Content templates are structured, often fill‑in‑the‑blank frameworks that help you plan and produce marketing materials like emails, blog posts, social updates, and press releases. They’re a starting point for the content creation process.
For small businesses, ad‑hoc content decisions risk wasting limited marketing bandwidth—particularly when there’s no need to reinvent the wheel. Templates reduce production time and help you avoid staring at a blank canvas.
Here, you’ll get direct access to 19 free content templates organized by marketing use case. Once you add your own information into one of these templates, you’ll have a correctly formatted document that’s ready to use.
Website content templates
Website content templates help you populate your website with words and images that feel authentic to your brand. Here are three to get you started:
Ecommerce copywriting template
This ecommerce copywriting template guides you through the process of drafting copy for essential sections of your online store. These include your homepage, About page, FAQ page, and product pages.
To use this template, you’ll first distill what makes your product great and why customers should buy it from you instead of from competitors. Then you’ll learn how to transform your ideas into compelling prose for different parts of your website. The template provides ample detail. For example, it breaks down what to include in homepage headers versus subheaders and how to organize features and benefits in product descriptions.
Creative brief for product photos template
A product photo creative brief helps you capture images that look consistent with one another, even if you snap them at different shoots. You can distribute your completed brief to in-house photographers or freelancers to ensure everyone’s on the same page.
You’ll start filling in the template by establishing the basics. Outline your objectives, list the items you want photographed, give an overview of the project, and jot down your creative concepts. This last section is where you’ll explain any moods or storylines you want to convey.
From there, you’ll get into the details. You’ll explain your lighting setup (whether you use studio lighting or natural lighting), prop preferences, styling requirements, permitted locations, and the inspiration behind specific shots.
Brand kit template
This brand kit template has two components: a brand storytelling template and a brand guidelines template. The storytelling template guides you through the process of establishing essential elements of your brand identity. The guidelines help you compile everything you’ve established into an easy-to-read document. You can then share your completed brand guidelines with anyone who works on your brand, whether in-house or freelance, to help them accurately represent your company.
Social media templates
These two templates help you craft and publish posts that propel you toward your marketing goals:
Social media strategy template
This social media strategy template helps you develop a comprehensive plan for what to post on different social media platforms. You’ll set goals and establish success metrics, identify content pillars and post types, and learn how to fuse these pillars into a cohesive social media plan. There’s even space to record future post ideas.
At the end of the template, you can set a schedule for your posts. There’s a yearly and weekly calendar view, so you can work toward long-term goals while staying on top of daily posts.
Social media content scheduling template
This social media content planner gives you a bird’s-eye view of what type of content you’re publishing and on which channels. You’ll have room to note the format of each post, its visual execution, on-screen and caption copy, and tags. There’s additional space to add the posting date and a link to your draft.
Content marketing templates
Content marketing means reaching customers through organic communications rather than paid advertisements. Content can include social media posts, blog articles, podcasts, and emails. These templates will help you research and plan what to publish:
Content strategy template
A thorough content strategy establishes what type of content you publish and for whom.
This comprehensive content strategy template gives you space to outline your different content goals, key performance indicators (KPIs), timelines, and owners. It also has room to describe your target audience and note the findings of a competitive analysis on rival brands’ content. You’ll also fill out a content audit section that notes which types of content are working for your brand and what you can improve.
These sections will make up the foundation of your content strategy. Once you’ve thought through them, you’ll detail specialized strategies for individual content channels, fill in a content calendar, and outline next steps for growing your content programs.
SEO keyword research template
Keyword research is an essential step in developing an effective search engine optimization (SEO) strategy
This SEO keyword research template has space to jot down seed and individual keywords alongside each term’s search volume, ranking difficulty and intent. It also has space for three keyword variations and notes on each term.
Once you’ve identified relevant keywords, you can use them throughout your website to signal relevance to search engines like Google. You can draft written content entirely by yourself or use AI tools. Shopify Magic, for instance, can help you draft short website copy as well as longer-form content like blog posts.
Email templates
- Sales email templates
- Customer service email templates
- Follow-up email templates
- Appointment confirmation templates
- Appointment reminder templates
Email templates give you the words you need to connect with customers in a clear and professional manner. They’re formatted and almost fully written; all you need to do is fill in the blanks. Put them in the rotation for these common use cases:
Sales email templates
This sales email template is a package that includes seven individual templates. They provide guidance for writing subject lines, body copy, and sign-offs for the following situations:
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Following up after a download
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Giving a compliment
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Standing out from the competition
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Launching a new product or feature
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Networking after an event
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Sharing insights
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Reaching out to a referral
Customer service email templates
Customer service email templates guide you through scenarios where you need to communicate one-on-one with customers. The template below includes prewritten copy for the following types of emails:
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Thank you email
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Order confirmation
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Product back in stock
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Order delayed
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Product arrived damaged
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Product is unsatisfactory
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Birthday offer
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Cart abandonment
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Process opt-out
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Technical issue reported
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Follow-up email
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Survey request
The template also includes links to Shopify products and apps you can use to send these messages. For example, Shopify Messaging is a built-in email marketing platform, and the Seguno app lets you send automated restock notifications.
Follow-up email templates
These follow-up email templates give you subject lines and body copy, with fill-in-the-blanks, for six different scenarios:
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Following up after a meeting with a potential customer
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Following up with someone you met at a networking event
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Following up after a job interview
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Sending a second email after a cold email
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Reminding a customer about an abandoned cart
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Following up as part of a marketing campaign
Appointment confirmation templates
Appointment confirmation messages give customers a date and time in writing for easy reference. You can use them to share information about your location, add instructions on appointment preparation, and include details on accepted payment methods and your cancellation policy.
This appointment confirmation template bundle has scripts for a handful of different appointment types:=
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Virtual appointment
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Follow-up appointment
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Recurring appointment
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Upcoming consultation
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Rescheduled appointment
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Canceled appointment
Appointment reminder templates
Businesses send appointment reminders to reduce no-shows and clarify cancellation and rescheduling policies. This free template outlines how to craft to-the-point appointment reminders in both text and email formats. It also has a template specifically for sending 24-hour appointment reminders.
Public relations content templates
Well-designed public relations strategies bolster your brand image. These content templates help you communicate effectively with journalists and the general public, as well as with internal audiences like staff members and board members.
Press release template
A compelling press release concisely communicates news about your company in a way that piques the interest of editors and journalists. This press release template gives you a section-by-section breakdown of how to organize your release, starting with the headline and ending with a section on how to contact you to learn more.
Press kit
Press kits compile essential information about your business for reporters and publishers. They can take the form of documents, slideshows, or web pages.
This press kit template gives you what you need to create a document version of a press kit. It includes an About Us section, a Fast Facts section, and a Milestones section (with a fill-in-the-blank timeline), plus space for testimonials, media, and brand assets.
Communications strategy toolkit
A communications strategy outlines how your brand will share information with different groups of people. It can cover how to communicate with external audiences like customers and journalists, or with internal audiences such as employees and partner organizations.
This communications strategy template walks you through each step of developing your plan. It includes detailed instructions for steps, including setting goals, identifying your audience, and outlining communication frequency and timing. It also includes an example for every step.
Long-form content templates
Long-form content gives you space to go into detail on a particular topic. You might use long-form content like white papers as lead magnets. Other long-form content formats, like case studies, can help you convince detail-oriented shoppers that your product is the right solution for them. Use these templates to speed up the process:
Case study template
Case studies show how real-life customers have benefited from your products or services.
The case study template below walks you through each component of a case study and includes fill-in-the-blanks for ease of use. You’ll explain who the customer is, the problem they were facing, the solution your product provided, and what happened after the customer started using your product. The template also includes an example, so you can see what your finished case study should look like.
White paper template
This white paper template has everything you need to create a detailed white paper. It has sections for an introduction, key findings, and data visualization. It also includes placeholders for your logo, images, pull quotes, and charts. Once you’re finished, you’ll have a polished paper that’s ready to distribute.
Video content templates
Video ads, short-form social media videos, and longer-form videos (like explainer videos) capture attention and show your products in action. These templates can help you get started:
Video ad strategy template
This template helps you plan your video advertising strategy for Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and other digital channels. You’ll start filling out the template by contemplating the high-level elements of your campaigns. This entails thinking about your ads’ value propositions and creative concepts and identifying where in the marketing funnel your target audience will be.
Then you’ll delve into the details, outlining headlines, copy, scripts, and more. Once you start running your ads, you’ll fill out an ad spending report with metrics like total revenue and average customer value.
Creative brief for video shoots
This creative brief template helps you organize your video shoots. You’ll add information on your creative vision, then you’ll get into logistics. You’ll detail your lighting setups and shot list, scripting and B-roll, and props and equipment list. You’ll also clarify call times for camera crews, makeup artists, and actors.
At the end of the template, you’ll create a workback schedule by adding deliverables like scripts and sound mixing and assigning them due dates.
Content templates FAQ
What are content templates?
Content templates are guides that help you write and format external communications like emails and white papers, or internal documents like content plans and video ad strategies. Content templates, like the free ones from Shopify, have fill-in-the-blank formats.
What are examples of templates?
Examples of templates include Shopify’s SEO keyword research template, case study template, social media content templates, and sales email template. All give you a starting point for an element of a marketing strategy.
Where do I get free templates?
You can get many templates for free from websites like Shopify and Canva. Shopify’s free templates guide you through the process of creating essential assets for your ecommerce business, including marketing plans, sales emails, press releases, and more.
