Get Ready for Q4: Planning Ahead with a Marketing Calendar
Online retailers! It’s almost that wonderful (yet crazy) time of year again… when those beautiful holiday sales pour in, but you’re also scrambling to get orders packed before your carrier picks up, you’re wishing you’d ordered more of that thing from your vendor that everyone suddenly wants, and frantic customers are stalking you to find out where their last-minute Christmas gift is. If you are a small business or solopreneur, you are probably wearing all the hats - and the last thing you’re thinking about is getting that email campaign out or posting on social media. However you could be leaving money on the table by letting marketing go by the wayside.
Although I may not be able to snap my fingers and make the holiday crazy go away, I can offer you a few tips on how to get ready NOW to maximize your sales during 4th quarter with a little less scramble. Are you ready to set yourself up for success? Read on!
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#1 Create a Marketing Plan
Are you used to sending marketing emails and posting on social media the fly? This may work fine for you for the rest of the year, but when it comes to Q4, sometimes one of the balls has to drop and marketing is off the one to fall. This is why we need to be proactive and not reactive with marketing our business.
I’ve found that creating a calendar - whether it be printed on paper or organized in a spreadsheet - can make a world of difference. I personally lay out my marketing calendar for both myself and my clients in a Google Sheet. I have rows for both emails and social posts (and often coordinate the two), as well as notes for all the major holidays and any upcoming product launches, themes, or promotions.
Want to take a peek or use this for yourself? Grab your copy here! (In Google Sheets, simply go to file > make a copy and it’s yours to edit and customize for yourself).
Create a plan now, get emails and posts created, and everything scheduled, and you will thank yourself later!
PS: Build alternatives/backup plans into your plan in case of vendor delays, products selling out, etc. (see #5). We all know how that goes!
How often should I send emails during 4th Quarter?
I suggest doubling what you are doing now. So if you are currently sending 1 email a week, I recommend moving that number to 2. I’ve found that having one weekday and one weekend email tends to be effective for brands moving from 1 to 2 over the holidays.
Moving from 2 to 4 and nervous you’ll drive them crazy? Your customers’ inboxes are going to be busting at the seams right now, so bear in mind they may miss your emails.
How often should I send emails OVER BLACK FRIDAY WEEKEND?
I HIGHLY recommend sending an email every day - Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday - especially if you have a promo you are running (but even if you are not). It’s the Christmas shopping kickoff and people are ready to open up those wallets. And again, inboxes are flooded so you don’t want your email to get missed!
#2 Schedule Out Emails & Posts
Once you have that marketing calendar laid out, now is the time to create some of those emails and posts. Try making a few extra every week until you have yourself scheduled out a month or so in advance.
HOW CAN I SCHEDULE OUT EMAIL CAMPAIGNS?
Any email marketing platform will allow you to schedule out emails in advance rather than sending them right away. Not sending emails yet? Learn more about getting started with email marketing in this article.
PS - there is science behind the art of batching out work. I find that I am so efficient when I focus an hour or two on one type of work - i.e. social scheduling, shooting reels, taking photos or email creation.
WHAT’s the best way TO SCHEDULE SOCIAL POSTS?
I’ve found that posts do a bit better if they are manually posted - however that doesn’t mean you can’t still put them in a scheduler. I like Planoly best, but there’s also Later and many others. You can add them to the scheduler and have a notification pop up your phone telling you the post is ready to go. Take some time once the post is up to engage with both people you are following and your followers. Same applies for reels - you can shoot them in advance and save them as drafts in Instagram, then wait for that notification to post them.
This feel like too much? You can TOTALLY just schedule out posts (and reels now too!) through those same platforms. One less thing for you think about that day!
#3 Gather Up Evergreen Emails/Posts
Take a look back at successful emails and posts from last year and take note. You can totally reuse something you used in the past or tweak it just a bit. If it’s been more than 90 days there is almost zero chance someone will notice you reposted it (and if they do, well good for them!). Remember that we are all INUNDATED with content each and every day and if it’s good content, there’s no need to reinvent the wheel.
Keep these evergreen emails/posts in your back pocket in case you need to send something out quick in lieu of a previously planned campaign.
#4 Refine Email Automations
Take a look at what you have set up already for welcome, abandoned cart, and post-purchase email series. Look at what’s working, what needs a refresh, and where you could add some content. I recommend especially looking at your abandoned cart series and adding a couple more emails to this flow. You can utilize content like testimonials, product story, and holiday gift ideas. You might also consider adding a holiday gift guide email or two to your welcome series (and then removing these after Christmas of course).
The nice thing about email automations is that they run based on triggers like someone signs up for email, abandons a cart, or makes a purchase. No need to schedule or manage them - just set them and forget them (until next year!) and watch your sales come in.
Haven’t set up email automations yet? Now is the time! More about email automations here.
#5 Be Ready to Pivot
Put your marketing calendar in a handy place - whether you need to print it out, add it to your Google Calendar, or make yourself a reminder task to see what’s on the schedule for the week. Be on the lookout for scheduled emails featuring items you are low on or don’t have in stock. Grab one of those backup or evergreen emails and send that out instead.
Finding that you’ve got a lot of something you were hoping would sell out? Since you’ve already got all your other emails scheduled, you have a little extra time to throw in one more now or pivot one you’ve already created to push that product.
Need a little help?
You don’t have to do this alone. I offer email marketing services and can help get you set up on a platform, train you, create email flows, or even work with you on a monthly campaign retainer. Want to learn more? Book a discovery call with me today!
