Churches can use e-mail to broadcast messages to large numbers, to send targeted messages to groups, and to send one-off messages to individuals. This serves the needs of the church efficiently for several reasons:
• Cost. Other than small monthly fees for Internet services, the cost of sending e-mail is virtually zero. The cost of using paper and postage for the same reach can run into thousands of dollars a month. Staff time is lower for e-mail.
• Impact. People still read their e-mails, which tend to be short and easily perused for items of interest, and which reach people where they spend their time.
• Quality. An e-mail can include color photographs, links to audio and video files located on the Web site, and links to explain key terms and people. Such quality is cost-prohibitive in a printed medium.
• Scope. E-mail reaches more people. Many people, especially young adults, don’t even read their postal mail. Senior citizens are heavy users of e-mail, no matter what resisters say about the elderly not owning computers.
An effective e-mail marketing program has several elements:
• E-mail newsletters sent to all members, visitors, and friends, with a “Forward to a Friend” button to encourage readers to pass it along to others. This needs to be brief and mainly links to the Web site.
• E-mail newsletters sent to targeted groups, like acolytes, choir members, mission project workers, and youth group members.
• A special newsletter sent to “Friends” of the church to report news that a non-resident but loyal person might find interesting. Include an opportunity to give financial support.
• Special invitations to events, including a link to register and/or to pay.
• Preview of the coming Sunday, brief but compelling.
How do you handle those who simply don’t or won’t use e-mail? You can offer them a printed version sent by postal mail. Congregations that have made this offer find that only 2 percent would prefer paper.
Tom Ehrich is a writer, church consultant, and Episcopal priest based in New York. He is the publisher of On a Journey, and the founder of the Church Wellness Project www.churchwellness.com.
