Email Marketing Calendars, Part 1: Why You Need One

I'm sure that by now you've watched, read and heard a lot of people making the typical New Year's resolutions — lose weight, read more books, learn a certain new skill, visit that vacation spot they've been talking about for 5 years now...

There's one problem with these resolutions: the things we need to do to stick to them start taking up more and more of our time as we go... and most people eventually abandon their resolutions.

Today, I'd like to suggest a resolution that I think you can keep... because once you get going with it, it gets even easier over time, and it carries a few benefits that can significantly improve your email campaigns' effectiveness and profitability.

Background: What Determines When We Send Email?

In my experience, most small businesses sending email campaigns decide to send based on one or both of of these factors:

Whether you have compelling content to send

Whether it's "time to send"

For most people, this translates to the following maxim:

Is That All There Is To It?

For too many businesses, yes. Their strategy stops there. They don't plan out what they want to say in advance, and when they want to say it.

Instead, they wait until it's "about time to email subscribers" or until something exciting gets dropped in front of them.

The big problem with this is that many of us say, "Oh no! I need to get something out to my email list today!" and rush to put together a campaign.

Our haste shows to our subscribers:

Our writing isn't as engaging as in early messages (such as our autoresponder and follow ups, which we planned out and edited over time)

We mis-type URLs and make formatting errors

Our emails lack continuity or transition — which indicates a lack of attention to subscribers' needs/interests

Surely There's a Better Way...

Wouldn't it be easier on you — and better for your subscribers — if you had a plan that laid out, in advance, when you were going to email your subscribers and an idea of what you were going to say?

I sure think so.

In my next post, I'll show you how with a little planning and an easy-to-use (and free!) tool, you can create better email campaigns, stress-free.

RSS Subscribers: know any business owners/partners who could benefit from this type of email marketing advice?

Encourage them to subscribe via RSS or email.

Thanks! -Justin