Email marketing plans fail when they start with what to send instead of what the business needs. A useful plan starts with a revenue goal, works back to the number of conversations email must create, and only then decides on newsletters, campaigns and workflows. This article answers how to write that plan on a single page, gives you an email marketing plan template with six headings, and shows how to set the plan up on the levelpartner.ai platform so you can see each month whether it is working.
The one-page email marketing plan template
Use these six headings, in this order. If a heading takes more than a short paragraph, the plan is too complicated.
1. The goal
One sentence linking email to revenue. "Email will create 15 qualified sales conversations a month by the end of Q2." Not "grow our list" or "improve engagement".
2. The audiences
Three to five segments, defined by fields you actually hold: current clients, past clients, prospects who have downloaded something, referral partners. For each, one line on what they need from you.
3. The programmes
What runs for each audience. Always-on workflows, such as a welcome series and a proposal follow-up. A regular newsletter. Three or four campaigns a year. Name each one and its job.
4. The capacity
Who writes, who approves, who answers replies, and how many hours a month each person has. This is the heading most plans skip and the one that decides whether the plan survives.
5. The measures
The two or three numbers you will review monthly. Conversations created and pipeline value by source should be among them.
6. The review date
When you will look at the plan again and decide what to stop, start or change. Quarterly is sensible.
Suppose a 50-person agency wants an extra £400,000 of new work this year, and its average new client is worth £40,000. That means ten more clients. If one in four sales conversations becomes a client, it needs 40 more conversations, roughly four a month from email. The plan then asks which audiences and programmes can produce four conversations a month, a far more useful question than how often to email. The money figures are illustrative.
Why most plans go wrong
The usual email marketing plan is a list of sends: monthly newsletter, Christmas email, a campaign or two. It describes activity, not outcome, so nobody can say at the end of the year whether it worked.
The other common failure is ambition without capacity. A plan with weekly newsletters, six campaigns and ten workflows looks thorough. If one marketer with other responsibilities owns it, half of it will not happen. Plan for what your team can write and answer, then add.
Before you start
You need last year's revenue and sales figures, a rough view of how many enquiries came from email, the fields you hold on contacts, and agreement from the partners or directors on the goal. Have your pipeline in Opportunities set up with clear stages, because the plan's measures depend on it.
How to set it up on the platform
- Write the six-heading plan and agree it with the revenue owners.
- In Contacts, click + Add smart list for each audience.
- In Automation, build any always-on workflows the plan is missing.
- In each workflow, add an action that tags repliers and bookers.
- Add Create Opportunity with Opportunity Source set to the programme.
- In Dashboard, click + Add Dashboard, name it and click Confirm.
- Click Edit, then + Add Widget, and add email and opportunity widgets.
- Click Save Changes.
- Put the plan's review date in the owners' calendars.
- Review the dashboard monthly against the goal.
What it is for in a 10 to 250 person firm
When revenue has stalled, every channel must justify its time. A plan tied to a revenue goal lets you show partners what email is contributing, and lets you stop programmes that are not.
It replaces the drift of sending whatever seems timely and hoping for enquiries. Writing the plan takes half a day; reviewing it takes an hour a month. Agencies, consultants, mortgage brokers and real estate firms all use the same six headings, with different audiences and programmes.
To turn the plan into dated sends, use our email marketing calendar template. For the thinking that sits behind a plan, see the email strategy template and our email marketing strategy examples. For reporting results each month, start from the email marketing report template.
Setting the goal as list growth. A bigger list is only useful if it produces conversations. Make list growth a supporting measure, never the goal.
When a plan is not the priority
If you have no follow-up for website enquiries and no booking reminders, fix those first. A plan for campaigns and newsletters on top of leaking basics is planning the decoration before the plumbing. Once the basics run, write the plan.
Troubleshooting
The plan is ignored after a month. It has no owner or review date. Name both, and put the review in calendars.
Results cannot be measured. Sources are not recorded on opportunities. Add the source step to every workflow and campaign.
The team misses sends. Capacity was overestimated. Cut the plan back to the programmes that matter most.
Partners disagree on the goal. Settle the goal before writing the rest of the plan; every other heading depends on it.
Frequently asked questions
What should an email marketing plan include?
A revenue-linked goal, audiences, programmes, capacity, measures and a review date. Those six headings cover what you need to run and judge email for a year.
How long should the plan be?
One page. If it runs longer, it is probably describing activity in detail rather than setting direction. Detail belongs in the calendar and the workflows.
Is there a free email marketing plan template?
The six headings in this article are a free template. Copy them into any document. The value is in filling them honestly, especially the capacity heading.
How often should we update the plan?
Review it quarterly and rewrite it yearly. Change it sooner if the goal changes or a programme clearly is not working. For tooling, see how automated email marketing reduces the capacity the plan needs.