Church newsletters have fluctuated over the years, regularly switching between being an essential way to stay up to date with what’s happening in your congregation and something that no one takes the time to read.
Email newsletters are becoming more common, with 95% of Gen Z, Millennials, and Gen X, and “only” 84% of Baby Boomers subscribed to at least one newsletter. However, while the vast majority of Americans receive newsletters, only 55% think that they are an effective form of communication.
Whether your ministry has used a newsletter for years or you’re looking for a better way to engage with your members, your communications can provide value and insight.
Here are four steps (plus a few bonus tips!) to help you create newsletters that your congregants will actually read.
Step #1: Determine Your “Why”
There are multiple reasons why your church could want a newsletter.
- Are you seeking a way to create community and regularly connect with people?
- Do you have a church calendar overflowing with activities and need an effective way to inform congregants about them?
- Is there a special project or event that needs financial support or additional volunteers?
- Do you want to provide regular messages of encouragement from your pastor or give your members additional resources surrounding the week’s message or Scriptures?
- Is there a specific ministry area that wants or needs to keep congregants informed about what’s happening?
- Are there stories of ministry success or Gospel impact that you want to share with your members?
Your newsletter shouldn’t be so stuffed with information that it takes a significant amount of time to read, nor should it be a calendar dump for every single thing happening in your church’s life.
While it’s not bad (depending on your “why”) to include multiple things or even a list of upcoming events, remember that the average attention span for adults is 47 seconds. You have a very narrow window to give your congregants a reason to keep reading.
Determining the purpose behind sending a newsletter will help you provide useful information to your members without bogging them down with extra content or failing to give them what they actually need.
Your “why” will help you make all of your content decisions. While there may be other newsworthy things going on, limit the content of your newsletter to just the things relevant to your “why.”
Suppose you have more than one “why.” Consider sending multiple newsletters. This may seem unnecessary, but giving each newsletter its own purpose will help mitigate information overload or decrease readership because your newsletters lack direction.
Step #2: Decide Your Frequency
Keeping the “why” of your newsletter in mind, decide how often you want to send your newsletter.
If your purpose is to let members know what’s on the calendar or to provide extra readings or messages, weekly newsletters may be the way to go.
Monthly may be the better alternative if you want to keep people in the loop on what’s happening in your ministry and where your church stands on your goals for the year.
Special projects or capital campaigns may not need regular scheduling. These updates may be sporadic, and newsletters will only be needed as they arise.
If you have more than one purpose, you may end up with different frequencies for each newsletter.
Choose the frequency that is most appropriate for the information you want to share and adjust as you go to maximize your readership.
Step #3: Segment Your Mailing List
Segmentation is especially important if you choose to send more than one newsletter. A single newsletter can easily go to your entire congregation without any additional segmenting.
But if you have any newsletters that don’t need to be sent church-wide, those need to be broken down into smaller mailing lists or have additional subscription options.
It may seem very business-like to segment your newsletter mailing list for your church, but part of good communication is only sending people what they actually need.
Creating targeted newsletters aimed at different groups within your congregation will increase your readability because people will be getting content that is relevant to them.
Let’s say you decide to create a dedicated newsletter for your children’s ministry. The congregants who don’t have young children or who aren’t serving in your kids’ ministry don’t need to receive that newsletter.
If you send it to every person in your ministry, most probably won’t open it, and of those who do open it, only the people who find it relevant will actually read it. The more you overwhelm your congregants with messages that aren’t for them, the less likely they will be to read your newsletters that are.
Step #4: Analyze Your Readership
Just as you would with any other ministry effort, you should track your success.
Using an analytics tool like MinistryPlatform will let you see how many people opened your newsletter, track how many clicked on any links you included, and help you manage subscribers.
Knowing the numbers behind your newsletters will help you tweak your content, subject lines, headings, and other elements to make sure your congregation is getting the most out of each message you send.
Just like segmenting your newsletters, tracking the analytics may seem more like a corporate practice than a ministry need. But knowing how your members are engaging with your communications will help you be a better steward of your time and resources in the long run.
You’ll know exactly what information to include and what your congregants respond to, maximizing the effectiveness of your communication efforts.
Bonus Tips:
- Personalize it. Whenever possible, personalize your newsletter emails. Even if they know it’s from you, 47% of people are more likely to open an email if the subject line contains their first name.
- Encourage feedback. Ask your congregants to tell you what they like and offer suggestions for how to improve. Give them opportunities to suggest topics or even contribute to the content creation. This will help you continue to grow while also making your members feel seen and valued in this effort.
- Include a call to action. Giving a next step will keep your readers engaged with your content. This could be a request to register for an event, sign up to volunteer, make a donation, or even an invitation to attend your next service. It can be different each time based on the content in your newsletter, but give your congregants a way to respond to your message.
- Be consistent. Regardless of the frequency you decide on, keep your newsletters consistent. Send them at the same time and on the same day each cycle. Regular messages will improve your open rates because your readers will be on the lookout for them each time.
At the end of the day, the goal of your newsletters is to keep your members informed and involved in the life of your church. Take the time to increase the effectiveness of your newsletters, and you’ll see a more engaged and connected congregation.
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