Early Email #009: Planning Emails

Hey there!

Let's look at how to plan eCommerce email campaigns.

I plan at least a month in advance to make room for feedback and changes.

Here's what goes into the calendar, in order of priority:

1. Brand launches, events, or announcements — Always leave a bit of wiggle room in your calendar just in case.

2. National holidays (Labor Day, Thanksgiving, etc.) — These are the big holidays when people expect a sale. This is also something you need to plan way in advance, especially Black Friday.

3. Educational/Content — Repurpose content and deliver value to your email list in one go. These are great for "plain text" and engagement-focused campaigns.

4. Fun but relevant special interest holidays (e.g., National Coffee Day for coffee brands) — Done right, this is a phenomenal way to entertain and educate your audience. Use sparingly.

5. Promotions — Flash sales, giveaways, etc. I'm OK with occasional discounts. If you need discount alternative ideas, I made a Twitter thread about it here.

Next steps:

Once I have the events and topics finalized, I figure out the rough number of emails that I need to send for each.

Then I plot them out on the calendar.

"These emails are too close to each other" will eventually come up, so make sure you use segmentation and exclusions. 

It's a simple system, but it works for me.

I hope this was helpful, and if you have any questions, I'm only an email away.

Happy Emailing!

~Kat

P.S. My tech woes are over! I'm sending out the Early Email newsletter every Tuesday morning now instead of Saturday. I hope you don't mind!