails people who have unsubscribed, or whose emails have been stopped because they bounced or were marked as spam. It also leaves out anyone on a list you've marked never to be emailed. With Ask me first, an email you've already approved still goes to the people it was approved for, even if you change who Cruise sends to afterwards.

Tick any groups and lists. Someone in more than one gets the email once.
Tick any groups and lists. Someone in more than one gets the email once.

4. When it sends

Pick how often Cruise sends:

  • Light: about 1 email a month
  • Steady: about 1 email a week
  • Active: about 2 emails a week
  • Frequent: about 3 emails a week

Then click the day buttons to choose the days, and pick a time from the list. The time is in the time zone shown under it, which starts as your computer's; pick another from Time zone if your customers are somewhere else. Work it out for me sets the time to the hour your people usually open their emails. Until enough of your emails have been opened to tell, it sets a sensible time and says so.

Pick how often Cruise sends and when.
Pick how often Cruise sends and when.

5. Switch Cruise on

  1. At the top of the page, click Cruise is off. It changes to Cruise is on.
  2. Under the switch, choose Send it to let emails go out on their own, or Ask me first to approve each one. You can choose before you switch Cruise on, and change it at any time.

Only the account owner or an admin can switch Cruise on or off, choose between Send it and Ask me first, or change who it goes to and when it sends. A team member sees a note saying so.

Under the switch, Next shows when the next email goes out and how many people it will go to. Once that email is written, its subject line appears underneath, with a note if it's waiting for your OK or if Cruise is off. Click the date to open that email on your Calendar. Read what it's written opens your Calendar.

Switch Cruise on, then choose whether each email waits for you.
Switch Cruise on, then choose whether each email waits for you.

What happens next

Cruise writes each email ahead of its send day, three days ahead unless you change Written ahead under Fine tuning. If your first send day is sooner than that, the first email is written within a few minutes. It then appears on your Calendar, where you can read it before it goes out. See Approving and changing Cruise emails.

While Cruise is on, a note at the top of the Cruise page lists anything that would stop it sending, such as a sender email that isn't verified yet, with a link to fix it. Until each one is fixed, Cruise doesn't write any emails. The note also says if you haven't added a postal address, which doesn't stop Cruise. See When a Cruise email doesn't go out.