Email Newsletter Marketing
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Email newsletter marketing continues to be a quick, inexpensive, and efficient method of spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ, news and information, and services or products to one's target audience. Despite the recent emergence and immense popularity of Internet blogging, online newsletters have not passed over into the Internet's archives of outdated methods and systems. In fact, they are the most cost effective and efficient method of reaching large groups of people, such as church congregations. In comparison to their snail mail counterparts, costs are minimal once a database is established. Postage, the largest expense of mailing hardcopy, is eliminated. Time-consuming activities like collating, folding, stuffing envelopes, and trips to the post office are also cut out. The environment benefits as well with the reduction of paper usage and fuel consumption that's required to deliver the same information by snail mail.
Christ is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. And Christians today have the same mission as they did two centuries ago, which is to go out into the world and spread the good news of Jesus Christ. "And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature." (Mark 16:15) But many things have changed, especially the way people receive and process pertinent information. Today's society is much more mobile, fragmented and difficult to reach by traditional communication methods. Time is a valuable commodity and an individual's attention is often pulled in every which way. So even within a single group like a church congregation it can be difficult to grab a small chunk of a person's time. Also, hard-sell, in-your-face evangelism is rarely effective today. People are more critical and don't usually like to be told what they should do or believe. Packaged properly email newsletter marketing is an unobtrusive means to reach church members, people in the community, contributors, and volunteers with useful and needed information.
Obviously, email newsletter marketing campaigns can be geared toward reaching business customers with products or services. Promotions, ads, services, and change in services are all topics that can be included in business newsletters. Church newsletters can be used to announce upcoming events, pastor messages, mission's events, baptisms, births, marriages. The list is endless. Links to audio and video messages as well as color or black and white photographs can be included. If time and resources permit, testimonials can be gathered from the congregation and posted. When developing email newsletter marketing strategies, there are several key points that must be kept in mind: who is the target audience, how often will the newsletter be mailed out, content, and is any of the information time sensitive.
The target audience is perhaps the easiest to decide. How often the newsletter is mailed out will be determined by the availability of resources. Disseminating information by electronic means reduces monetary costs significantly, but human resources will never be completely eliminated. Gathering information, packaging it, and putting it onto the computer can be time consuming. Is there enough manpower to generate a weekly mailing or only enough for a monthly mailing? Many topics that make it into newsletters are time sensitive. Birth, baptism, death, and important anniversary dates should be provided at the earliest possible time. Waiting too long to announce important dates in people's lives can lead to hurt feelings. Event notices are also critically time sensitive. Give plenty of notice so people can plan accordingly.
If an email newsletter marketing database has not been developed, several online services are available to assist with putting one together. Some of the services are free, but others charge a nominal fee. Regardless of cost, choose a service that only facilitates the development of the database and allows a business or church representative to maintain the system. Content is considered by many people to be the most important factor in determining the success or failure of an email newsletter marketing effort. But content is not the only thing that will determine success. Egregious flaws in the layout and writing could eventually turn readers off. If the errors continue, especially after they have been brought to the attention of editors, future editions could get filtered directly into the trash bin and never be opened.
Most people today live busy lives, and they like to receive information in concise well-prepared packages. Email newsletter marketing developers must keep this in mind. Say as much as possible with as few words as possible. Information no matter how important becomes a chore to read if allowed to drag on for too long. Information that nobody reads is useless. So determine what needs to be said and be brief. Then decide on a layout design, which should be clear and visually appealing. Don't make the page too busy. Sensory overload disrupts the flow of the page and causes confusion. Proof read spelling and grammar, and then double check all information, especially names, important dates and times. Proofread one final time once the layout is set and before hitting the send button. Misspelling a name is the quickest way to offend a person. Providing incorrect dates and times for events is a waste of people's time resulting in anger and frustration.
Developers should keep one more very important piece of information in mind when preparing email newsletter marketing strategies. People like to be entertained during their spare time. Communication outlets such as newspapers, books, magazines, television, and even newsletters compete for people's free time. Newspapers that don't entertain line kitty litter boxes, books get closed, magazine subscriptions get canceled, and televisions get turned off. Newsletters have their own form of quick demise. The computer delete button is always within reach. Hitting delete or clicking and dragging a story to the trash bin is easier than suffering through a sleepy story or announcement. Serious, even much needed information, if not presented in an entertaining way, will quickly be discarded. Don't bore the reader.
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