If you're reading this, you've been there.  In the middle of putting together a stellar email.  The layout was mostly done.  The content was clean and crisp.  Then you get a phone call. Without thinking you look up information in the database or look at a Churchteams registration on your website.  As soon as your done you try to go back to the email and it's gone.

In my last blog I presented the BHAG of redefining engagement. Not just looking at it through a different lens, but seeing it through the power of technology - a Virtual Reality headset.  Online giving has done it for Stewardship.  Web integration & workflow automation can do the same for engagement.

I break engagement into three parts: Outreach, Follow-up and Connection.  I compare them to the business processes of Marketing, Sales and On-boarding.  Today we're talking about Outreach, the Marketing side of engagement.

Several months ago, the XP of a large church in Florida mentioned to me that they no longer think of first time worship attenders as first time guests. They had discovered, even before the Coronavirus Pandemic, that all their first time attenders had watched the service online at least once before attending.  That conversation grabbed my imagination and has been a frequent conversation topic since.  How can we use today's technology to move church engagement from virtual to reality?

Author Note: (September, 2023)  Since this was originally written  in May, 2020 we continued to monitor how churches and people actually use both Texting and Apps. 

We became convinced that it really isn't one or the other.  It's about providing options for people to use based on their preferences. 

In August, 2023 we released our Member App (click here) after much research and deliberation.  It is state of the art and pairs very nicely with Text-to-Church.  The combined power of both of these tools to serve church members has became an important Churchteams distinctive.  

Apps are an important part of product offerings for some Church Management  Systems. They are the primary delivery system for other church related online services like payment processing, content delivery, and communication. 

Think about it.  Whenever you sign up for anything online, you are REQUIRED to provide an email address.  Often it becomes your username.  Email is as important to your Internet identity as your address is to your geographic identity. 

And email is an important part of church communication. The challenge is to effectively target the people with whom you want to communicate.  Our report filters allow you to select people based on group involvement (or not), any member attribute and even giving habits.  

These weeks of churches not being able to physically meet due to Covid 19 are requiring us to review and upgrade our thoughts about communication.  It seems like a perfect time to start a series I've been thinking about on email and email marketing.

NED gives you the power to communicate in a bold, fresh, new way.   He offers those of us who don't know how to code the ability to create incredible emails and email templates.  And we just released him into the Churchteams application.  NED is our Next generation EDitor. If you haven't met him already, let me introduce you

You'll love this!