Quick Start

Seven hands-on tutorials that walk you through the full PowerMarketing platform — from creating a workspace to running your marketing engine on autopilot. Complete them in order for the best experience, or jump straight to the one you need.

Tutorial 1 — Create Your Workspace ~3 min

Workspaces are provisioned by your platform operator (a superadmin), not by self-service signup. There are two steps — creating the brand, and creating your user account — and both are done from inside the app.

1. Operator creates the brand

   From the brand selector at the top of any page, choose + Add brand. Enter a brand name and a short unique code (used internally, e.g. ACME). PowerMarketing creates the brand and lands on Settings → Brand Profile to finish setup.

2. Operator creates your user

   Go to Users in the sidebar (superadmin only) and click + Add User. Set a username, a password, a role, and tick which brands the account may access. Roles are: superadmin (whole platform, and the only role that can delete a brand), admin, and operator.

3. Sign in

   Go to https://marketing.planningpowertools.com/login.html, enter the username and password your operator gave you, and click Sign In. You land on the Command Center. There is no confirmation email — the account is active immediately.

4. Finish the brand profile

   On Settings → Brand Profile, use Brand Quick-Start to fill brand voice, content pillars, messaging framework, and target segments from four short answers. Then add an LLM key under Settings → API Keys if your brand needs its own.

Tip — joining an existing workspace: If an admin has already set up your organisation, skip this tutorial. Ask them to add you at Settings → Users → Invite User. You will receive an email with a one-time login link.

Tutorial 2 — Brand Quick-Start ~3 min

Answer three questions and the AI fills your entire brand profile — voice, content pillars, messaging framework, and audience segments. Then add your LLM provider key so agents can generate content.

1. Open Brand Profile

   In the left sidebar, confirm the correct brand is selected in the Active Brand dropdown. Then go to Settings → Brand Profile.

2. Answer the three Quick-Start questions

   The Quick-Start card appears automatically for new or empty brands. Fill in:
   Industry / sector — e.g. "Supply chain software"
   What you sell — e.g. "AI-powered demand planning platform"
   Target audience — e.g. "Supply chain VPs, Operations Directors"

3. Generate all settings

   Click ✦ Generate All Settings and wait 10–20 seconds. The AI writes your Brand Voice, Content Pillars, Messaging Framework, and Target Segments in full.

4. Review and save

   Scan each generated section. Edit anything that doesn't reflect your brand accurately. Click Save Brand Profile when satisfied.

5. Add your LLM provider API key

   Go to Settings → API Keys. Under LLM Providers, paste your Claude, DeepSeek, or Moonshot API key, then click Save API Keys.

6. Test the connection

   Return to Settings → Brand Profile and click Test Connection. You should see ✓ Connected. If not, double-check your key for typos or leading/trailing spaces.

Tip: You can re-run Quick-Start at any time to regenerate all settings from updated answers — useful when your product or audience evolves.

Tutorial 3 — Connect Your Product Site to Capture an Audience ~5 min

PowerMarketing captures visitors from your product website and turns them into confirmed contacts. Choose the integration method that suits your stack: embed snippet, API/webhook, or a pull connector.

1. Open Ingestion settings

   Go to Settings → Ingestion. Your ingest_public_key and embed snippet are shown at the top of the page.

2. Choose your integration method

   Embed snippet (recommended for most sites): Copy the JavaScript snippet and paste it before the closing </body> tag on every page of your product website. The snippet surfaces a subscribe widget and fires ingest events automatically.
   
   API or webhook: Copy the ingest_public_key and POST subscriber data to https://marketing-api.planningpowertools.com/ingest from your own backend or webhook handler.
   
   Pull connector: Configure a pull connector (e.g. CRM, form tool) in the Connectors tab to have PowerMarketing fetch contacts on a schedule.

3. Place the snippet on your product site

   Deploy or publish the change to your product website. Verify the snippet loads by opening your site, opening browser DevTools (Network tab), and checking for a request to the ingest endpoint.

4. A visitor subscribes — double opt-in fires

   When a visitor fills in the subscribe widget, PowerMarketing records a pending contact and automatically sends a double opt-in confirmation email. The subscriber must click the link in that email to proceed.

5. Confirm the contact appears

   After the subscriber clicks the opt-in link, go to the Contacts page. The contact appears with status confirmed and is now eligible for nurture sequences and newsletters.

Ingest flow

Double opt-in is mandatory. Contacts remain pending until they confirm. Pending contacts are never enrolled in sequences or newsletters.

Tutorial 3b — Import Your Existing Audience ~2 min

Already have a subscriber list from another tool? Don't wait for organic capture — import it in one step and your whole audience is immediately available for newsletters and nurture.

1. Export your list as CSV

   From your current tool (Mailchimp, Kit, Beehiiv, a spreadsheet…), export a CSV with a header row. PowerMarketing reads these columns: email,name,company,role,tags — only email is required; extra columns are ignored.

2. Open the People page and import

   Go to People in the sidebar and click ⬆ Import CSV. Select your file. Rows are matched by email: new people are created, existing ones are updated — re-importing the same file never creates duplicates. Invalid emails are skipped and counted.

3. Check the result

   A summary shows created / updated / skipped counts, and the stats tiles at the top of the page update. Use the tag filter to verify any tags you imported came through.

Consent note: during import you're asked whether these people already opted in. Answer yes (for a list that subscribed in your previous tool) and they're marked confirmed — immediately eligible for newsletters and nurture emails, with an audit entry in the consent log. Answer no and they stay pending until they confirm themselves. Only import lists you have the right to email.

Tutorial 4 — Plan & Publish Content ~6 min

The Calendar and Command Center work together: the Calendar holds your editorial plan, and the Command Center dispatches AI agents to execute it. Routine posts publish automatically (Track 1); strategic posts wait in Approvals for your sign-off (Track 2).

1. Open the Calendar and plan this week

   Go to Calendar and click ✦ Plan this week in the top-right corner. Pick the week start date (Monday) and the number of entries you want — 5 is a good starting point.

2. Generate the AI plan

   Click Generate ✦. The AI reads your brand's content pillars and suggests a varied week of topics across your configured platforms. A preview table appears — edit any topic or platform inline before committing.

3. Add entries to the calendar

   Click Add All to Calendar. The entries appear on the calendar grid. You can also add individual entries by clicking any day cell and filling in Topic, Content Type, Platform(s), and Date.

4. Run Agents Now from the Command Center

   Go to the Command Center. In the Dispatch panel, click Run Agents Now. The system fires one LLM call per calendar entry per platform. Wait 30–90 seconds for the run to complete.

5. Track 1 posts auto-publish

   Content types marked for automatic publication (e.g. News / Trend scan) publish immediately without review. The green overnight summary bar on the Command Center shows how many went live.

   You can create these by hand. The four auto-publishable types — news, trend_scan, short_post, repurposed — appear in the Create and Calendar content-type dropdowns alongside Post and Article. Tick the matching switch in Publication Rules and a post you make yourself will publish on Track 1. (Before 2026-07-26 these types were reachable only by the planner, which made the auto-publish switches unmatched.)

6. Approve Track 2 posts

   Strategic posts (articles, thought-leadership) land in the Approvals queue. Open each draft, review the AI-generated content, then click Approve to publish or Reject to discard. On the Decisions page you can also tick several items (or Select all pending) and approve them in one click.

Tip — set a daily dispatch time: Go to Settings → Automation → Dispatch Time (UTC) to have agents run automatically every day — no manual trigger needed. Or set the mode to Auto and, once enough engagement data exists, the system posts at the hour that historically performs best for your audience.

You don't even have to open the app: every morning (06:30 UTC), brands with pending approvals email a digest to their users — each item has a one-click Approve link. And if your calendar ever runs empty, a daily top-up re-plans it automatically, so content never stops for a non-manual brand.

Tutorial 5 — Set Up a Nurture Sequence ~5 min

Nurture sequences send personalised, multi-step messages to contacts based on their lifecycle stage. Each step defines a delay, a channel, and an AI prompt — PowerMarketing writes the actual message at send time.

1. Open the Nurture page and create a sequence

   Go to Nurture and click New Sequence. Give it a name and set the trigger stage — the contact lifecycle stage that automatically enrolls contacts (e.g. Subscriber, Lead, Trial).

2. Add a step

   Click Add Step inside the sequence. Configure three fields:
   Delay — how many days after the previous step (or enrolment) to wait
   Channel — e.g. Email, LinkedIn DM
   Prompt — instructions for the AI, e.g. "Write a warm welcome email highlighting our top use case for supply chain teams"

3. Preview the AI message

   Click Preview on the step. PowerMarketing calls your LLM provider and shows you a sample message generated from the prompt in the context of your brand voice. Adjust the prompt if the tone isn't right.

4. Enrol a contact to test

   Go to People and click Manage → on any row to open the contact management view. Select your confirmed contact there, click Enrol in Sequence, and pick the sequence you just created. The contact's first step is now scheduled.

5. Run due steps now

   Back on the Nurture page, click Run due now to fire all steps whose delay has elapsed — useful for testing without waiting. The step either sends immediately or queues in Approvals, depending on your autopilot setting.

Autopilot gate: If autopilot is set to Manual or Review, nurture messages queue in Approvals before sending. Set autopilot to Auto-guardrails in the Command Center to let them send automatically within defined limits.

Tutorial 6 — Schedule a Newsletter ~5 min

Newsletters are curated digest emails sent to a contact segment on a recurring cadence. Email is always a Track 2 channel — every send goes through Approvals before delivery.

1. Open Newsletters and create a schedule

   Go to Newsletters and click New Schedule. Set the cadence (e.g. Weekly, Bi-weekly) and the segment — filter contacts by lifecycle stage, score range, or both (e.g. stage = Lead, score ≥ 40).

2. Build the digest now

   Click Build digest now. PowerMarketing pulls recent content from your calendar and published posts, then asks the AI to write a newsletter digest tailored to the selected segment's interests and stage.

3. Preview the newsletter

   A preview of the full email renders inline — subject line, body, and CTA. Read it as a recipient would. If adjustments are needed, edit the digest prompt and rebuild.

4. Approve the Decision

   The newsletter appears as a pending Decision in the Approvals queue (email is always Track 2). Open the Decision, confirm the content and recipient count, and click Approve.

5. Newsletter sends to the segment

   On approval, the email dispatches to every confirmed contact that matches the segment definition at send time. Delivery status and open metrics appear on the Newsletters page after sending.

Tip: Segment by both stage and score to send highly relevant content — e.g. a product-depth digest only to contacts with a score above 60 who are in the Evaluation stage.

Tutorial 7 — Run It from the Command Center ~3 min

The Command Center is your mission control: set how much autonomy the AI has, work through pending decisions, and direct the platform in plain English via the AI command box.

1. Set the autopilot dial

   The autopilot dial controls how much the AI acts without your involvement:
   Manual — every action queues in Approvals; nothing sends without your click.
   Review — Track 1 content publishes automatically; Track 2 and all email wait for approval.
   Auto-guardrails — the AI acts autonomously within configured limits (daily post caps, content-type rules); only edge cases surface for review.

   You don't have to move the dial yourself: PowerMarketing tracks how often you approve each content type without editing it. When a type earns your trust (20+ reviews, ≥95% approved unedited), a 🎓 Autonomy Upgrade proposal appears in Approvals — approve it and that content type publishes automatically from then on.

2. Work the Approvals queue

   The unified Approvals queue collects all pending Decisions — social posts, nurture messages, newsletters, and any AI action that needs a human sign-off. Review each item in sequence: click Approve to execute, Reject to discard, or Edit to modify the content before approving.

3. Use the AI command box

   Type a plain-English instruction into the AI command box — for example: "Draft three LinkedIn posts about our new integration with SAP and schedule them for next Tuesday." The Planner reads your instruction, proposes a plan, and adds the items to the calendar and Approvals queue. You review the plan before it executes.

Start with Review mode: Until you are comfortable with the AI's output quality for your brand, keep autopilot on Review. Promote to Auto-guardrails once the generated content consistently meets your standard.

What's Next

You have completed the full end-to-end Quick Start. The resources below will take you deeper into each area of the platform.