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Email Marketing Bible

Appendix C: Email Marketing Calendar

Planning your email calendar prevents last-minute scrambles and ensures a balanced content mix across the year. the most consistent email programmes I’ve seen share one trait: they plan quarterly, adjust monthly, and execute weekly.

The 3:1 Ratio

Section titled “The 3:1 Ratio”

For every promotional email you send, send three value-driven emails. Value means educational content, entertainment, community stories, useful tips, or curated resources. Promotional means asking for a purchase, sign-up, upgrade, or other conversion action.

This ratio keeps your list healthy and your engagement high. Subscribers who receive constant promotional emails either tune out or unsubscribe. Subscribers who receive consistent value with occasional promotional asks are more receptive when you do sell. The value emails build trust and engagement. The promotional emails cash in that trust. Without the value, the promotions stop working.

The 3:1 ratio doesn’t mean rigid alternation (value, value, value, promo, value, value, value, promo). You might send three educational newsletters followed by a product launch sequence. Or two weekly value emails alongside a promotional campaign running in parallel. The ratio is a programme-level guideline, not a per-send rule. Measure it across a month, not across a week.

Leave 20% Flexible

Section titled “Leave 20% Flexible”

Plan 80% of your email calendar in advance. Leave 20% of your sending slots flexible for reactive campaigns: responding to industry news, capitalising on trending topics, addressing customer concerns, or jumping on unexpected opportunities.

The brands that react fastest to relevant moments (a product going viral on TikTok, a competitor’s outage, a relevant news story) often generate their highest-performing emails. You can’t plan for these, but you can ensure you have the capacity to send them. If your calendar is 100% booked, you have no room to respond to the world.

Quarterly Key Dates

Section titled “Quarterly Key Dates”

Q1 (January to March)

  • New Year (goal-setting content, fresh start messaging, annual planning)
  • Valentine’s Day (February 14, relevant for gifting, food, experiences, personal care)
  • International Women’s Day (March 8, community and mission-driven content)
  • End of financial year (March/April in some regions, relevant for B2B)
  • Tax season preparation (relevant for financial services, accounting)

Q2 (April to June)

  • Easter (variable date, relevant for retail, food, travel)
  • Mother’s Day (May, second Sunday in many countries)
  • Father’s Day (June, third Sunday in many countries)
  • End of financial year (June 30 in Australia)
  • Summer sale launch (late June for Northern Hemisphere)
  • Graduation season (May/June, relevant for gifting, education)

Q3 (July to August to September)

  • Back to school (August to September, relevant for education, retail, technology)
  • Mid-year reviews (B2B, SaaS)
  • Labour Day sales (US, first Monday in September)
  • Spring in Southern Hemisphere (September, seasonal refresh content)
  • Amazon Prime Day (typically July, drives broader ecommerce activity)

Q4 (October to December)

  • Halloween (October 31)
  • Singles’ Day (November 11, massive in APAC, growing globally)
  • Black Friday (fourth Friday in November)
  • Cyber Monday (Monday after Black Friday)
  • Giving Tuesday (Tuesday after Thanksgiving)
  • Christmas and Hanukkah (December)
  • Boxing Day and post-Christmas sales (December 26+)
  • New Year’s Eve (December 31, year-in-review content)

Seasonal Email Approach

Section titled “Seasonal Email Approach”

Pre-season (4 to 6 weeks before): Tease what’s coming. Build anticipation. Segment your list by interest so you can target seasonal campaigns to the right audience. Run early-access offers for your most engaged subscribers. Start warming up your sending volume if you plan to increase frequency during the peak.

Peak (during the event or season): Increase frequency. Daily emails are acceptable during major events like Black Friday to Cyber Monday. Use urgency and scarcity, but only when genuine. Layer your messaging: early access for VIPs, main event for everyone, last-chance for non-converters.

Post-season (1 to 2 weeks after): Thank-you emails. Extended offers for anyone who missed the main event. Feedback requests. Cross-sell to seasonal buyers. Start collecting data for next year’s seasonal planning. The post-season is also when you should clean your list, as the high volume during peak season will surface addresses that bounce or complain.