Create a church newsletter your members will love to read

By Shunte Gamble
Entrepreneur, speaker, writer

The time has come for your church to send out a fresh newsletter to share all of your latest updates with your congregation. What do you want to tell them about your church? How much should you say? How urgent is your message? 

Newsletter campaigns are great conversation tools that provide new, recurring, or updated information to all or segmented portions of your email list. Advancements in email campaign tool features have made this process easier and more efficient than ever. 

Great newsletters achieve all of the following:

• Hooks people with the subject line
• Reflects the ministry’s brand and message
• Shares useful content about the church and its activities
• Leverages the footer to provide additional information
• Measures performance to learn what’s working (and what’s not).

Keep on reading because we have a newsletter to create!

Hook people with your subject line

Your newsletter subject line is the first step in achieving engagement from your congregation and subscribers. Make this moment count by grabbing their attention with a clear subject line. This step will determine whether your email is opened or overlooked. 

So what makes people want to open an email? Subscribers will open emails whose subject line relates to or can benefit their lives. Also, your subject lines should always reflect the overall tone of your newsletter and the personality of your ministry. 

10 Approaches to strong church email newsletter subject lines with examples:

1) Informational

• Busy Schedule? This Might Help.
• Strategies for Less Stress

2) Personalized

• How do you feel on the inside?
• Your miracles are in motion!

3) Catchy

• 2 words that will change your life today!
• All it takes is 10 seconds.

4) Questions

• Who do you turn to when things get heavy?
• Do you know how valuable you are?

5) How-To

• How to embrace whatever Christmas brings…
• Learning to Stop, Pray, Release

6) Reassuring

• You are Enough
• God Has Confidence in You

7) First Looks

• A Peek Behind the Screen
• Brand-new from Joel – get a first copy!

8) Offers- Best for promoting discounts and sales.

• You got a gift.
• Bulk 50% Discount on new stock of 90-Day Devotional Planners and Journals

9) Call-to-Action (CTA)

• Join Pastor Steven & Elevation Worship on Tour in 2020
• Watch Now: An invitation from Joel & Victoria

10) Reminders

• Do you need a minder of God’s love?
• Remember, you are never alone.

Design your email to reflect your ministry

Now that your subscribers are curious, you’ve got to keep their attention. And you’ve got to present your information in a way that is both attractive and easy to read. Achieve this with a newsletter design that is clean, clear, and direct. 

One option is to use an integrated design and email marketing platform like PosterMyWall. PosterMyWall offers two options: You can start with a blank slate and design your own or make it simple by choosing from PosterMyWall’s library of professionally designed, customizable email templates. 

I recommend using templates to save time.
What if you don’t want your email to look like it was a template? Great question. Make it your own by customizing it to reflect the branding of your ministry.

Once you’ve customized your email design, you can save it and use it as a template for your subsequent campaigns.

Need help choosing a template? Here’s an excellent choice. And this template is a perfect example of the length for informational or descriptive sentences and call-to-action placements.

You don’t even have to start with a church-themed template. Just select any template you like and change the logo, fonts and colors to make it your own.

Here are a few other templates from other categories that are ready to be customized for your ministry.

• New Year Event
• Valentines Workshops/Couples Event
• Easter Celebration
• Charity event calendar
• Thanksgiving celebration event
• Christmas church event

What is HTML responsive email and why should I use it?

Another benefit of using a professional email marketing app like PosterMyWall is that all of the templates are HTML responsive.

What is HTML responsive? Responsive email templates are coded to display content seamlessly across different devices–which essentially means that they are mobile-friendly. The content automatically adjusts to look good whether it’s being viewed on a desktop, tablet or mobile device. 

Why do you want this? Not only will your content appear properly on every type of device, but unsubscribe and spam rates will decrease and audience interaction will increase. 

Some statistics:

• In 2022, there were 4.26 billion global email users. (Statista) 
• 46% of all email opens now occur on mobile. (HubSpot)

Let’s go deeper into the advantages of responsive email.

1.Responsive design content appears properly.

This graphic illustrates how responsive content automatically adjusts when viewed on a mobile phone.

In PosterMyWall, the device icons at the top of your editing page show how your email will look when opened on each type of device.

2. Decrease in unsubscribe and spam rates.

The last thing you want is unsubscribes or your email ending up in the spam folder never to be seen again. Having your emails look good regardless of their device keeps your readers happy and connected. As a result, subscribers are more likely not to mark you as spam or unsubscribe.

Attaching a PDF newsletter to an email often results in a message that is too large of file size to be delivered by many email service providers.

3. Increase in audience interaction.

When your email looks and works well, your subscribers can fully engage. They can access it on the go, are more prone to read to the end, and are more motivated to respond to your CTAs.

When newsletters arrive as PDF or JPG attachments, people are less likely to click to open them.

Share useful content about your church and activities

People want content that is useful to them and helps improve their lives. Give that to them and your newsletter will be a hit!

That said, short and clear is the way to go with your newsletter. Yes! You can overshare in an email by making it too long. When your newsletters are too long, you increase the risk that people will move on before reading to the end. And just forget about anyone clicking on your call-to-action. 

When your email is brief and to the point, you have the opposite effect. People will scroll through all of it. 

To keep it short and sweet, swap out long descriptions for a flyer or graphic design with a teaser sentence or one-liner. Then, add a clear call-to-action such as “Learn more” or “Buy now.” 

In essence, create your newsletter according to the response you want from your subscribers. A great rule of thumb is 200 words or 20 lines or less.

This graphic illustrates the ideal newsletter item: 

1. Simple but bold graphic with minimal copy. (Hint: create these using PosterMyWall’s design templates. You can import them into your email design–or even edit them–with just a few clicks.)
2. Brief description of the most important information.
3. A clear call to action.

If you’re wondering what to do for the handful of congregation members who will want all of the info–here’s a tip: Create a landing page or Google Doc with all of that information. Then insert or embed a hyperlink from your newsletter to the additional information. That way your newsletter remains uncluttered but your readers can access as much information as they want. 

Content types to include in your newsletter

Although an individual newsletter should contain no more than 5 items, there are numerous types of information you can include. Remember that the newsletter should promote the information and provide a link to additional information. For instance, if you interview one of your prayer team members, the newsletter should include one key quote and enough information to hook people–with a link to the full article.

Newsletter content ideas:

• Service times and locations
• Interviews with members, pastors, or staff members
• Event announcements
• Product Promotions
• Links to inspirational videos
• Links to recordings of live streams or special events (In case you missed it)
• Links to photo albums of recent activities or events
• Calls for volunteers
• Thank you to members who have provided service
• Quotes from scripture
• Polls
• Testimonials

Recommended information to include to support items in your newsletter

General newsletter with several content pieces

• Headline
• Image
• Body
• Call-to-Action (CTA)

Event-focused newsletter

• Event Title
• Flyer or Image
• Purpose of the event
• Date and time
• Location 
• Special highlights 
• Cost
• Call-to-Action (CTA)
• Optional: You can add a link to the landing page for frequently asked questions.
• Alternative: You can create a flyer with all the needed information and add a CTA button underneath

Here are three excellent newsletter examples from my inbox and insights into what you can learn from each approach.

1.God Hears Her “You Are Enough”

The first thing readers see is the use of consistent branding specific to this ministry’s podcast. 

The newsletter takes a creative approach by creating an illustrated portrait of their podcast guests. 

As readers continue, the content contains a great balance of questions and reassurance. 

When a question is asked, enough information is provided to solidify the question and motivate the reader to click to find the answer. 

2. PursueGod “Journal and Devotional 90-Day Planners are in Stock at a 50% discount!”

This email uses a variety of strategies to motivate readers to learn more or purchase merchandise.

I love the twist of including a play button that leads to more information about the featured product.

Testimonials add credibility and increase the perceived value of the products.The description of the featured product is very brief.
Secondary products are displayed visually–but without descriptions. The photos and product names link to more information. 
The CTAs are concise and clear “Shop now” and “Discover More”

3. Steven Furtick “1MM: When you need a word..”

Steven Furtick, pastor of Elevation Church, opens many of his newsletters with an inspirational video. The subject line(1MM: When you need a word…) and headline (1:Minute Motivation) communicate that the newsletter content will start their morning with a positive message.

The play button is a link that takes subscribers to the video. (You can’t add an entire video to a newsletter without exceeding the file size limitations.)

Readers are provided with a highly visual scripture that correlates with and reinforces the video message as they continue. 

At the end, there is a keepsake of downloadable wallpaper for subscriber’s phones. The wallpapers appear next to one another when viewed on a desktop device and stacked on a mobile. This is a perfect example of why creating responsive emails is important.

Leverage your footer to provide additional information

The footer of your email is a great space to share additional content. Think of this as the area near the cash register at a physical store. Retailers know one of those last few featured items is likely to end up in your basket. Likewise, these last pieces of information can also garner additional clicks. 

Make sure your footer includes:

• Relevant links such as to your website, email address, and social media pages.
• Your logo
• Subscriber controls include an unsubscribe button. (This is required by law)
• A short statement about who you are or your mission
• Policy reminders 
• Street address of your church
• An invitation to forward the newsletter to a friend
• A link to subscribe if the newsletter was forwarded to you

Measure to learn what’s working for you (and what’s not)

If you give members what they want, they will come

Simple, clear, and useful. Deliver these three things to your subscribers to keep them clicking. It’s easier said than done but the examples above can help you get there.

Shunte Gable is the CEO of Houston-based Mixed Talk Media. She is an award-winning entrepreneur, author, speaker, and radio personality. For over a decade, she has equipped leaders with the tools to achieve new levels in their professional careers, break barriers blocking their personal goals, and create action plans that promote continued growth.