November 10, 2010

And the Gold Goes to ...

E-mail addresses are gold.

By Olympic award standards, the bronze medal goes to snail mail addresses. Cell phone numbers snag the silver.

But e-mail addresses rise to the top of the podium.

Managing the database for a congregation or a diocese is a huge challenge. It was hard enough when only physical addresses were needed. But communication methods have changed.

Over the last five months, we have made a concerted effort in my diocese to bolster our database with e-mail addresses. When someone registers for an event, we add the e-mail. When administrators send in leadership lists, we add the e-mail address. Sometimes I’ve even copied the email recipients from a bulk send and put them into our list.

One of the most successful methods in gathering e-mail addresses has been a new business partnership with Constant Contact, an online e-mail marketing tool. The diocese established a non-profit business account through which congregations can register.

It’s win-win: the diocese gets a free account as well as receives a portion of the monthly fees generated by new users. We decided to return all of the revenue-sharing portion to congregations. As more congregations signed up, we reached the second tier – so we’re now receiving back 30% of the revenue. In other terms, congregations receive nearly four months a year for free, all while adding another important communication method to their toolbox.

To sweeten the pot – and this is how we have built our e-mail lists, we offered congregations a free year of Constant Contact in exchange for sharing their e-mail addresses. This way we could send parishioners diocesan news and help connect them to the wider church. There's a investment for the diocese of $130-$150 per congregation -- but the return is priceless.

We send everyone an e-mail explaining that the congregation is practicing good stewardship and engaging in new(er) media through the diocesan partnership. And we show them how to unsubscribe to the diocesan news, if they’d like. So far, we’ve had about 30 unsubscribes and one complaint. And that's out of 2,000 new e-mail addresses.

This isn’t a promotion for Constant Contact – we happen to like the company, but there are lots of great e-mail marketing tools out there. It is a push for congregations and dioceses to find creative ways to tap into e-mail address gold.