By Mark MacDonald
Church Branding Strategist and Consultant
Low open rates on your church emails? Is it possible to get more people to read your correspondence? Is there a trick to getting people to open and read emails? The answer to all three is “Yes.”
Most churches use a program such as a church management system, Constant Contact or Mailchimp to send emails. This is wise because these platforms allow users to easily schedule email delivery and manage a mailing list.
Using analytics
The analytics offered by these services reveal the percentage of people who opened your email and the amount of time they spent with the email.
Knowing whether people are spending longer than a few seconds with your email before closing it is an excellent gauge of whether your communication is reaching your audience.
What can you do to increase the likelihood your church emails will be read? Here are five practical tips:
- Segment your list. Effective communication rises and falls on how well you know your audience. If you know them well, you can talk directly to them. If the list has everyone on it, the message needs to be broad.
It is better to segment the list based on groups you’re talking to. Some examples might include lists for members, non-members and guests.
Another option might be seniors, couples, parents, singles and students. It’s entirely up to you based on how you communicate with each group.
- Make the subject feel personalized. Now that the list is segmented, direct the subject line specifically to that audience.
Many email programs allow you to use a placeholder code for a first name in the subject and body of the email. Use that, but don’t overuse it.
An email should feel natural and conversational to the reader.
- Don’t overdo frequency. If you send too many emails, fewer people will open them.
Once a week is probably standard, but if you don’t have much to say or find yourself repeating information, don’t send as many. Once-a-month emails may be all you need to get your church emails read.
- Keep them short. If someone opens your email, they’ll scroll quickly through it. If it feels too long or full of paragraphs, most won’t read any of it.
They’ll leave it to read later or delete it immediately.
The shorter it is, the more likely your church email will be read. So edit, edit, edit.
Preview the email on a phone (where most receive it) and see how many swipes you need to get to the bottom. Much more than two? Edit some more.
- Make them scannable. Most people only read headlines. So make the subject line interesting, then have three or four subheads that allow readers to get the idea of the email.
Need to provide a few details under the subheads? Use bullet points, not paragraphs. Add website links for details.
This keeps your emails shorter and still provides relevant information.
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