---
title: "Creating & Scheduling a Spotlight Email"
canonical: "https://help-equiem.refined.site/space/CS/1336706182/Creating%20%26%20Scheduling%20a%20Spotlight%20Email"
format: markdown
---
> ℹ️ **What role(s) can use this feature?**
> ℹ️
> ℹ️ - Communications Administrator
**Contents:**
> Macro (toc)
# Video Guide
# Step-by-Step
## Accessing the Email Builder
To create a Spotlight Email, click the Communications shortcut from the left menu on Equiem One, and then click the + New Email button.
From here, you will be presented with two options: to create a Spotlight or a Newsletter. Select Spotlight.
Select your Template, then press Create Email on the bottom right-hand corner.
## Building your Spotlight
Here you will see your email template to be edited on the left-hand side, and on the right hand side, you’ll see a preview of what your email will look like. This will update as you are building it.
Complete the **Subject** field of your newsletter. This will be the first thing shown in your recipient’s inbox, so make sure it’s relevant to what’s inside, and encourages them to open it without reading as spam.
The subject is a mandatory field and needs to be completed to both schedule and save your email in Drafts.
### Audience Settings
If you’d like to segment the content to a specific user audience, use the **Audience** button to choose which segment your newsletter should be shared with.
**[Click here](https://help.getequiem.com/space/CS/2272002049/How+to+Segment+in+the+Equiem+Platform)** for more information on how to segment your audience.
Tick the box to bypass communications to send to all users regardless of their subscription settings.
This should not be used to send any marketing related content. You should only override subscription preferences for mandatory building updates.
### Selecting a Header/Footer
The next step is to choose your Header and Footer pair. Additional header and footer pairs will be predetermined by what you have added in the settings section. Find out more on how to add customised header & footer options [here](https://help.getequiem.com/space/CS/2015723529/Using+Header+&+Footer+Pairs+in+Email+Communications).
The default header/footer pair reflects what has been added in the branding section of the Site Settings (Admin Panel).
### Hero Content
The **Add Hero Content **section is where you can either choose to highlight an existing piece of content at the top of your Newsletter (click **Select a post)**, or you can choose to write your own content **(Click Insert your own).**
Unlike a newsletter, the Spotlight Email just highlights one piece of content or custom text.
Selecting a post can work well if, for example, you want to promote one event or update more heavily than the rest of the content in the newsletter. The latter lets you highlight something that isn’t available as existing content on your platform or use to send as a plain text email.
Example of how Selecting an existing content post appears
Example of how Inserting your own custom copy appears
If you select a post, you will then need to use the Browse Posts button to locate the existing content.
Once you have selected the content, you can edit the Header, Body and Button text, if required.
To add your own, you have the option of adding a Header, Body, Image and Button. You can choose all, none, or some of these to suit.
> ⚠️ If you add an existing post (excluding Deals), it will have a **Published** or **Not Published** label underneath the title. To help you plan communications in advance, you can include Not Published content in your Spotlight, however, if the content is not published before the date and time the email gets sent,** it will not be included.**
> ⚠️ If you add an existing post and it is segmented, **all those who receive the email will see the segmented content**, even if they are not in the content audience. If a user not in the content audience clicks the content, they will see a “post not found” error on the platform.
> ⚠️
> ⚠️ To send segmented content in an email, please segment your Spotlight audience to the same audience as the content.
### Previewing & Scheduling
When you are happy with how your Spotlight email looks, be sure click the **Send Preview **button at the bottom to see how this will look and check for any mistakes before sending it out to your wider audience. The preview email recipient will pre-populate to you but you can add additional emails, separated by a comma.
Preview emails will arrive in your inbox with [PREVIEW] in the subject line so it is clearly identifiable.
After reviewing the preview and you are happy with your final design, you can then choose to **Send Now** if you want to send the email right away, or use the drop down next to where it says **Send Time, **to schedule it to go out at a later time. The Spotlight will then either move to the Sent or Scheduled tab, depending on your selection.
