Every weekend when people attend church services you have a small window of time to share information about upcoming events, opportunities to serve, and ways they can grow in their walk with Christ.
So what happens after they leave the church?
Are they aware of the things the church is doing and how they can be involved? If they did learn about these opportunities, do they remember?
One of the easiest and most cost effective ways to keep your church informed is through a weekly email. And because people can receive email at home on their computers or anywhere they are via their phones, it can be read whenever and wherever it is convenient for them. Here are…
7 Secrets to Keeping Your Church Informed through Email
- Send an email every week: It doesn’t take long for people to feel disconnected. Sending a weekly email is a good way to keep them informed and in the loop.
- Send the email the same day and time each week: People are creatures of habit and will look for the email after they realize it is being sent the same time every week.
- Put a signup form on your website: Only ask for the essential information, so only require their name and email address.
- Put archives of the email on the website: This allows people to read previously sent emails if they don’t receive it one week, accidentally delete it, or can’t access their email.
- Don’t throw up in your church emails: Pretty disgusting analogy but don’t give into the temptation to include information about all 20 events that “you think” are important. Also, you don’t need to include all the information about the items included in the email. Read #6 for more info why…
- Link to more information on your website: Use the email as an opportunity to get people to click and visit the church website where they can find more information about the items you mention in the email and about other things not mentioned in the email.
- Include a story or humorous item: Although people like to learn more about what’s going on at the church, they like things that are light-hearted or hearing stories about how Christ and the church has changed others lives. Include something like the video below in each email and people will look forward to getting these emails every week.
And remember…
Don’t throw up in your church emails (by including too much info). – Mark Steinbrueck
All websites provided by OurChurch.Com – whether its a website custom designed by us or build by you using our WP-EZ Website Builder – include an eNewsletter feature that can be used to send emails to your entire church. Click the links above for more info about our website services.
Comment and discuss
- Does your church send weekly emails? If not, why not?
Read other articles in our church outreach blog series…
How Online Reviews Help Offline Church Outreach << Church Outreach >> How Use a Blog to Amplify Church Outreach
2 Comments
Good morning
I loved this suggestion. Question about #3: Isn’t that similar to inviting people to sign up for the newsletter? Because they aren’t doing that. What is the point? However, I am going to try this suggestion. But, I think my best option is to use a third party email system.
Hi Carolyn, yes. The more prominent the sign-up form asking people to subscribe to your newsletter, the more people will subscribe.
There are some good 3rd party email systems, but the downsides of using them are 1) you have another system to learn, 2) you have to try to figure out how to integrate their subscribe form and archives into your website, and 3) you’re dealing with another company’s support. On the other hand, if you use the newsletter feature built into our WP-EZ Website Builder, it’s already integrated with your website, and our support team is able to provide any help you might need.