communications

Email Tip // FROM: is more important than SUBJECT:


whobeforewhat
When you are sending out a mass email from your church or even just an email appeal to a small group think about who the email is coming from because who the email is sent from is more critical than what is said in the subject line when it comes to getting that email opened and responded to.

This is one of those truths that makes intuitive sense but is overlooked when we think about our communications. If my wife sends me an email I will open it right away but if the email comes from some unknown company I’m likely to delete it before I even open it!

We’ve found this to be true at our church. A number of months ago we switched our weekly email newsletter from coming from a generic email address to a specific team member from each campus. Just changing the email to a known person tripled our email open rates! Don’t miss this … changing who the email was from radically altered the chance that people would open it.

Sometimes churches have generic email addresses for various ministries or departments of the church. (kids@ youth@ info@ etc.) Don’t do that! Not only does it seem cold and impersonal but it is going to reduce the chance the people will open and respond to your email.

It turns out that who is more important than what!


3 Comments

  1. Interesting. Was just scratching my head on this the other day. We have about a 30% open rate & it comes from RIDGE CHURCH. We are a med sized church…would you suggest it comes from me? Like From: Bobby at Ridge Church or From: Pastor Bobby?

    1. Exactly … I would send it FROM:Bobbby Williams (Ridge Church) … and then have the actual email that it comes from be your email address. I know that means that people will be able to email you directly back.

      Also … is there a way to position the email with even more “from you” feel … a picture of you at the top, a bit of personal commentary … that will help in the long run.

      Subject lines matter … but that’s a topic for another day! 😉

      Rich

      1. Thanks! We use MailChimp so I’m sure we can do just that. I will try that out w the next email & let you know the results

        On subject lines, we started getting more focused & action or thought provoking on them & saw a slight increase in opens

Leave a Response

Rich Birch
Rich Birch is one of the early multi-site church pioneers in North America. He led the charge in helping The Meeting House in Toronto to become the leading multi-site church in Canada with over 5,000+ people in 18 locations. In addition, he served on the leadership team of Connexus Church in Ontario, a North Point Community Church Strategic Partner. He has also been a part of the lead team at Liquid Church - a 5 location multisite church serving the Manhattan facing suburbs of New Jersey. Liquid is known for it’s innovative approach to outreach and community impact. Rich is passionate about helping churches reach more people, more quickly through excellent execution.His latest book Church Growth Flywheel: 5 Practical Systems to Drive Growth at Your Church is an Amazon bestseller and is design to help your church reach more people in your community.