You’ve Got Mail

You’ve Got Mail
Is your church using today’s fastest, cheapest and most popular form of communication to go beyond its four walls?

By Dave Thoma
May/June 2003 Issue

When our church in San Diego launched a mid-week e-mail newsletter announcing our activities, attendance at our non-Sunday events tripled. Why? Each e-mail was a friendly reminder of what was happening in our church. Another perk: With the click of a mouse, our members could use an e-mail to easily invite unsaved co-workers or family members to upcoming events at our church or tell them about upcoming sermons or seminars.

In the context of relationship, e-mail can open new opportunities for outreach. E-mailing is faster and less expensive than nearly every other form of communication. It’s also effective. In a recent Pew Internet & American Life study of 1,300 congregations, more than half (63 percent) of those surveyed said the use of e-mail by ministers, church staffs and congregation members has helped the church better connect with the surrounding community.

Encourage your congregants to think “outreach“ and use e-mail to spread the word to friends, co-workers and family members—what the business world calls “viral marketing.“ Here are some tips to get you started:

WAYS TO USE E-MAIL
• Announce or tease upcoming events, especially outreach-oriented ones. Members can quickly forward the specific information as an invitation.
• Follow up with visitors and offer information about your ministries.
• Preview the next sermon or promote a new sermon series, especially one that targets the unchurched.

When seeker-sensitive Bellevue Community Church in Nashville, Tenn., e-mailed its members announcing an upcoming series on “The Search for Significance,“ church member Janet Bozeman forwarded the e-mail to her friend, Anna.

“I had been asking Anna to come for several months, but I knew this series would really interest her,“ Bozeman said. “A quick e-mail to her was subtle and less invasive than a phone call. That was six months ago, and now she comes to Bible study with me.“

• Share news and update members on prayer requests, for example, reporting the outcome of a surgery.
• Announce scheduling changes.
• Direct members to the church’s Web site for new postings, such as photos of church events.
• Respond to breaking news. On Sept. 11, churches around the country e-mailed their members to announce a prayer service that night.
• Support volunteers. Once you recruit a volunteer, support them with continuous updates, encouragement and support. It takes 50 times more effort to find and train a new volunteer than it does to support a current one, according to a 2002, “Cultivating Volunteers in Ministry“ survey.

WHERE DO I START?
Probably the first and most important step to using e-mail is developing a plan. Begin with the end in mind. Ask yourself: How will using e-mail best align and drive our church and/or ministry goals?

From there, all you need is Internet access. The following steps are cheap, fast and easy.

• Choose a provider. A variety of free (www.hotmail.com www.yahoo.com www.fepg.net) and fee-based e-mail applications can get you started.

• Create your mailing list. E-mail programs like Outlook Express and Hotmail have the ability to store e-mail addresses in an address book. These e-mails can be grouped together, allowing you to send information to many people at one time. In addition, many church database programs such as Parsons’“Church Membership Plus“ as well as Shelby’s “Church“ let you link e-mail to your database, allowing you to contact your whole congregation, or just a segment of it, such as youth group members or your leadership community.

• Consider the format. Choose either plain text or HTML for your newsletter or announcements. In general, it’s best to send both a text and an HTML version. The differences between plain text and HTML are distinct.

Plain text newsletters do not include graphics like pictures and clip art, but they download quickly and can be read by all e-mail programs. Beginning with plain text e-mails is a good way to go.

HTML e-mails often incorporate visuals, stylized text and links to other sites. While HTML (HyperText Mark-up Language) e-mails are great attention-getters and may generate a higher response, they also require some programming expertise to create. In addition, HTML messages can be slower to download and are not compatible with all e-mail providers. If you have the capability, HTML e-mails are a great way to go, but remember that plain text can be equally effective in many cases.

E-MAILS THAT GET READ
Once you’ve defined your goals, provider and format, the next step is building the content in a way that grabs someone’s attention and holds it long enough to read and process the information. Check out these strategies for writing high-impact e-mails:

• Create subject lines that pop. A well-crafted message means little if the subject line doesn’t capture the reader’s attention. Craft the subject line as you would a sermon or book title. Use plenty of action verbs and think about who, besides church members, may receive it. Use language (no “Christianese“) that might spark the interest of the unchurched. Examples: Instead of “Choral Cantata This Sunday,“ try “Summer Heats Up! Powerful Musical Celebration This Sunday—FREE!“

• Keep it brief. Your e-mail should be short enough to let people scan your e-mail quickly for items of interest. Whether you write for the Web or e-mail, be concise. Usability experts suggest that you have two seconds to get someone’s attention and seven seconds to capture their interest.

• Use subheads and bullet points. Create subheadings and bullet points in your e-mail message that will allow your readers to grab important information quickly and easily.

• Communicate relevant information. In most cases, talking about the features of your ministry will not motivate a response, but presenting a strong value proposition that explains how your e-mail can benefit readers and those around them increases the probability for participation.

So what do readers care about? Answer that with five simple words: “What’s in it for me?“ People want to understand clearly and quickly how this communication is going to benefit them. In short, they want to know how your ministry will:
• Improve their lives
• Enrich their faith
• Provide a team they can belong to
• Mobilize them for useful service
• Help them establish new relationships

Instead of “Marriage workshop begins this week,“ try “Rekindle the spark in your marriage“ or “Discover the 10 secrets to a better marriage.“

If your e-mails aren’t answering these fundamental questions, you may need to re-examine what you’re trying to communicate.

• Pay attention to your tone. Be personable and conversational in your e-mails. Let readers know that there’s an approachable person behind the message. Dare to make all e-mail correspondence one of the connection points that builds real-world relationships.

• Be smart about frequency. With e-mail, less is often more. However, whether you determine that a weekly e-newsletter is the best approach for your church or just sporadic announcements, make sure your e-mails have value to readers and aren’t simply unwanted “spam.“

• Brand your church. Don’t forget to include your church’s contact information in the footer of your e-mail. You never know where your e-mails will be forwarded, and providing your ministry’s Web address, e-mail address and contact name could help facilitate a new discussion.

BUILD AN E-MAIL LIST
Most people like receiving information through e-mail, and if the information is something they’re interested in, they’ll freely give you their addresses. But you have to ask for them, as well as permission to use them.

• Don’t spam. One e-mail issue gaining momentum these days is the elimination of spam. Spamming is considered rude at best, and a growing movement is underway to implement legislation to penalize those that spam.

Avoid turning off a potential seeker with unsolicited advertisement e-mails about your church. Make sure everyone on your mailing list has subscribed to your e-mail communications. When you send an e-mail to a list of people, ensure e-mail addresses aren’t picked up inadvertently and misused. Don’t copy the list into the “To“ window. Instead, send the e-mail to yourself, then copy the list into the “BCC“(blind carbon copy) window. Treat e-mail addresses like home phone numbers. To preserve your members’ privacy, never release your e-mail list to an outside company or even to another church member.

• Promote, promote, promote. Promote your e-mail announcements and ask for addresses on your Web site, in small groups, on event registration cards and in your church bulletin. Be sure to ask for permission to e-mail them at that address and remind your members to only forward e-mails to people they know. Relationship is key to outreach.

© 2003 Outreach Magazine. All right reserved. Copyright permission to make up to fifty copies of each article for free distribution is granted Christian churches at no charge. The reprint must include the article in its entirety with author credit and the following sentences:.

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