The Q2 2023 Email Marketing Calendar

If you want to grow your Shopify business, a well-planned email marketing strategy is critical. Email marketing is the only channel that gives you a direct line of communication to your most engaged audience, allowing you to turn subscribers into loyal customers. And with an ROI (return on investment) of ~$40 for every $1 spent, email certainly outperforms every other channel.

But where do you start? What does a successful plan look like? And how do you know what works?

We’re here to help.

Our Q2 2023 Email Marketing Planning Guide helps you map out your email marketing for April through June.

Watch the video below for a quick overview of how to use the guide. Continue reading for more details on each calendar component.

‍
Set your goals and metrics 

Did you know you’re 42% more likely to achieve your goals if you write them down? That means the first step to achieving your goals is setting them. The guide helps you define your email marketing strategy with a set of simple prompts.

• Where are you starting your email marketing efforts?
• Who are the people reading your emails and what are their needs?
• When are the important dates and seasons for your business?
• What business goals do you want to achieve through email marketing?

Taking the time to write down a description of your target market, your business’ important dates, your current email marketing metrics, and some high-level goals will seriously improve your marketing. We've put a few prompts in the boxes to help get you started.

Note: We realize you're short on time! Even if you can spare a few moments on this, do what you can and come back to it. The deeper you understand your business, brand, goals, and audience, the better and more successful you will become.

Let’s take a closer look at each of these prompts.

Your current metrics

These are the metrics you’ll need to identify so you can determine how you’re progressing toward your goals. Make a note of where you currently stand.

Your target audience

Describe who you’re sending to — their demographics, interests, and potential problems (that your product or service can solve!).

Your important dates

Note key marketing dates like major sales and promotions, high-traffic seasons, product and collection launches, and events (both virtual and in person).

Your email goals and objectives 

Your goals are the marketing outcomes you want to achieve; your objectives are the actions you’ll take to get there.
‍

📌  PRO TIP: Successful Shopify merchants — those generating serious revenue (20%-40%) from email marketing — do these three things:

• Send good newsletters consistently
• Utilize various list growth strategies (like a website popup)
• Run multiple automations
  ‍

Create your marketing plan with customizable calendar pages

With your goals established and your objectives in mind, it’s time to put together a plan. 

We provide email marketing guidance in the form of: 

• A “focus of the quarter” recommendation to elevate your email marketing program
• Ideas for what to send each month, based on ecommerce events and holidays
• A featured newsletter of the month to provide some email variety 
• A subscription offer to Google Calendar reminders so you stay on top of major ecommerce events

Use the editable calendar each month to sketch out your email marketing plan. Easily click on any date and enter the information you'd like. We’ve also included a reminder of the following month’s marketing events to help you stay ahead.

Let’s take a closer look at how to use the calendar pages.

Add your business’ important dates to the calendar

Remember the dates you previously wrote down on the metrics page? Add those to your calendar pages first to make sure you plan emails around those events.

Decide on a consistent send schedule

A critical part of email marketing is consistency, so go ahead and mark when you want to send. Is it monthly, weekly, or multiple times a week? Mark your dates for email prep and testing, too.

Add the marketing events that make sense to your brand

Holidays are great opportunities to take advantage of increased web traffic and drive sales — that’s why we mention the major marketing events that happen each month. Think about what makes sense for your brand and business.‍

Consider campaigns
During the busiest retail seasons, one email just won’t cut it. A campaign is a series of newsletters that serve a common purpose or promotion, and can seriously maximize your marketing efforts. We give you a few ideas each month, but you should also consider creating campaigns around your own events.‍

Map out your messages for the month

With your email cadence and key events staked out, it’s time to craft a content plan. Your newsletters are important tools for building customer relationships and driving sales. Use your newsletter content to help you reach your goals.

🤔  Need help coming up with content? Get the workbook: 15 Must-have Newsletters

Prep for what’s ahead

Many key marketing events happen in the first parts of the month, and you'll want to be prepared for them. Take some time to look ahead. Do you have any new business goals or events you need to add to the calendar? What marketing content are you considering for the next month?
‍

Measure your efforts with review pages

Successful Shopify merchants know that if they want to improve something, they need to measure it first. Review pages help you track your progress and lessons learned at the end of each month and quarter. 

These are chances for you to specifically look at your list growth, click rate, and sales metrics. It's essential to understand what these are so you know how your actions affect your results.
‍‍‍

Read Now: The 10 most important email marketing metrics to track

Let’s take a closer look at each of these pages.

‍Monthly review

We’ve provided sheets to document performance each month. Did your email list grow? Is your engagement improving? Look at your email marketing overall, then look at your newsletters and automations individually.

Use the takeaways, achievements and opportunities sections to expand on your email performance and connect it back to your goals. What worked well? What didn’t? What would you like to remember for next month — or next year? 

‍Quarterly review

You've completed three months' worth of marketing; take a moment to reflect on all the work you've put in. Pat yourself on the back! It may not always feel like it, but you are making progress, and now it's time to build on that progress for next quarter.

On the Q1 quarterly review page, you'll want to track your growth, engagement, and sales like before. What trends are you noticing? In addition to that, were any campaigns successful in particular? Remember, your future self will thank you for all the insights you create.

📌  PRO TIP: Prep for next quarter. Think about the bigger picture. What are the quarterly events that you need to be aware of? Common large quarterly events include:

• Getting rid of old inventory to make room for new
• Change of weather/season
• Seasonal ecommerce events 
• Bringing in new stock

Make it a great second quarter

We've seen Shopify merchants make massive revenue gains simply by sending consistently, starting a few automations, and implementing basic list growth tactics. We want that same success and more for you.

By using this calendar to set goals, create a plan, and measure your progress, you’ll be able to increase your chances of success and make your email marketing work for you.

Happy planning!