20 Quick Tips to Grow Your Church Email List

Ministry leaders are increasingly seeing the benefits of effective church email marketing and other digital outreach. This has sent many on a quest to find or create great content that will appeal to their congregants. Unfortunately, a subpar email list is an often overlooked problem that could easily negate otherwise effective efforts. 

If your church’s email list is too small, the response you receive from parishioners will be minimal. This can be devastating in a new world where many are choosing to worship from home. Your ability to raise revenue for your ministry will be impaired, and in the end, this means you can’t do the work you’ve been called for. 

1. Host Virtual Services 

Thanks to the spread of COVID-19, virtual church services are now the norm. Even if things go back to the way they were, though, these online services can still prove invaluable to your church email marketing. You can ask followers on social media to send in their emails to receive your virtual church streaming link, and it’s even possible to have folks sign up right on the page. 

2. Include Calls to Action in Blogs

Blogging is quickly becoming an essential aspect of an effective church website. It will increase your search ranking – which in turn makes it easier for people to find you. When you’re done crafting each blog, make sure to include a call to action (CTA) asking readers to sign up for your email list. 

3. Utilize a Prominent Call to Action 

People may find a large banner ad asking for their email address tiresome if it’s on every page of your website. If you just include one on your homepage, though, it’s not quite as disruptive. Positioning a prominent header with a call to action here is a great way to ask for sign ups. Having trouble coming up with a CTA that appeals to your members? Contact DonorWerx today and we can help you improve your donor communication. 

4. Create Evergreen Blogs for Church Marketing 

There are various reasons church leaders should blog – even outside the realm of improved church email marketing. Regardless of what brings you to this point, though, try your best to focus on evergreen content. These are blogs that aren’t time-sensitive, so users will still be able to use the page years from now. Of course, this only grows your church email list if you’ve added CTAs to all blogs. 

5. Include a Signup Button in Emails

Why would people on your email list need a signup button for your email list? They won’t, but the friends they forward your messages to might. Encourage forwards in every email you send, and the signup button could snag a drove of new followers and become an effective form of church email marketing. 

6. Paper Sign-up Sheets: Old School Church Email Lists

COVID-19 won’t stop in-person worship forever, and when the time comes to fill the church back up, a regular old-fashioned signup sheet can do the trick. Have the sheet near the exit, and make sure to mention during the service why everyone should sign up. Even old-school methods are great for church email marketing!

7. Include Opt-In on Donation Pages 

Did you know that 98 percent of church revenue comes from donations? This is why every house of God should have a donation page on their website. When people arrive to this page, they’re already in the mood to give. Take advantage of this by allowing them to opt-in to your email list while they’re at it. 

8. Get Email Addresses During Event Signup

Church leaders typically have a stack of event signup sheets in their desks. Take a look at them and see if there’s a space for an email address. If not, it might be time to toss them out and build a new form. 

9. Have Opt-In Forms for Church Email List on All Webpages

Folks who end up on your website won’t typically view every page. Some may want to make a quick donation while others simply need your ministry’s address. This is why you should have an opt-in section on every page of your website as an essential aspect of your church email marketing. 

10. Add Calls to Action in Email Signatures

Not everyone who receives an email from you or other ministry leaders is signed up for your church email list. This is why you should add a call to action and clickable text in your email signature. You never know who might be interested in staying up to date with the congregation!

11. Create Gated Content

Everyone has clicked on a page to get a white paper or eBook and been hit with a “Sign up to receive this for free!” message. This is called gated content, and it’s one of the foundations of successful church email marketing. The majority of your content shouldn’t be gated, but it’s appropriate for in-depth pieces. 

12. Use Donor Avatars to Target the Right People

Creating avatars is essential for mapping user experience, and you can use these avatars to target people in your church marketing. If a portion of your congregation is under 30 and cares about social issues, for instance, use a Facebook ad promoting your homeless ministry that targets followers under the age of 30. This ad should have a call to action to sign up for more information. 

If you need help with donor avatars and empathy mapping, contact us at DonorWerx today or sign up to receive our donor resources. 

13. Add a Signup Button to Facebook

Facebook has over 2.6 billion users, and while they’re not all following you, you can still use your church’s page to get lots of email addresses for free. Simply click “Add a Button” followed by “Contact You” and “Sign Up.” You can then add the web address of your email opt-in page. 

14. Host a Giveaway to Boost Church Email Marketing

Whether it’s on social media, your website, on campus or all of the above, hosting a giveaway is one of the best ways to improve your church email marketing. Simply require people to submit their email addresses to sign up. Everyone loves something for free!

15. Make Your Anti-Spam Policy Obvious

One of the biggest reasons people don’t sign up for email lists is the fear of spam. Make sure your anti-spam policy (e.g. “We won’t sell your information…”) is prominent at every point a congregant might opt-in for your emails. 

16. Let People Join Your Church Email List via Text

If you’ve ever heard a radio station ask listeners to text a word to a short numerical code, you’ve encountered something similar to a text-to-join service. This church email marketing technique allows you to garner new signups by simply asking congregants to send a text. This is a great next move if you’re already using text-to-donate tools. 

17. Run an Ad on Facebook

Targeted ads on Facebook can appeal to individual congregants through information obtained from their donor avatars. In many cases, though, you simply want to reach out to everyone. Fortunately, Facebook allows you to “boost” certain posts to the general public. You can do this to increase engagement among your local community or just with your followers. 

18. Ask for Feedback Via Online Surveys

If you’re not using church surveys to gather information, you’re doing your ministry a disservice. This prevents you from receiving information that helps you improve, but it also hinders your church email marketing. You can also ask surveyed individuals to enter their email address for more information, so make the effort!

19. Use Exit Popups

Rather than using invasive popups that can interfere with the user experience, add an exit popup to your site requesting an email address. These popups will only appear when someone is about to exit your page, so it won’t disrupt what they’re doing onsite. 

20. Give Congregants a Reason to Sign Up

The most important aspect of any church email marketing strategy is giving people a reason to sign up. People are frustrated with irrelevant content, so make sure they know they’re gaining value by signing up. Tell them exactly why they should give you their email addresses. 

Never Overlook Church Email Marketing

In a perfect world, folks would simply show up to church and give to the ministry because God has called them to do so. Unfortunately, this isn’t a perfect world. Raising revenue has become a serious issue, but with effective church email marketing, you can turn this around.

Regardless of the strategies you utilize when reaching out to your parishioners in this way, your success will completely rest upon whether you have a stellar email list. Every day your list is growing, your potential for getting positive responses increases as well. 

Contact us today at DonorWerx, and we’ll help you identify ways to quickly increase revenue and improve your outreach.