You have heard of social media marketing, Google ads, and postcard mailers, but are you utilizing one of the most effective ways to interact with and get your messages to your members? Email marketing is the Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer of marketing. It is different, so it can be overlooked — but it delivers a robust solution you cannot find anywhere else.
If you have never invested real effort into email campaigns for your ministry, you are missing out on the returns email marketing can give you when this area is handled excellently. Keep reading to find out one crucial benefit of effective emails that stands out more than any other.
Social media ads are great because they make sure your message gets in front of your target audience. But what happens after that is crucial. That person can choose to interact with the ad or scroll past it with one swipe of their finger. That is not the case with an email message.
Emails are delivered to a person's inbox, which guarantees two things. The first is that they are going to read the subject line. The second is that there will be some form of interaction. You cannot scroll past an email message. You have to interact with it to get rid of it, and because it is a personal message and not a general ad, it is more likely that part of the message will be read before it is deleted.
The significance of interacting with every email someone receives before moving on to their following message or task cannot be overstated. This is crucial because it helps you get your most important announcements, updates, and stories to your most invested members and donors.
However, the question remains: Why are you not yet using email marketing to communicate with your church?
The business world sheds some light on the importance of email. Regarding the top metric used to measure content performance, 90% of content marketers say email engagement is the first thing they consider (Content Marketing Institute). The top free organic distribution channel for 87% of business-to-business marketers is email. Do you want to reach more millennials? 73% of millennials say they prefer communications from businesses to come through email.
Email is personal, direct, and it reaches the people most invested in your church. If you are not building an email list and communicating with it regularly, start this month — a simple Monday recap email is a great first step.
For more free resources to help you communicate and build your church, visit buildthe.church.
Josh is a ministry leader, communicator, and creative who helps train and coach church planters at the Association of Related Churches (ARC). He has written Believe Again: Finding Faith After Losing Religion and has contributed to many ministry publications, including Relevant Magazine. Stay connected with Josh at buildthe.church and on social media at @JoshRoberie.
