Hey, hey, hey! Liz Wilcox here, your favorite (and accidentally snarky) email marketer, fresh off a writing retreat—and let’s be honest, I didn’t write a single word of fiction. Instead, I did what I do best: actual work, specifically BATCHING newsletter content so I can finally take a dang summer off!
In this episode, sparked by a real question in the Email Sound Booth Facebook group, I spill all the juicy behind-the-scenes deets on exactly how I organize, plan, and batch my newsletters. Spoiler: there’s a lot of Google Drive, calendar sleuthing, and me promising myself not to touch my sweater (sorry about those weird desk sounds if you’re an audio purist).
Inside This Episode:
- My no-fluff process for batching content for the whole year (yes, summer vacation is possible, people!)
- How to set up a Google Drive system for your newsletters and promo emails—folders, docs, the works
- The weird stuff Patricia (my awesome team member) and I track on the calendar so nothing falls through the cracks (hello, affiliate promos)
- My step-by-step workflow to plan out content for every single newsletter and special promo in under an hour
- Why you don’t have to be fancy—you can totally do this with pen and paper if you’re feeling retro
- A shout-out to batching hacks like using my templates and ChatGPT (you know I love a good shortcut)
- A quick pep talk if you still have writer’s block and a not-so-humble invite to join my Email Marketing Membership (it’s $9 a month, and it’ll save you from content overwhelm FOREVER)
Links & Resources:
- Need a visual? Watch me do all this in real time at WatchLiz.com
- Get my proven newsletter templates, support, and ideas inside the Email Marketing Membership – open 24/7 for your batching needs
- Join the convo in our Facebook Group (yes, I actually read your questions. Look what happens!)
Final Words: Remember: It’s better to be clear than clever (but if you can be both, obviously aim for the stars). Thanks for hanging out with me, you magnificent email nerd! Hit subscribe, tell a friend, and I’ll see you on the next episode of The Email Sound Booth.
Stay fun & keep batching,
Liz
Liz’s Kit [Convertkit] affiliate link
Transcript
Yo, yo, yo. Liz Wilcox here. This is episode 132 of the Email Sound Booth podcast. I’m just recording this really quick before I go to yoga, because, honestly, I had no idea what I was gonna record for this episode. But I was just in our Email Sound Booth Facebook group, and someone was asking all about how to batch their newsletters.
So over the weekend, I actually flew to Michigan from Florida to do a writing retreat. And I was gonna write some fiction, like, some creative fiction, just to kind of get my juices flowing. But what I actually ended up doing is working. So. And what I was working on and what I put in the Facebook group was, I’m gonna batch a bunch of content for summer because I want to take some time off in the summer, right?
So someone was asking, “Liz, how do you? How do you batch? I’d love to batch newsletters, but I don’t know what I’m doing.” So if you’re watching on YouTube, I’m gonna share my screen. I’m sorry. I keep hitting a button on my desk. So I’m so sorry about that annoying sound. I will stop touching my sweater.
Okay, so what we do is—and I have Patricia, right? So that makes it a little easier. So what she does at the beginning of the year, and I mean, you can do it right now, is she just has a drive labeled 2025, like a folder in Google Drive, and she puts, you know, January, February, all the way to December. And when I click on it—this is the wrong drive. Hang on. This is what I get for doing it on the fly. I have drives for this for the email marketing membership, and then I have drives for my own thing. So hang on. This is what we get. Is this it? Okay, so. So this is it. So the drive is called 2025 emails. That makes more sense. 2025 emails.
And so we have a Google Doc for every month. And when you click on the month, what I do, what I start out with, is I just write down the words “newsletter” and the words “affiliate emails,” because I have a newsletter. And then sometimes I send emails to my affiliates. And then what I do is come over to my calendar, and I look over the next four weeks—like, let’s say I’m writing emails for May. I look at May, and I say, okay, what do I need to promote, what are we working on in May that I need to talk about in my newsletter?
And something that Patricia does really well, but you can do for yourself—she does this because I used to do this for myself—is on the calendar. And again, if you’re watching on Google Drive, she will put, you know, on the date, like, let’s say I promise to promote your bundle coming up. So I promise to promote that on Tuesday the 13th, she will put that in the calendar, like “promoting Lakeisha’s bundle.” Right? So. So that when I’m in this Google Drive drafting up, batching my newsletters, I can come over here. As I’m looking through the calendar, I can see, oh, Tuesday the 13th, I’m supposed to promote Leisha’s bundle. So I’ll come over here and I’ll write that down in the newsletter section.
Remember, on my blank Google Doc, I wrote “newsletter.” So. So I’ll say, you know—and you can hear me typing—Tuesday the 13th, I need to be promoting Lakisha. And I just start taking notes like that right under the newsletter. Anything I see in the calendar that I want to promote, I need to promote, or I need to write down in the Google Doc so I don’t forget.
Okay. And then I just create the emails. So I just—and you can see me scrolling—February. Then I just write, you know, in the doc, like, “Newsletter, February or February 4th. Newsletter, February 11th. Newsletter, February 19th.” And then I come, you know, back again up to my notes. Okay, what do I need to do for the 4th, for the 13th? Whatever dates I just listed out.
You can do this on pen and paper. I do this on pen and paper as well sometimes. It’s just a great way to figure out, okay, this month I’m looking at promoting these things. Okay, let me type those up. Let me write those down. Okay, now I know. Or now I can put them in order of importance, in order of dates. Right?
Right. Like, for example, I’ve got to promote leisha on the 13th. Right. So that’s going to go out on the 13th or the newsletter on the 13th. Right. So that is how I batch my content for my newsletter.
Of course, I do the exact same thing for email marketing membership. As you could see. I, you know, I look at last month’s templates. What did I send out? How can I create, you know, this month’s templates? So they go well with last month’s, but they also stand out themselves. So I just kind of map it out in a Google Doc or on paper and then I go from there.
So if you’re having trouble batching your content, there you go. That’s how I do it. I saw someone—I think it was Sadie Smiley in our Facebook group—she said to batch her content, she just uses Liz’s templates and ChatGPT. That’s another great way you can use or you can batch content. Of course I’m doing all this that I just showed you for my business. I also do for the Email Marketing Membership templates.
So there is a reason to my rhyme so to speak. Is that the saying—a rhyme to my reason? I don’t know. Anyway, there is a strategy behind it is what I was trying to say but I was trying to be clever and it’s early in the morning. If you can’t tell by my voice, it’s better to be clear than clever. Always. Right? Copywriting side note.
So anyway, hope this helps. If you are still struggling, if you don’t have much to say to your email list or you struggle with just getting started, I’d love for you to join Email Marketing Membership. It’s only $9 a month. It’s only always open. The link, of course, is going to be in the show notes—you already know—but I hope this was helpful.
And if you need a visualization of this and you’re just listening to the podcast, don’t forget you can always check out watchliz.com. That’ll take you directly to my YouTube channel, and this will be under Videos for you. As always, I’m Liz Wilcox. You are awesome and I’ll see you on the next episode.