Finally, a quarter where you can sit back and relax (just kidding). If you’re like most companies, Q3 is when you’re starting to prep for big email campaigns around Q4 holidays. There are some lucrative holiday opportunities in Q3 including July 4th and Back to School, so don’t discredit it too much!
Why is your Q3 email strategy important?
Q3 sets the tone for your Q4 initiatives. Getting an early start on your Q4 in Q3 can save you a lot of headaches. Plus, who wants to work extra hours around the holidays when you can just prepare in advance? While Back to School and July 4th are still big holidays, they’re getting less traction this year due to COVID-19 closings and some schools retreating from in-classroom sessions. We expect that 2021 will bring brighter days, but plan on spending any unused hours planning your calendar for holiday.
Expected Q3 2020 impacts
Q3 2020 is still underway with COVID-19 and plenty of uncertainty around school and fall sports. The first Q3 holiday to take a hit was July 4th, which also seemed less significant this year with the rise of protests against racial injustice happening across the U.S. along with cutbacks spurred by the pandemic. According to an NRF study, fewer consumers planned on celebrating the holiday this year: 
Besides July 4th, Back to School will likely be affected, too, as a major revenue driver for apparel and footwear for school-age children and bedding, housewares and electronics for college students. With many schools teaching online or doing a hybrid model of in-person and online, it’s unclear how big of an impact the current state of affairs will have on retailers.
Email trends & insights during Q3
In Q3 2019, across brands from various industries, we saw the following popular subject line terms trending. As we saw with the trending terms in the Q1 ecommerce marketing strategy and Q2 ecommerce marketing strategy pages, these top terms include the month sent (#4, “July”) as well as holidays (#3, “Labor” Day and #7, “4th” of July) happening throughout the quarter: 
Using a random sample of 90+ ecommerce brands, we were able to see that 48% of emails sent during Q3 2019 contained a promotion (which is slightly higher than the average number of promotional sends in Q1 and Q2). This increase could be because Back to School is not a specific date but a period that spans the end of July through early September.
A few things to keep in mind for Q3 2021 planning:
- While the quarter has fewer holidays, capitalize on the ones that do happen in Q3.
- Use Q3 as a place to test campaigns, promotions, and subject lines before the busy Q4.
- Use Q3 to plan larger projects and initiatives in Q4.
- Because of the pandemic in Q3 2020, consider comparing Q3 2019 for your 2021 planning.
Key dates and holidays through Q3
Click below for in-depth email examples and strategies to prepare your key campaigns for Q3.
Q3 email strategies and ideas
Take a look through our recent blog posts covering a few thought-starters for your Q3 campaigns.
Plan all year long with MailCharts
We’ve been collecting and curating campaigns from ecommerce brands since 2013. From big, famous brands to new kids on the block—our ecommerce database helps you plan for next week, next month and next year.