Mastering the art of email marketing

Email marketing is more than just sending marketing messages electronically. For churches, it's a strategic way to communicate their identity, beliefs and ministries to a wide audience.

Mailbutler, a Berlin-based email service provider, estimates that there are almost 4.5 billion global email users, and 99% of email users check their messages every day.

Email offers a relatively low-cost alternative to printing and postage and provides easier personalization. When compared with social media platforms, email offers the advantage of ownership. A church owns its email list and controls who receives what messages. 

With Facebook, Instagram or any other social media platform, algorithms determine who and how many see a message, and accounts can be in danger of censorship or suspension. For these reasons, email marketing stands out as a cost-effective and widely used communication channel.

First steps

Build a robust email list. Make an effort to drastically increase your email audience. A church should collect email addresses from anyone, anywhere. Collect addresses digitally or with pen and paper.

• Use contact cards and visitor forms.
• Include opt-ins on the church website and social media channels.
• Ask people at events or when registering for events.
• Provide opportunities for members to join during the service. 

Offer people something valuable in return, such as exclusive content or resources. This can incentivize them to agree to be added to your email list.

Give users choices at the opt-in. Ask if they want to receive the church newsletter, prayer requests, event reminders, emergency messages, or all of the above. This will go a long way to ensure that those who receive the messages actually open and read them. 

Respect the users’ privacy and preferences. Do not buy or sell email lists. Doing so can harm your church’s reputation and lead to low engagement rates.

Choose a reliable email service provider. Some providers have special deals for nonprofits. Programs such as Breeze, MailChimp, AWeber and SendinBlue offer a variety of services with differing fees. 

In addition to cost, consider:

• The number of allowed users.
• The number of emails allowed each month.
• How many sub-groups can be created.
• Whether the service offers templates and, if so, the variety of templates.

Segment the audience. This is especially important for larger email lists. A family with young children will not be interested in receiving notices related to the singles ministry. College students don’t necessarily need to know about vacation Bible school sign-ups. Someone who is new to the congregation may not want committee reminders. Segment groups to avoid unwanted messages and tailor emails according to interests or demographics.

Tips and tricks

Sending an email is easy. Crafting an email that people will want to open, read and act upon is more challenging.

Always send a welcome email. A welcome email is a great way to confirm the email address, introduce new subscribers to your church community and set expectations.

Keep emails concise, well-organized and easy to read. Use a 12- or 14-point font. Allow white space. Divide important information into separate paragraphs or condense into bullet points. Include images, links and calls to action to enhance audience engagement.

Be consistent and reliable. Send what is promised when it is promised. Unreliability and inconsistency promote disinterest.

Remain relevant and timely. Advertise events well in advance and include links for registration. Eliminate outdated information or information that has no bearing on the church or ministries.

Go beyond the weekly newsletter. Showcase various ministries, share testimonies, provide spiritual resources and promote message topics. Recipients will stop opening emails if they think there is nothing new to read.

Track metrics. Open rates, click-through rates, bounce rates and unsubscribe rates provide valuable insights into the effectiveness of your email campaigns and allow messages and approaches to be refined.

• Open rates measure the number of emails that are opened compared with the number sent.
• Click rates measure the number of users who clicked on a link inside the email compared with the number of emails that were successfully delivered.
• Bounce rates are the number of emails that were delivered compared with the number that were sent. A bounced email is similar to a letter that has been returned to the sender.
• Unsubscribe rates indicate how many email subscribers have lost interest.

Knowing how your church email statistics compare to other faith-based organizations can help you gauge the effectiveness of an email marketing campaign. According to Constant Contact, the average faith-based organization has an open rate of 46.28%. Only about 3% actually click on a link in the email. Almost 10% bounce. 

If your church’s metrics are similar to or above those percentages, you can consider that successful. Results that are lower show a need for improvement.

Be mobile-friendly. According to emailmonday, about 75% of survey respondents reported checking email most often on phones.

Similarly, Truelist says that 7 out of 10 people will delete emails that don’t display properly on their phones. Therefore, it’s essential to create messages that can be easily read regardless of the device being used. 

A mobile-friendly email will include:

• Shorter subject lines.
• Single column formatting.
• Email text not exceeding 600 pixels in width.
• Smaller images that use less bandwidth.
• Larger text, buttons and icons.
• Lots of white space.
• Clear and visible calls to action.

Constant Contact, Odoo, GetResponse and other companies offer templates and drag-and-drop email creators that can simplify the process.

Email marketing remains relevant. It offers churches a powerful way to foster community, share their message and engage with congregations and community. By building an email list, crafting compelling content and utilizing best practices, churches can leverage the digital landscape to further their mission and impact lives.