1. Strategy for Email Messages
Summerlee Walter
Communications Coordinator
Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina

2. What types of emails do you like to receive?

3. What do we send? Weekly e-news Messages from the clergy
Event-specific s
Weekly lectionary
Monthly newsletters
Reminders to servers
Prayer lists
Concert/public events
Fundraising
Children/youth updates
Seasonal offerings
Notices to deans, vestry, committees

4. Email trends for 2019 Increased personalization Quality over quantity
Increased mobile traffic
FUN!

5. Know Your Audience Who is reading the emails?
Who is not reading the s, and why?
How many audiences do you really have?
How many s do they want to receive, and how often?

6. List Segmentation
Send the right people the content they need when they need it.

7. List Segmentation Weekly e-news Weekly lectionary
Acolytes, lectors and servers
Children’s and youth ministry
Vestry
Prayer list
Emergency/inclement weather
Seasonal offerings
Preschool/day school
Spanish-language
Capital campaign/annual campaign
Concert series, community events, etc.

8. List Management Who manages the lists? Who emails the list?
How do you handle teams of people with access?
Where are the lists managed?
marketing software
Database
Customer relationship management (CRM) software

9. User Experience Use a responsive template
> 2/3 of s are opened on phones/tablets
Pdfs are very difficult to read on a phone
MailChimp free: 2,000 subscribers + 12,000 s per month
Avoid clustering links in copy

10. User Experience Link to videos instead of embedding
Clean, well-organized design
Regular sections with headers
Delineate sections with color, graphic elements
For e-news:
Establish submission guidelines to reduce clutter
Include short text with links to website

11. GDPR General Data Protection Regulation
Sets strict standards for collecting and using personal data
Currently applies only to citizens of the EU, but California is expected to implement even stricter standards this year.
Opt-in only

12. Audience Engagement Industry average open rate: 25.33%*
Industry average click-through rate: 2.92%*
*Source: MailChimp, March benchmarks/

13. How do I get more opens? Caveat: Opens are not the ultimate goal
Provide content relevant to your audience
Send on a regular schedule
How often should you your list?
Make your the go-to source of information
Design a pleasant, easy-to-navigate user experience

14. Engaging Subject Lines
Include the publication name
Be descriptive – All writing needs a hook
Shorter is better, esp. for mobile readers
Most apps display characters*
Don’t forget about preheader text!
Emojis
Test your subject lines (even if you can’t A/B test)
*Source: Campaign Monitor, May 7,

15. Questions?