Automated, Personalized Emails for Church Outreach

Have you ever received a marketing email that felt pretty obviously mass-produced? It can fall flat, and the message gets missed. Churches struggle with email outreach because it takes time to craft the right message, personalize it so people are compelled to keep reading, AND be ready to send it at the right time. It’s a lot – and if you’re working with a small staff or volunteers, it can feel like too much to take on. We have a solution that allows you to do more and automate the process. 

It's called Advanced Email Personalization and Automation. Churches that use it are able to queue up emails to be sent at precisely the most meaningful time and personalize them so that folks feel like they’re reading a message from a friend. 

Advanced Email Automation is POWERFUL

Here’s how it works:

• Automated emails can be triggered to send automatically 24/7 365 days a year – without you having to be present at the time of deployment. You write the content in advance and set it up on a calendar to deploy when you need it.
• Automated emails can be dynamically adapted at an individual level: no matter how large your list of interests might be. There are some settings you can use to fill in the correct style of personalization you want, as well as timing that works at an individual level.

When you leverage all the features of email automation, it’s like having an army of marketers working around the clock. We’ll show you some scenarios below that will help you consider the ways automation can work for your church.

Email Automation Scenario 1

A guest visits your church. In the bulletin, you’ve added a QR code to take them to your website where they can fill out a contact form. This form requests their:

• Name
• Email
• Phone
• Address

Additionally, they’re asked if they’re interested in Bible Studies. 

While it doesn’t seem like there is much going on, this simple form is gathering a wealth of information that provides you with ways to automatically follow up with the guest. 

Here are a couple of ways this information can be used.

• If they said they were interested in Bible Studies, but you see that they live out of state: Email automation can automatically follow up and recommend online Bible Studies and send links to recordings of your weekly sermons, music, and more. 
• If they said they were interested in Bible Studies and they live locally: Automated emails can be sent offering in-person Bible Study options and inviting them to request a visit at home.

Building off of this scenario, if the recipients of the above emails don’t open the messages or take any action within five days (your choose the timeframe), a second email can go out automatically. If that second email isn’t opened, either, then a follow up task will be triggered for an individual on the ministry team to try another approach.

Email Automation Scenario 2

Let’s say someone registers for a church event on your website. A month later, they come back to your website and watch a sermon on the topic of end time events. If they are local, an email could automatically go out asking them if they’d like to attend weekly Bible Study on that same topic. Advanced email automation makes this possible – and you don’t have to be there personally watching and waiting for this to occur.

Email Automation Scenario 3

Imagine your church developed a series of seven videos teaching people how to approach studying the Bible. When a new person registers online, you could automatically send them a link to the first video and then each subsequent video for the following days. As new people continue to register, they would automatically receive the videos on the proper day and in the correct order – without you having to add this to your To Do list or set reminders for yourself.

Email Automation Scenario 4

When someone submits a Contact Us form, Prayer Request, or subscribes to your newsletter, you can use as that as an opportunity to build a relationship over time and educate them on who you are and what you believe. 

Here are examples of how we might approach this process:

• Email 1: A heartfelt welcome email from the Pastor and Family (this could even be a link to a special video)
• Email 2: An email with directions to the church, service times, and parking information prior to an upcoming service
• Email 3: Overview on your church’s beliefs
• Email 4: Information about different classes, age groups, activities
• Email 5: Links to upcoming events
• Email 6: A personal invitation to a Bible Study group
• …I think you get the idea.

The most successful churches that we work with have this journey mapped out for an entire year. You put in a little bit of planning at the beginning, set up the automation, and the system manages itself. Guest A’s year-long journey may start in January after attending a new church’s services for Christmas. Guest B’s “year” might start in July after they attended a baptism. Either way, they both get to build this relationship with you at the right time in their journey.

Information to Know About Email Automation

The possibilities for automation are endless. If used correctly, it can multiply your church’s evangelism outreach and allow you to get more done with your budget and the team you have right now. 

Need some data to convince you?

• According to Epsilon, triggered emails have a 70.5% higher open rate and 152% higher click-through-rate than generic email newsletters.
• Businesses see a 451% increase in qualified leads when marketing automation is used. 
• We have personally seen an increase in website traffic for churches by over 500% and overall online engagement by orders of magnitude.
  
  

Our team is passionate about helping churches grow. Our blog talks about ways to build and reinforce your community’s feelings about your church – so be sure to follow along for more tips, tricks, and advice. Subscribe so you don’t miss out!

If email automation is something you’re interested in, but you don’t have the capacity to take this on yourself, we’re happy to work directly with your church. Simply contact us to start the conversation.