Email Calendar Template
Every other channel is limited by budget or by ideas. Email is limited by permission, which is why an email calendar has to plan two things at once: what you are going to send, and how much you are allowed to send before the list stops listening. This one plans both, and tracks the flows that quietly earn more than either.
FORMAT
XLSX
CONTAINS
4 tabs
LAST UPDATED
September 2026
LICENCE
Free, unrestricted
Sending more raises revenue and lowers revenue per delivered. Managing that trade is the job.
- Why this one
Campaigns get the attention. Flows earn the money.
Most stores run four of the nine lifecycle flows and then wonder why the calendar has to be so busy.
The second purchase is worth more than the first and costs almost nothing to ask for.
A campaign is sent once and earns once. A flow is built once and earns every day, triggered by something the customer did rather than by something in your calendar. On most eCommerce lists the flows produce a disproportionate share of email revenue from a small fraction of the effort — and they are the part nobody schedules, because they are not a send.
So this file inventories all nine flows alongside the send plan, and puts their numbers in the same table as the campaigns competing for the same inbox. If three rows in that inventory are blank, that is the quarter planned for you.
- Nine lifecycle flows with triggers, timing and what each is for
- Subject and preview character counts, live as you type
- Five results columns, four calculated rates, no open rate
- Eight cadence rules agreed before anything is scheduled
- Revenue per delivered as the headline number
There is no open rate column, and that is deliberate. Mail privacy protection pre-loads images for a large share of recipients, registering opens nobody performed.
- Where this sits
This is not the content calendar
The two are complementary, and using the wrong one wastes a planning session.
01
ALL CHANNELS
Fifty-two dated weeks across every channel, with the trading dates worked out. It has one Email row per item; this file is what that row expands into.
02
THE INBOX
Segments, subject lines, cadence limits, flow inventory and results. Everything that only matters because email has a permission budget.
03
ONE FLOW IN DEPTH
What goes in each of the three emails, why the timing works, and what the recovery rate realistically looks like.
04
WANT IT RUN
Flows built, campaigns planned and sent, and a cadence somebody is accountable for.
- The flows
Nine flows, with what each is actually for
Timing figures are starting points. Replace them once you can see your own repurchase gap.
Flow
Trigger
Timing
What it is for
Welcome
Signed up, no purchase
Immediate, +2 days, +5 days
Sets expectations and makes the first purchase easy. Usually the highest revenue per recipient you have.
Abandoned cart
Added to basket, no order
+1 hour, +24 hours, +72 hours
Recovers an order somebody had already decided to place. The most valuable three emails on most stores.
Abandoned browse
Viewed a product, no basket
+4 hours, +48 hours
Earlier intent, lower recovery. Worth having, not worth three emails.
Post-purchase
Order placed
Immediate, on dispatch, on delivery
Reduces support volume and sets up the review request. Read far more than any campaign.
Review request
Delivered, plus usage time
+7 to +21 days by category
Reviews are the asset every product page needs. Time it to when the thing has actually been used.
Replenishment
Consumable purchased
At 70 to 80 per cent of expected usage
Only for categories that genuinely run out. On the right catalogue, the most profitable flow you own.
Winback
No order in N days
At 1.5× your median repurchase gap
Set N from your own data. The gap differs enormously between a coffee brand and a furniture brand.
Back in stock
Signed up on an out-of-stock variant
On restock
Captures demand you would otherwise lose entirely, and tells you what to reorder.
Sunset
No open or click in N days
Before removal
The flow nobody builds. It protects deliverability for everything else you send.
Suppress rather than delete when you sunset. A suppressed address stops costing you deliverability; a deleted one can be re-imported by accident.
- What is inside
Four tabs
One plans, one inventories, one constrains, one summarises.
Read me
Nine counters, headed by the number worth arguing about.
- Sends logged and sent, total delivered and total revenue
- Revenue per delivered, and overall unsubscribe rate
- Subjects over 50 characters and previews over 90
- Flows marked live, out of nine
Sends
Thirty rows and twenty-three columns. Plan on the left, results on the right, rates calculated between them.
- Segment, offer, subject, preview, CTA and landing page
- Character counts that update as you type
- Delivered, clicks, orders, revenue, unsubscribes
- Click rate, order rate, revenue per delivered, unsub rate
Flows
All nine lifecycle flows with trigger, email count, timing and purpose, and a column for whether yours is live.
- Welcome, cart, browse, post-purchase, review request
- Replenishment, winback, back in stock, sunset
- A last-reviewed column, because flows rot quietly
Cadence
Eight rules to set before you schedule anything, plus why there is no open rate anywhere in the file.
- Weekly send limits by engagement segment
- Sunset threshold, and suppress rather than delete
- Minimum gap between a flow email and a campaign
- A discount frequency ceiling, decided in advance
Nothing is locked. If your category supports a heavier cadence than the notes suggest, change the notes.
- How to use it
Flows first, cadence second, campaigns last
The order matters more here than in any other calendar, because the first two decide what the third is allowed to do.
01
Audit the nine flows before planning a single campaign
Go down the Flows tab and mark honestly which are live. Three missing flows is a more valuable quarter of work than twelve well-planned campaigns, and it is work that keeps earning after you stop.
02
Set the cadence rules while nobody is under pressure
Maximum sends per week by segment, the engagement window, the sunset threshold, the discount ceiling. Agreed in October these are policy; agreed in late November they are an argument.
03
Plan campaigns against trading dates, not against Mondays
Take the dates from the content calendar and work backwards. A gifting campaign that lands in December has missed the demand it was written for.
04
Write the subject line in the sheet, not in the platform
The character counts are there so the decision happens while you can still change the angle, rather than in a preview pane twenty minutes before send.
05
Log five numbers after every send
Delivered, clicks, orders, revenue, unsubscribes. Five numbers, two minutes, and after a quarter you have something worth reviewing rather than a folder of platform screenshots.
06
Review revenue per delivered monthly
Not per send. Individual sends are noisy and the temptation is to chase the good ones. The monthly figure tells you whether cadence and targeting are moving in the right direction together.
If the unsubscribe rate climbs while revenue stays flat, you are borrowing next quarter revenue to make this one look better.
- Getting it wrong
Six ways email programmes stall
Four of them are cadence. Two of them are measurement.
All campaigns, no flows
Campaigns need somebody to write them every week. Flows are built once and triggered by the customer. A programme that is all campaigns is a programme that stops the moment somebody goes on holiday.
Reporting open rate
Mail privacy protection pre-loads images for a large share of recipients. The number moves, it looks like performance, and it means almost nothing. Report clicks, orders and revenue.
Discounting on a schedule
A list trained to expect a discount every fortnight will wait for it. That is very hard to untrain, and it is usually done by accident rather than by decision.
Never sunsetting
Sending to people who have not opened in two years quietly damages delivery to the people who do. The sunset flow is the one nobody builds and everybody needs.
Sending a flow email and a campaign the same morning
Two emails in one morning is one too many, regardless of how good both are. A minimum gap costs nothing and prevents the complaint.
Judging the calendar on total revenue
Total revenue always rises when you send more. Revenue per delivered is the number that tells you whether the extra send was worth the permission it spent.
If you recognise the first one, start with welcome, cart and post-purchase. Those three cover most of the gap on most stores.
DOWNLOAD
Email Calendar — XLSX
Thirty send rows with live subject and preview character counts, five results columns and four calculated rates. A nine-flow lifecycle inventory with triggers and timing. Eight cadence rules to set before you schedule anything.
FORMAT
XLSX spreadsheet
TABS
Read me, Sends, Flows, Cadence
FORMULAS
189, all working
LICENCE
Free, commercial use
No email address required, which would be a poor joke on this page in particular. Three worked example sends sit at the top of the Sends tab, each labelled.
- Questions
Email calendar FAQs
What people ask before downloading it.
How is this different from the content calendar?
Scope. The content calendar plans every channel a week at a time and has one row per email. This file is what that row expands into: segment, subject, cadence limits, flow inventory and results. Most teams keep both open.
Why is there no open rate column?
Because mail privacy protection pre-loads images for a large share of recipients, registering opens nobody performed. Open rate is still useful for deliverability monitoring and engagement segments, where relative movement means something. It is not a performance number, so it is not in the results block.
How many emails a week should I send?
Two to three to an engaged segment suits most catalogues, and at most one to everybody else. But the honest answer is that your unsubscribe rate and your revenue per delivered will tell you, which is why both are calculated.
Which flows should I build first?
Welcome, abandoned cart and post-purchase. On most stores those three close the majority of the gap, and each of them earns without anybody writing anything next week.
What is a reasonable unsubscribe rate?
Below roughly 0.3 per cent per send. Above that consistently and the problem is cadence or targeting rather than creative, and sending better emails will not fix it.
Should I delete unengaged subscribers?
Suppress rather than delete. A suppressed address stops costing you deliverability but stays out of the way; a deleted one gets re-imported by accident the next time somebody uploads a list.
Does it replace Klaviyo or Mailchimp reporting?
No. It is the planning layer and a place where flows, campaigns and cadence sit in one view. Platform reporting will always know more about a single send; it will not tell you that three flows are missing.
Do I have to give you an email address to download it?
No, which would be a particularly poor joke on this page. The file downloads directly and nothing is added to a list.
- Keep going
Related templates and reading
TEMPLATE
Fifty-two dated weeks across every channel, with the trading dates already worked out.
ARTICLE
What goes in each of the three emails, the timing, and what recovery realistically looks like.
SERVICE
Flows built, campaigns sent, and a cadence somebody is accountable for.
Three flows short and no time to build them?
Welcome, cart and post-purchase are a fortnight of work that keeps earning afterwards. That is usually the highest-return fortnight available to an eCommerce team.