Ideas are notes on your Calendar for emails you might send, such as an autumn sale or a new glaze. Nothing is ever sent from an idea. When you're ready, you can turn one into a campaign or a design, and Cruise can mention it in the emails it writes.

Jot an idea down

  1. Open the Calendar in the Daily or Weekly view. The Ideas panel is on the right.
  2. Type in the Jot an idea… box, for example “Christmas mug pre-orders”.
  3. Click +.
Type an idea in, then drag it onto the day it's for.
Type an idea in, then drag it onto the day it's for.

The idea goes to the top of the panel. It has no date yet, so it isn't on any day.

Put it on a day

Drag the idea from the panel onto a day, today or later. It becomes a note on that day, and a message at the bottom of the screen offers Undo, which puts it back in the panel.

Or click the idea, pick a date under Put it on a day and click Save changes.

You can also click an empty day and choose Add an idea to write a note straight onto it.

To move a note, drag it to another day. A note that covers several days moves as a whole.

Add the details

Click an idea in the panel, or a note on a day, to open it. You can change these:

  • Title and Description.
  • Start Date and End Date, once it's on a day. A note can run over several days, such as a week-long sale.
  • Colour, from 16 colours.
  • Status, one of Idea, Planned, Scheduled or Done. Each status is a deeper shade of the colour you picked, so you can see how far along each idea is. The status only changes when you change it.
  • Category, such as Promo or Newsletter. Categories you've used before are suggested as you type.

Click Save changes when you're done. To remove an idea, open it and click Delete, or use the bin that appears when you point at it in the panel.

Give an idea dates, a colour and a status, then turn it into a campaign or a design.
Give an idea dates, a colour and a status, then turn it into a campaign or a design.

Turn it into an email

Open a saved idea. The Turn this idea into… box has two buttons.

  • Create campaign makes a draft campaign named after the idea and opens it. Afterwards the idea shows View campaign, so you can get back to the campaign from the Calendar.
  • Describe & design opens Describe & Build an email in Designs, with the idea's title and description already typed in.

Creating a campaign doesn't change the idea's status. Set it to Scheduled or Done yourself when the time comes.

Let Cruise use it

If you use Cruise, open an idea that has dates and switch on Available to Cruise. Cruise can then mention it in emails it writes for the days the idea covers, and in the two weeks before it starts. Ideas without a date aren't used, and neither are ideas that came from a data set. See What Cruise does.

Ideas from your data

In Data, a data set with dates, such as a list of workshops, can add its rows to the Calendar as ideas. These follow the data set. Change the row and the idea changes, and remove the row and the idea goes. If you move one of these ideas, or change its title or description, it becomes yours and stops following the data set. Changing anything else, such as its colour or status, doesn't.