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Programming

11 Ways That MailChimp Will Make You Elite at Email Communication

Chase Synder
November 10th, 2020

What would you do with an extra few hours each week?

With the increasing demands on students, parents, and church leaders, there is an insane level of “busy” in our midst. But just because ministry is busy doesn’t mean that it has to be rushed.

Instead, it can be both busy and purposeful.

How, you ask? Administrative hacks — simple strategies you can put in place that will help you fit much more into less time.

One amazing hack is utilizing an email marketing system like MailChimp.

You may think you don’t need marketing because you’re leading a ministry. But you probably email your people in the midst of all your ministry tasks.

if there’s a better, faster way to get it done, why not take advantage of it?

There are a lot of options out there for email marketing, so you are free to use whatever system you would like! I have used Constant Contact and MailChimp in several settings and keep coming back to the ease of use with MailChimp.  And it’s free.

The main thing is to find a system that your ministry can leverage for incredible communication.

WHY YOU SHOULD USE AN EMAIL MARKETING SYSTEM 

  • Create Clean Templates – Stop recreating your emails from the ground up each week. Email marketing services enable you to create multiple, clean, easy-to-read templates for use with different teams and groups within your church.
  • Track Open Rates – You will be able to see how many leaders have opened your email and send a reminder text if needed. The days of wondering if someone read your email are over!
  • Easy Signups – With the capabilities to include links, embedded code, documents, and social shares, getting your parents and leaders to join an email list is easier than ever.

7 WAYS TO US MAILCHIMP’S FREE  FEATURES TO MAKE YOU AN EXPERT AT EMAIL COMMUNICATION 

  1. Use Email as Your Bulletin or Newsletter – Paper newsletters and bulletins require extra effort for people to take action — they must call or email or find someone to ask a question or sign up for an event. If the reader is just one click away from being able to take those actions, they are more likely to do so!
  2. Utilize List Groups To Send Targeted Emails – Need to communicate with just your Kids Ministry workers? How about just the Kids Ministry team that does VBS? No problem, just set up your groups and email away with the confidence only the intended recipients are receiving the message.
  3. Event Promotions – Sending a targeted email blast before an event has never been easier, and you’ll know for sure who has opened the message and they are one click away from registering!
  4. Schedule “What Your Student Learned Today” Emails – Schedule a brief synopsis of what the worship material and main teaching points were from your service and give parents some tools to reinforce the main point at home.
  5. Volunteer Training – If scheduling conflicts are keeping you from meeting with your team, you could easily create a series of training-oriented emails to communicate with your teams.
  6. Send Out Service Cancelations or Reminders – Sometimes you need to reach the entire congregation at once. It’s likely you’ll post to your social media accounts, but another measure you can take to ensure cancelations are known  is to email it out to all your people.
  7. Volunteer/Ministry Spotlights – Many times people don’t serve in church because they don’t realize how much of an impact they can have. Providing volunteer and ministry spotlights is a great way to showcase what God is doing in your church with an easy one-click-away call to action.

4 WAYS TO USE MAILCHIMP‘S PAID AUTOMATION TO MAKE YOU AN EXPERT AT EMAIL COMMUNICATION 

All email marketing websites have paid features that will allow automation. That simply means that the instant someone signs up for the email list they will receive an automated email (or series of emails) that you have set up.  Here are a few ways you can utilize automation to encourage your ministry.

  1. 15 Days of Prayer
  2. Parenting Devotional
  3. Training For New Volunteers
  4. Introducing New People To Your Ministry – Instead of having stacks of paper around that apply to each type of visitor, you can allow visitors to opt-in to an email that quickly explains the who, what, when, where, and why of your student ministry.

There are definitely more ways family ministries can use email marketing companies, and I love hearing about them all.

For those of you who do use services like MailChimp, what is your favorite way to use email marketing?

Chase Synder

Chase Synder is the founder of ministrybubble.com and serves as a Family Pastor in Knoxville, Tenn. He seeks to live a life that glorifies God and disciples others through their day-to-day lives, and his passion is equipping those in the church to seek those who are outside of it.

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in the YS Blog are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion or position of YS.

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