How to Build an Effective Email Marketing Campaign Calendar

An effective email marketing campaign calendar is key to organizing your marketing efforts. A great content calendar has the power to change your audience’s views and reach readers at the right time.

Using this powerful tool leads to higher engagement, conversion, and overall success of your email marketing. In fact, a Litmus survey found that 55% of email marketers experienced significant performance improvements by using these calendars.

If you are looking for a proper way to build an email marketing calendar that will help you reach your marketing objectives, this article is for you!

What is an Email Marketing Calendar?

An email marketing calendar act as a literal calendar where content, ideas, themes, and progress are documented. This tool helps you plan and organize your email marketing campaigns strategically and on time, ensuring a consistent interaction flow.

With email marketing calendars as your guide, you stay prepared, deliver targeted messages, and build stronger relationships with your audience.

How to Build an Email Marketing Calendar Template

Now that you understand what an email marketing calendar is, it is also important to know that having the right calendar template can make all the difference. A template specifically designed for your marketing needs guarantees aligning your activities to your business objective.

Here are the steps to establish a great email marketing calendar:

1. Decide What Email Campaigns to Send

An email campaign represents your marketing activities to connect with your potential customers. It’s a direct line of communication, allowing you to promote your business.

However, good email campaigns take planning. Here are some emails you might want to consider in your brainstorming:

1. Welcome Email: If you have a new subscriber, this is exactly what a welcome email is for. Welcome emails significantly give subscribers a sense of belongingness and familiarity with your brand.
2. Seasonal Campaign: People celebrate various occasions, and there must be one that greatly aligns with your business. A seasonal campaign lets you tap consumer interest when your products are highly in demand. Usually, this type of email is sent over holidays, so it’s best to prepare it early. 
3. Re-engagement Emails: People and their interests change, and re-engagement emails seek to fight this challenge. By sending re-engagement emails, you can bring subscribers back into your circle.
4. Abandoned Cart Emails: People often add items to their cart when browsing but may need to remember to purchase them. By sending this email, you can encourage them to complete their purchase. Who knows, they might need that item but forgot it’s there.
5. Standard Promotional Campaign: Standard promotional campaigns are emails sent to your audience to notify them about your new or existing product or service. This email is the most common type of email marketing campaign and probably the one you are most familiar with. 

2. Establish Your Goals

Once you have identified the types of campaigns you want to run, it’s time to establish clear goals for each recipient. Are you aiming to increase sales, generate leads, drive website traffic, or simply build brand awareness? 

Having well-defined goals will help you measure the success of your campaigns and make necessary adjustments along the way. To do it, apply SMART goals — specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound. This model will allow you to focus on what you want and see if it is achievable.

Here is an accurate presentation of what the SMART method means:

1. Specific: What exactly are you trying to achieve? Be certain about your goals. The more precise and clear you are, the better you can focus on your goal.
2. Measurable: How will you know the goal is accomplished? Make your goals measurable so you can track your progress along the way. Having concrete metrics and indicators helps you see how far you’ve come.
3. Attainable: Is your goal genuinely possible to achieve? Set your goals within your reach. While it’s good to challenge yourself, make sure your goals are realistic and something you can accomplish.
4. Relevant: Do your goals support the growth of your business? Your goals should align with your business objectives. Ensure they fit into your plan and are worth your time and effort.
5. Time-bound: When do you want them to be achieved? Goals without a timeline can easily get lost. Set a specific date or time frame to create a sense of urgency and help you stay focused.

3. Identify the Right Segment

Your email marketing calendar should also contain data on your target audience. Segmentation allows you to categorize your customers into focused groups based on factors such as:

• Demographics
• Psychographics
• Location
• Engagement level
• Purchase history

Segmenting your audience does not have to be stressful. All you need to do is add the necessary field in your sign-up forms. Here is a guide you can follow:

1. Design a sign-up form that captures the information to segment your audience.
2. Keep the form simple and user-friendly to encourage more sign-ups.
3. Start by asking for basic information like location, age, and gender.
4. Include fields like interests, hobbies, or product preferences to understand your audience’s needs further.
5. Evaluate and improve your form to optimize your segmentation strategy.

Leveraging this method allows you to connect with your target market accordingly and create an email marketing plan personalized to each group!

4. Write Enticing Email Subject Lines

Subject lines are the first impressions your subscribers have of your email. So it is important to make them catchy, engaging, and intriguing.

Since you will have a different subject line for different email marketing campaigns, you need to create a section for it on your calendar. This way, you can oversee which to send on specific emails and avoid creating similar lines, which will annoy your customers.

To pull off a powerful subject line, you need to:

• Be concise and captivating
• Use actionable words
• Create urgency
• Avoid spam triggers

Remember, a compelling subject line can considerably increase your open rate. So, make sure you construct one based on these factors.

5. Design Valuable Content

Unleash your creativity and marketing skills to generate valuable content that aligns with your campaign goals. Whether it’s a discount code, a blog post, or a product showcase, see to it that your content will entice and provide value to your subscribers.

Here are a few tips to keep in mind when you draft your message:

• Apply eye-catching visuals
• Personalize your content
• Utilize clear and appealing language
• Use a direct, strong call-to-action button
• Emphasize customer gains

6. Find the Best Time to Send Emails

Timing is everything when it comes to email marketing. Establish the right time to send your emails to each consumer. Ideally, subscribers should be grouped by time zone. Analyze your audience’s behavior and preferences to identify the optimal times for forwarding your email campaigns.

To identify the best sending time, consider the following points:

• Time zones
• Audience’s age and gender
• Subscribers’ device

This process is more of a trial and error, so you must try different sending times and monitor response rates to refine your strategy. 

7. Update the Status of Your Campaigns

Keeping up with your calendar can be one of the most laborious tasks you will encounter. However, it is essential to boosting your campaign effectiveness. 

Adding a status section on your calendar is a handy way to track your performance. To easily identify your progress, you can label your campaign indicators like:

1. In progress: If your email campaign is in the early stages, you can use this label to indicate that you are drafting content but have yet to finalize it.
2. Scheduled: This label shows your campaign is set and ready to go. You already have the target date, and your campaign is just waiting.
3. Sent: Your email has been disseminated. This label tells you that your campaign has successfully reached your target audience’s inbox.
4. Testing: This label can be used to identify which campaign is being tested or piloted before launching.
5. On hold: For instances where you encounter a situation that may cause your activities to pause, you can use this label to indicate postponing that task.

Recommend Apps to Nail Your Email Marketing Calendar

To help you build and manage your email marketing calendar effectively, here are some great apps to use:

1. Moosend

Moosend is an all-in-one email marketing platform with a user-friendly interface and powerful features to help you build and execute your email campaigns. Aside from pre-designed email templates, this tool allows you to draft appealing and responsive emails using its advanced elements.

In addition, Moosend also allows you to automate the schedule of your email campaigns. After crafting your content in the editor, choose your recipient and send it based on your preferred date and time.

Best Features

• Automated workflow
• Pre-built templates
• Scheduled sending option
• Email preview and delivery testing tools

Pricing

Moosend offers a free plan for up to 1,000 subscribers. Paid plans start at $9 monthly with access to Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) server, team members, landing pages, and more.

2. Zapier

Zapier is an automation tool that integrates your favorite apps and exchanges information. This feature aids in sending data to your email marketing calendar, keeping everything smooth and organized without adding it manually.

Best Features

• Integration to more than 3,00 apps
• Seamless transfer of data
• Easy-to-set-up workflows

Pricing

Zapier offers a variety of pricing plans, from free for 100 tasks/month and 5 Zaps to premium plans starting at $19.99/month for 750 tasks and 20 Zaps.

3. Google Sheets

If you prefer a simpler approach, you can use Google Sheets to create your email marketing calendar. When you create a personal Google account, you can find this tool in your Google Workspace, formerly G-suite, for free.

Google Sheets is a simple and accessible tool that will assist you in making your email marketing calendar.

Best Features

• Collaborative sharing and editing with team members
• Customizable spreadsheet templates
• Basic formulas and data analysis features
• Variety of add-ons
• Excel compatibility

Pricing

Google Sheets is free to use together with Google Docs and Slides if you have a Gmail account. For business, plans start at $6 /user/month to access Google Workspace with Business Starter.

4. Jotform

Jotform is a flexible online form builder tool that lets you create sign-up forms and surveys to gather valuable data from your subscribers. This platform also offers various templates to build your email and social media calendar or marketing plan.

You can customize your template and add sections to create a calendar to organize all the information you gathered from your forms.

Best Features

• An array of table templates
• Online form builder
• Integrated calendar
• Data reporting and analytics

Pricing

Jotform has a free plan for limited features. For paid plans, you can choose from Bronze at %29/month, Silver at $39/month, to Gold at $99/month.

5. Trello

Trello is a project management tool that can help you organize and track your email marketing calendar through boards, cards, and lists. Based on your needs and preference, you can utilize the best features for you and share them with your teammates.

Best Features

• Multiple boards
• Collaboration and team communication tools
• Mobile app for on-the-go access
• Codeless automation
• Easy-to-set-up workflows

Pricing

Trello offers a free plan with limited features. Paid plans start at $5/user/month, depending on the level of functionality required.

Establish the Best Email Marketing Calendar With Us

Keeping up with the developments and changes in marketing can sometimes make you feel swamped and lost. But building the right email marketing campaign calendar can be a game-changer for your business, and my team at The Email Marketers is thrilled to serve you! With our expertise in the field and strategic approach, we ensure that your email marketing campaign calendar is at its best.

Don’t let disorganization hinder your email marketing success. Chat with us today, and together, we will develop the best email marketing calendar tailored to your workflow efficiency.