Email is not dead. It remains one of the best communication tools available to your church. But for your church emails to be effective, people need to read the emails. And if we want people to read our emails, we need to master the art of writing great subject lines.
In today’s episode, we unpack some of the tips and tricks we have learned to help you write subject lines that will get opened. We’ll cover all the reasons you should be using email for your church communication and all the things you can do to improve your email’s subject lines.
Ready to learn more? Let’s jump into it.
Estimated reading time: 9 minutes
Table of contents
- Writing Church Emails
- Why Email?
- Clear and Concise Content
- Engage and Encourage Interaction
- 8 Tips For Writing Email Subject Lines
- 1. Keep It Short
- 2. Personalize It
- 3. Build Urgency
- 4. Make It About Them
- 5. Don’t Give Away The Content
- 6. Use an Emoji or Two
- 7. Don’t Forget About the First Line
- 8. Analyze and Adjust
- Church Email Subject Lines
- More Resources on Email Marketing
Writing Church Emails
In today’s digital age, emails are a powerful tool for connecting with your church community. Crafting compelling emails can strengthen bonds within your church family and keep members informed and engaged. Here are some simple tips to help you write impactful church emails that resonate with your audience.
Why Email?
Email is a vital tool for churches to communicate with their congregation for several reasons. Firstly, it’s accessible to everyone with an email address, regardless of their location or device. Unlike social media platforms that rely on algorithms, emails land directly in recipients’ inboxes, ensuring they don’t miss important announcements or updates.
Secondly, email clients offer features like scheduling and segmentation. This allows churches to send targeted messages to specific groups within their congregation, such as volunteers or youth members. This ensures that the right information reaches the right people at the right time.
Moreover, email enables churches to maintain consistent communication with their whole church, fostering a sense of unity and community. Whether it’s sharing weekly sermons, upcoming events, or prayer requests, email keeps everyone connected and engaged, even when they can’t physically attend services.
Overall, email is an efficient and effective way for churches to nurture relationships, provide support, and keep their congregation informed and involved.
Clear and Concise Content
Once your church family opens your email, they should immediately understand its purpose and what action, if any, they need to take. Keep your content clear, concise, and relevant. Avoid overwhelming recipients with too much information or lengthy paragraphs.
Use bullet points or numbered lists to break up text and make important information easily digestible. Include relevant links to your church website, online giving platform, or registration forms, making it convenient for recipients to take action.
Highlight upcoming events and include a brief description with date, time, and location details.Provide links to recent sermons or blog posts for those who want to dive deeper into spiritual content.Include a call-to-action button inviting recipients to RSVP for an event, donate, or sign up for a volunteer opportunity.Remember to maintain a friendly and welcoming tone throughout your email. Your church family should feel valued and encouraged by your communication.
Engage and Encourage Interaction
Encourage interaction and feedback from your church community by inviting them to respond to your emails or participate in discussions on social media. Pose questions, share inspiring stories, or ask for prayer requests to foster a sense of belonging and connection.
Include social media buttons or shareable content to make it easy for recipients to spread the word about upcoming events or meaningful messages. Acknowledge and respond to feedback promptly to demonstrate that you value and appreciate the input of your church family.
By following these simple guidelines and regularly evaluating your email performance, you can effectively communicate with your church community, strengthen relationships, and foster a sense of belonging and engagement within your church family.
8 Tips For Writing Email Subject Lines
So it’s clear: your church should write some solid emails. Now it’s time to jump into one of the most important aspects of emails: writing effective subject lines. Writing great emails is all well and good, but if no one opens them anyway, it all goes to waste. The email subject line might very well be the most important aspect of the email. It’s purpose is to pique interest and lead someone to click on the email.
Let’s explore our top 8 tips for writing awesome email subject lines.
1. Keep It Short
Short subject lines perform better than long ones. If your subject lines are long and drawn out, people will assume the body of your email will be even worse.
There is no right number of words for a subject line, but as a general rule, the fewer, the better. Keep in mind that most phones will only allow for about 30 characters in a subject line, so that number is a good rule of thumb.
2. Personalize It
Most email platforms, like Mailchimp or Constant Contact, allow you to use the recipient’s name in the subject line of your email.
This is a great practice. Whenever we can include personalization, we see an uptick in open rates.
...