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<\/p>\nSettle a debate. Is email cool?!<\/p>\n
Everyone else seems to think that email is like the Windows 95 of communication tools.<\/p>\n
They might even have a point!<\/p>\n
Email is the oldest of your communication tools in your toolbox, and it\u2019s definitely the least shiny.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t know if email is cool or not. Because honestly, <\/span>it doesn\u2019t matter.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n Email is effective.\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n Email is a critical part of a good parent and small group leader communication strategy.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Don\u2019t believe me? A marketing and sales organization recently found that <\/span>73% of millennials <\/span>prefer<\/span><\/i> communications from businesses to come via email<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n Plus, it\u2019s one of the most direct ways to communicate digitally. With communication tools like TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook, those companies prioritize what your parents and small group leaders see. You\u2019re playing a game to stand out, or just outright paying for it.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Email is effective, but more than that, <\/span>good emails are effective.<\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n With the explosion of digital content, your communication needs to cut through the noise\u2014not add to it.<\/span><\/p>\n Your best strategy is still to fit email into a holistic communication strategy that includes tools like Facebook, Instagram, Web, and other communication channels.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n But for you, supercharging your emails means that with <\/span>a few simple changes, <\/b>you can be heard, communicate clearly, and send emails that parents and small group leaders in your youth ministry actually love.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n You can create emails that actually get read.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Here are seven things to start doing today. <\/span><\/p>\n <\/b>Said another way: \u201cWho is this email for?\u201d This is what marketers call \u201caudience segmentation,\u201d or grouping people by their values, interests, and needs.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Defining and understanding your audience might be the <\/span>most<\/b> important step in optimizing your communication. Start with the person. Ask yourself: <\/span>Who<\/b> are they, what are their <\/span>needs<\/b>, what do they <\/span>want<\/b> from my ministry, and how could my communication <\/span>build<\/b> trust with them?<\/span><\/p>\n Remember, a lot has changed this year. That might mean something for your emails too.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Today, we\u2019re just talking about two audiences: <\/span>parents<\/b> and <\/span>small group leaders.<\/b> I\u2019m a big fan of separate communication strategies for these two groups. Why? Their needs week-to-week are significantly different.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Here\u2019s what a parent might wonder week-to-week:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n On the other side, here\u2019s a small group leader:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n I\u2019m partial to specific parent emails and specific small group leader emails. And with <\/span>XP3 Youth Ministry Curriculum<\/span><\/a>, you get weekly and monthly pre-built email templates to jump start your email communications.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n I love that in addition to PDF and HTML templates, you\u2019ll get pre-built emails for <\/span>MailChimp<\/span><\/a>, so it\u2019s SUPER easy for you to edit and customize them every week. They are a great starting point to help leaders get ahead and spend more time personalizing for their audience and writing clever intros instead of starting from scratch each week.<\/span><\/p>\n Spoiler alert: We all <\/span>think<\/span><\/i> our emails are valuable. We wouldn\u2019t send it if we didn\u2019t think it was valuable.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Even at the time of writing this, I <\/span>think<\/span><\/i> this blog could be valuable.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n But I actually don\u2019t get to decide if it\u2019s valuable or not. You do.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n And subsequently, I can determine its value based on your feedback. That feedback may be the number of times this blog is viewed, the number of times it\u2019s referenced or linked to, how much buzz it gets on social, and anecdotally what people tell me about it.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Validating your value means using your best judgment to understand what your parents or small group leaders find valuable, and then validating whether that\u2019s true based on real feedback.<\/span><\/p>\n To start, provide generous value in every single email.<\/b> If you don\u2019t have something valuable to provide, don\u2019t say anything at all. Value might look like a helpful resource, a short update, a heads up, a personal note, a gift\u2014whatever!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n But value is both an art and a science. The art is using your best judgment to craft messages and information parents or small group leaders will want to read and find helpful. The science is validating that judgement.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Here\u2019s how to validate if your emails are <\/span>actually<\/b> helpful:<\/span><\/p>\n Sometimes the absence of feedback is also a signal. Don\u2019t expect a parent or small group leader to be able to articulate what\u2019s not hitting the mark with your communication. But as a rule of thumb, if you consistently get no feedback or engagement, you may need to ask more direct questions. Generally, positive feedback is good, bad feedback is bad (duh), and neutral or no feedback is also bad (or at least needs more data).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n That\u2019s where metrics come in. But in order to get helpful metrics, you\u2019ve got to use the right email service.<\/span><\/p>\n A good email service provider (ESP) like MailChimp, ConvertKit, or Constant Contact can do <\/span>three<\/b> big things for your youth ministry emails:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Good design will reduce stress for the reader, will help you prioritize the right things visually, and will help express the values of your church visually. (See, email can be cool!) With an email service provider, you can elevate the design of your emails by using pre-built templates, or put the work in to design your own! The good news is you should only have to design your own once, then re-use and tweak the template for every email you send instead of starting from scratch.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Batch it! Your job isn\u2019t emails. You\u2019ve got way more important things to do. An email service provider can help you batch work and schedule your emails out in one sitting, rather than revisiting them for hours each week. Using the example from XP3\u2014you can schedule out your small group leader emails for an entire series! Revisit them and update them each week before they go out to include any new information or relevant messages, but you won\u2019t have to start from scratch.<\/span><\/p>\n More than scheduling, an email service can help you <\/span>work with a team<\/span><\/i> to create your emails. Appoint a \u201cparent communication\u201d volunteer to start these emails for you, and then you just have to provide guidance and approve them every week!\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n I get it, you do your best work Friday at 3 p.m. But you probably know, emails sent at 3 p.m. on Friday don\u2019t get read. Instead, automate and <\/span>schedule your emails for the times they\u2019re most likely to be read<\/b> (anything but Friday at 3 p.m.).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Here are the two biggest metrics you should pay attention to.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Open rate is the percentage of people who open your emails. It\u2019s maybe the most basic and the easier metric to follow, but it might also be the most misleading. (It\u2019s often much higher than stated.) It\u2019s best used as a <\/span>comparative metric<\/span><\/i>, meaning you can use it to compare email sends week to week or across a period of time. It can give you clues about your subject line, preview text, send times, email list health, and the general value of your week-to-week mailings.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n1. Re-Define Your Audience<\/b><\/h2>\n
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2. Validate Your Value\u00a0<\/b><\/h2>\n
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3. Use an Email Service<\/b><\/b><\/h2>\n
Make your message clear with good design.\u00a0<\/b><\/h3>\n
Work in batches and with a team.<\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n
Schedule for peak times.<\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n
4. Watch Your Metrics<\/b><\/h2>\n
Open Rate\u00a0<\/b><\/h3>\n