How to Trash the Paper Newsletter and Embrace Email marketing
by Mica Olinghouse
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As a missionary’s daughter, I grew up well acquainted with the infamous ministry “newsletter.” In fact, helping my dad compose, edit, and sometimes even stuff our family’s bi-monthly report turned out to be great practice rounds for my future career as a professional editor. However, back in those days before social media and mass emailing systems made their debut, the only tool we had to communicate with our supporters and prayer partners was the clunky tri-fold paper newsletter that took hours to prepare and days to mail.
Thankfully, twenty years of technology have buried the old-fashioned newsletter and streamlined the communication process for everyone. With the click of a button and a few quick keystrokes, the communication lines are open wide for partner-based ministries. While I’m thankful for the opportunity to have cut my teeth on such nostalgic tools of letter writing and correspondence, I’m relieved to hear from loved ones serving on the foreign field in real-time anytime, anywhere.
Hopefully, most of you heading up missions or small ministry offices have moved on from the old paper process, but if you’re still caught up in the cumbersome cycle of print, fold, and stuff, I want to share a few simple tips that will help you transition your communication efforts into the 21st century.
1. set up a free account on MailChimp
There are a lot of great email marketing services available today, but my favorite is MailChimp. It’s intuitive, versatile, attractive, and sharer-friendly. Best of all, it’s free!
To set up your own MailChimp account, simply head over to www.mailchimp.com and sign up. Once you’re in the system, fill out your user profile and complete your first “list” with all your mailing addresses. Next, create a template, drag and drop the content boxes, add a splash of color, and boom! You’re ready to set up your first email campaign and send your latest update to all your sponsors, donors, and partners.
2. keep track of those emails
Another thing I love about MailChimp is its capacity to keep my email addresses organized and stored all in one place. Whenever I do business with a new person or meet up with a prospective client, I simply add their email address into my MailChimp data system. This simple way of filing new contact information eliminates accidental loss of data and potential business.
For non-profits, I suggest continually refreshing your MailChimp mailing list on a regular basis. As you travel, minister, and meet new potential supporters, simply ask for email addresses and then add them to your MailChimp account. If someone doensn’t want to hear from you after your first newsletter or update, they can discreetly “unsubscribe” from your list.
3. add a sign up button on your website and facebook page
What’s wonderful about digital communications is its ease of access and immediate response. By utilizing this power and presenting it in optimal ways on your online profiles, you can provide sign up access to any online visitor. Within a few seconds, your website and social media traffic can be captured and turned into a lead, which may result in a future partner or donor.
To maximize your mailing list capacities, simply integrate MailChimp with your current website and add a sign up section on either your home or contact page. To increase subscribers from Facebook, change the call to action on your page to a sign up button, and then link to the url from your list’s sign up form. These quick steps will make it easy for casual visitors to stay connected with you even if they never return to your website or facebook page again.
4. MAXIMIZE AND UTILIZE CAMPAIGNS
Anytime a mass email is scheduled and sent to a group of subscribers, MailChimp calls this a “campaign.” These bursts of correspondence are ingenious inventions—not only do they enable the user to send out a nicely formatted newsletter to a large number of people simultaneously, but they also provide wonderful, beautiful data—something the old paper process just can’t do.
MailChimp automatically generates a report on every campaign sent, which includes valuable analysis tools and insights such as an overview of the people who opened the email, how many times they opened it, what links they clicked on, where they opened it from, and if they forwarded it to someone else. Observing the continuous flow of data on campaign day is as exciting as watching a favorite team play on SuperBowl Sunday. (Well, it is for me anyway. I’m nerdy like that.)
While many of you have already made the break into the new digital age, if you’re still managing your newsletter the old-fashioned way, I recommend investigating this new exciting option. The increased frequency, ease, and access of communication combined with an expanded reach and automatic feedback makes going digital well worth your time and effort. So next time your home office plans to spend hours a month preparing a paper newsletter--on top of absorbing costs of printing and postage--think about upgrading your communication system. Go ahead and trash that paper newsletter and embrace email marketing! Your spouse, kids, and support staff will thank you for it.
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