How To Connect By Using Mailchimp

Whatever size church you lead, connection has never been easier or more important. The great thing about communicating is you don’t need to monkey around with an easy way to connect. Mailchimp takes care of that for you.

Mailchimp is a free and effective way to share important information with your church family.

Mailchimp is a proven way to get your info to the inboxes of your church family. And avoid your email going into isolation by a spam filter.

I created a Mailchimp account for Bethel in Barrhead on March 20th. That was March 2020. Previously there was no felt need for emails in order to be connected. Bethel had collected a total of 12 email addresses (most of them were staff and Board members.)

Your Next Step In Creating An Avalanche Of Connection

1. Sign up for a FREE Mailchimp account here. Send emails to 2,000 people.

2. Start collecting email addresses. When COVID-19 hit Alberta, we called every person in our church to inform, pray, and ask for email addresses. Now we’ve collected 42. It’s a start.

3. Populate your “audience” with email addresses. Add in your address as well.

4. Create your first “campaign.”

   • There are four main things to do:

     • Add recipients in the To section – your audience.

     • Add from name and from email address in the From section. Use your email.

     • Add subject line in the Subject section – “News From (name of church or your name)”

     • Design your email in the Content section.

5. In the Content section, choose a template to start with. Depending on your plan, you may not have access to all of the template options. The “Share Your Story” is a simple one to populate.

6. Craft your content like you are writing to a person. Speak human. Be pastoral. Let your people “hear” your voice in how you write. Share information on how to connect, meet online, give, and update needs.

7. Ask people to reply to your email to let you know they received it, and if what you shared was clear, and helpful.

8. Send a TEST email to yourself before launching your campaign. Watch for the email in your inbox, check spelling, links, and how the email looks on your smartphone.

9. Ready to go? Hit “Send.” Nice job!

10. Now you can view a report to track your engagement…after 48 hours. Most people do not check their emails daily so give your people some time. Track the number of “opens” and “clicks”.

11. Start your 2nd campaign. Now. Give yourself to make adjustments, populate your content with helpful info.

It’s that easy.

Here’s some content from the first email I created for our church family in Barrhead.

Let us know when you put this procedure into practice. How did it help you? What weeks did you use? Please leave your comment below and help the process. Thank you.

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