Overview

Welcome! This guide will walk you through setting up your Composa account and creating your first email template. You'll be designing emails in minutes.

Step 1: Join the Waitlist

Composa is currently in beta and available by invitation. To get started:

1. Head to composa.email and click Join the Waitlist

2. Enter your email address

3. We'll be in touch once your spot is ready

Step 2: Understanding Workspaces

When you first sign up, a workspace is created for you automatically. Think of a workspace as your own organizational hub:

• Each workspace has its own projects, design systems, and team members

• You can invite collaborators and manage permissions at the workspace level

• Workspaces keep different clients, brands, or departments completely separate

• You can create additional workspaces if you need to manage multiple teams or brands

For most users, one workspace is plenty. If you're managing multiple brands or teams, you can create additional workspaces anytime from your account settings.

Step 3: Create Your First Project

A project is a folder that holds your email templates. It's useful for organizing templates by campaign, client, or purpose.

To create a project:

1. From your workspace, click the Projects tab in the left sidebar

2. Click New Project

3. Give your project a name (e.g., "Winter Campaign" or "Client: Acme Corp")

4. Optionally add a description to help your team understand its purpose

5. Click Create

You're now ready to create your first email template.

Step 4: Create Your First Email Template

Now for the fun part — building your first email. You have two ways to start:

Option 1: Start from Scratch

Perfect for custom designs or when you don't have a design system yet.

• You'll get access to Layouts (pre-made structural templates like single-column, two-column, etc.)

• You'll get access to Basic Elements (buttons, text, images, dividers, spacers, and more)

• You have complete freedom to design however you want

Option 2: Start from a Design System

Ideal if your team has already set up a design system with branded components.

• You'll get Pre-built Components that follow your brand guidelines (branded buttons, headers, footers, etc.)

• You'll get Branded Layouts tailored to your brand

• You'll get consistent Base Styles (colors, fonts, spacing) applied automatically

• Templates built this way ensure consistency across all your emails

If you haven't set up a design system yet, don't worry — you can do that later.

Creating Your Template

1. Inside your project, click New Email

2. Choose your starting point:

   • Start from Scratch → select a layout (or start with a blank canvas)

   • Start from Design System → select your design system

3. Give your template a name (e.g., "Welcome Email" or "Holiday Sale")

4. Click Create

Your editor will open automatically.

Step 5: Meet the Editor

The editor is where the magic happens. Here's a quick orientation:

Left Panel — Elements

• Contains all available elements you can add to your email (text, images, buttons, components from your design system, etc.)

• Simply drag elements onto the canvas to add them

Center — Canvas

• This is your email. What you see here is a live preview of how your email will look

• Click on any element to select it and edit its properties

Right Panel — Properties

• Customize the selected element's appearance and settings

• Change colors, fonts, spacing, alignment, and more

• Shows you the settings available for whatever you've selected

Top Toolbar

• Save, preview, and publish controls

• Undo/redo and other quick actions

• Workspace switcher and account settings

Step 6: Save and Preview

As you design, your template is saved automatically. To ensure everything looks great:

1. Click Preview in the top toolbar to see how your email looks in different email clients and devices

2. Check mobile and desktop previews

3. When you're happy with your design, click Save (or use Ctrl+S / Cmd+S)

What's Next?

Congratulations on creating your first email! Here are some natural next steps:

• Explore the Editor — Read our Editor Guide to master advanced features

• Set Up a Design System — Learn how to build Design Systems to keep your templates brand-consistent and save time

• Connect an ESP — Head to Integrations to export your templates to Braze, Iterable, or Marketo

• Invite Your Team — Use Team Management to collaborate with designers, marketers, and developers

Happy building! If you have any questions, our support team is ready to help.