Are you using an email newsletter system? Have you ever considered MailChimp?
They are a unique service and have decided to branch into the ministry, church, and non-profit sector. Check out this downloadable PDF which is a step-by-step guide on how you can get started!
They’ve even got this new program that they’ve been running called the “Forever Free Plan” which is great for ministries and churches that have less than 500 subscribers and send less than 3,000 emails out a month.
Most ministries fall within this range, but even if you don’t, the plans from MailChimp are scalable and pricing is super-reasonable.
A few other things you’ll be able to do:
- Manage Mailing Lists
- Save tons of money
- Track performance
- Design your newsletters
- Social sharing
- RSS-to-Email campaigns
And here are some other resources you might want to check out:
- Signup Form Plugins
- Customizing Signup Form Embed Code
- Wufoo Form Integration
- Formspring Form Integration
- Segmentation Overview
- ChimpFeedr (Combines Multiple RSS Feeds into One)
- Merge Tags Cheat Sheet
- MailChimp Academy Support Videos
- Webinars
- Free Email Marketing Guides and Articles
- Benchmark Reports
- MonkeyWrench Newsletter
What system are you using currently?
We have been using VerticalResponse, they have a higher limit of 10,000 emails free per month for non profits, although I do like MailChimp’s interface better.
http://www.verticalresponse.com/pricing/non-profit/
very cool. checking out vertical response.
We use constant contact. Anyone know how those two match up?
I’m torn on email newsletters. A part of me finds them obnoxious & spammy. I almost want to get rid of ours.
I am with you, I hate that kind of email.
But at the same time…Some people *just* use email, and wouldn’t know otherwise.
mailchimp is the bomb.
Our youth ministry started using MailChimp 1½ years ago, the rest of the church joined in 9 months later. We can’t recommend this service enough to other ministries looking to use e-mail more effectively.
sweet!
I heart MailChimp. They are great. Robust API, google docs integration, and a ton more.
word!
We’re looking into creating our own e-mails rather than paying for a service. To be honest, it’s not a hard task other than it’s limitations since there is no e-mail format standardization like there is with web.
let us know how that goes!
I’m happy to say that since this article was posted Mailchimp has increased their FREE plan to lists up to 2,000 subscribers and 12,000 submissions a month. This is an incredible upgrade and as John mentioned, if 500 would be enough to most ministries with these new limits we can go even further to spread the ‘good news’.