Recently in the unSeminary Premium private Facebook group, a conversation started about whether email is a predictable driver of attendance at churches. We decided to do a small study on this question last weekend. 81 churches sent emails on Saturday and then measured to see if doing so made any difference in attendance. Below is an infographic that outlines what we learned. Here are a few highlights:
- 57% of the churches that sent emails saw a week-over-week increase in attendance.
- The average attendance increase in those churches was 13%.
- Saturday is typically the “lowest volume” day for incoming emails … but it also has the highest “open rates” as well. Seems like a great opportunity for churches!
- Sending the occasional Saturday email on a well-timed weekend can indeed boost Sunday attendance.
- The increase in attendance amongst all the churches was over 1,000 people … imagine that … over 1,000 more people went to church because (at least in part) they were emailed and asked to attend.
Email marketing continues to be an incredible tool for churches. How are you leveraging this channel to connect more people to your community?
Here are just a few of the emails that churches sent:
- Connexus Church … celebrating the launch of a community-service program
- Calvary Church … a Canadian church speaking about peace in the midst of the Parliament shootings last week
- Liquid Morristown … I love Tom’s passion for his community bubbling through in this email!
- SugarHill Church … fun to see links to the songs they did on Sunday in this email
[Download PDF of infographic.]
Statistical Sources
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Excellent research guys. Helpful stuff.
[…] randomly emailing the entire congregation, take some cues from the email examples at the end of this unSeminary post and outline a plan that you’re happy […]
Wondering if this would also be true for texts? What do you think Rich, another experiment?
[…] For some examples of the kinds of emails those church sent and for the rest of the article you can click here. […]
[…] Do People Need Reminding to Attend Church? – For years I attended a small group in Toronto, Canada that met on the 18th floor of a highrise apartment. Despite the fact I never missed, and despite the fact that seating in the small one-bedroom unit was at a premium for the thirty people who showed up, two nights before I would get a phone call from the small group leader reminding me that small group was approaching. So in my opinion, in a world with email, the concept of churches making contact on Saturday in reference to Sunday morning is a no-brainer. So I’m not surprised that, “57% of the churches that sent emails saw a week-over-week increase in attendance. The average attendance increase in those churches was 13%.” Check out four samples of the emails sent. […]
[…] For some examples of the kinds of emails those church sent and for the rest of the article you can click here. […]
had the churches been sending a different day? We send on Thursdays… would the research suggest that we should switch to Saturdays, or just that an email earlier in the week boosts attendance?
[…] Ours goes out on Saturdays – fewer business emails, higher open rates. (According to this impromptu trial with unseminary, 57% of churches who moved their emails to Saturday saw an increase in […]