You might be involved in sending out a church email newsletter. And, by the way, if you’re not, you may want to think about it. If you are, we would like to share some tips regarding your newsletter. This post has to do with how often you should send out your newsletter.
Although you may want a simple one-word answer to the question, the real answer actually depends on various factors. How much time do you have? What kind of information do you include in your newsletter? How big is your church? Here are some things to keep in mind as you ponder the issue:
Not Too Often
- Email is all too often abused. We call it spam. People don’t like to receive things that take up their time, yet apparently don’t deserve their time. Don’t allow the church newsletter to be guilty of that perception. And, yes, an every day newsletter is too often.
- Do you have time to send out a newsletter every day, week, month? Consider your own time constraints, because putting together a newsletter does take considerable time–or the time of other church administrators. Consider the importance of a newsletter compared to the importance of other church ministries, and prioritize accordingly.
But Just Often Enough
- The point of a newsletter is, among other things, to keep church in people’s
minds. If you go dark for months on end, you will not achieve this important quality. - The church has a message. There are many compelling reasons to send out a newsletter. Neglecting a newsletter is neglecting the opportunity give your people spiritual encouragement, prayer requests, relevant church news, important updates, and deeper integration within the life of the church.
The Simple Answer
- A monthly newsletter is a good frequency for many ministries. This provides the “often, but not too-often” approach, and gives contributors the time to work on developing content for the new newsletter edition.
- A seasonal newsletter (four times annually) is another suggestion. By having more time to work on the newsletter, you can provide more material or make the newsletter longer.
Some Suggestions
- In addition to sending out a church newsletter, your church may also want to consider sending out occasional important updates via email. This does not need to be a newsletter, but rather a way of maintaining email contact between newsletters, and providing only that information that is necessary for people to know immediately.
- Keep it interesting. A boring church newsletter is one that lacks pictures. Use Sharefaith’s vast library of images and graphics to make your church newsletter readable.
- As we have discussed in recent posts, Constant Contact is a helpful way to manage your entire church email effort. With intuitive tracking tools, professional templates, and other helpful features, it is the perfect way to sustain every aspect of the church’s email needs.