Email Communication Updates
April 4, 2023
We want to provide our congregation with the best possible communication, and a large part of that is our email communication. Currently, we have over 1000 people who have subscribed to our “Email Blasts.” These emails provide our congregation with valuable information about what is happening in the church. For some homebound members, it is one of the few ways to stay connected to LaGrave’s day-to-day happenings.
Over the last few months, these email blasts have become longer and longer. As a result, we are starting to see a lower open rate than we have seen in the past. When people have to scroll through too many articles before they find an item of interest, they often stop reading the emails.
There is a possible solution. If we can identify people’s interests, we can start sending only the information they are interested in into their mailbox. Tailoring content can be incredibly powerful because even though we might be sending information about an event (maybe an event you’re in charge of) to fewer people, those people will be the ones who are genuinely interested and most likely to take action.
So, what exactly would we like to do? We would like to tag your contact information in our database with the interests that you have. That way, we will be able to tailor your email to your interests based on those tags. Does this mean you will get hundreds of emails if you show interest in all the categories? No. While you might get some individual emails targeted at different tags, it will mainly keep your Tuesday email blasts shorter and more focused. For example, suppose you are an older LaGrave adult and don’t feel a need to know about LaGrave’s young adult activities, but you do want to know about Primers. When given a choice, you would tag your interest in primers, but you would not tag young adult events. That way, the announcement about the next Primers dinner would appear in your email, but the announcement about the College Age/Young Adult donut and coffee event wouldn’t. Everyone’s Tuesday email blast would look a little different depending on the interests they had identified.
There are many benefits to this way of doing mass emails, including improved personalization and increased engagement. We hope you will help us continue to improve communication at LaGrave.
We want to provide our congregation with the best possible communication, and a large part of that is our email communication. Currently, we have over 1000 people who have subscribed to our “Email Blasts.” These emails provide our congregation with valuable information about what is happening in the church. For some homebound members, it is one of the few ways to stay connected to LaGrave’s day-to-day happenings.
Over the last few months, these email blasts have become longer and longer. As a result, we are starting to see a lower open rate than we have seen in the past. When people have to scroll through too many articles before they find an item of interest, they often stop reading the emails.
There is a possible solution. If we can identify people’s interests, we can start sending only the information they are interested in into their mailbox. Tailoring content can be incredibly powerful because even though we might be sending information about an event (maybe an event you’re in charge of) to fewer people, those people will be the ones who are genuinely interested and most likely to take action.
So, what exactly would we like to do? We would like to tag your contact information in our database with the interests that you have. That way, we will be able to tailor your email to your interests based on those tags. Does this mean you will get hundreds of emails if you show interest in all the categories? No. While you might get some individual emails targeted at different tags, it will mainly keep your Tuesday email blasts shorter and more focused. For example, suppose you are an older LaGrave adult and don’t feel a need to know about LaGrave’s young adult activities, but you do want to know about Primers. When given a choice, you would tag your interest in primers, but you would not tag young adult events. That way, the announcement about the next Primers dinner would appear in your email, but the announcement about the College Age/Young Adult donut and coffee event wouldn’t. Everyone’s Tuesday email blast would look a little different depending on the interests they had identified.
There are many benefits to this way of doing mass emails, including improved personalization and increased engagement. We hope you will help us continue to improve communication at LaGrave.