Skip to content
Blog » Three Ways to Automate Your Email Marketing this Holiday Season

Three Ways to Automate Your Email Marketing this Holiday Season

woman typing on computer

The holidays are a busy time for you, and your congregation.

With so much going on, you may be wondering how you’ll stand out from the news and keep your community up-to-date. For a majority of organizations, email is the most effective tool for reaching donors, supporters, and volunteers during the busy holiday months.

Constant Contact customers sent more than 360 million emails on #GivingTuesday 2021. Almost 20 percent of those emails came from nonprofit organizations.

As a religious organization, email will be a valuable tool for staying connected with your congregation.

Best of all, you can automate these emails using a tool like Constant Contact’s Autoresponder feature.
Using the Autoresponder tool, you can set up a series of emails to automatically send to subscribers when they are added to an email list. Best of all, once set up, an autoresponder series works on autopilot so you can focus on other areas of your ministry.

Think automation can fit into your holiday plans? Here are three ideas to help you get started:

1) Welcome New Members

Hopefully you’re collecting contact information when you welcome someone new to your congregation. When someone subscribes to your mailing list, you want to welcome them by first thanking them for subscribing and then providing them with helpful information.
Make a good first impression by sending them a welcome email immediately after they subscribe to your mailing list. Include links to helpful resources and additional information about how they can get involved.
Also be sure to include any relevant contact information so that they can get in touch when they need you.

2) Engage Your Different Audiences

You have a diverse congregation and likely speak to a number of different audiences. You may have some people who routinely volunteer and get involved in the different activities you have planned each month. You may have other people who donate or contribute to your work in different ways.
Autoresponder lets you engage with all of these different audiences with helpful and informative content. For example, you may want to setup an email series for volunteers letting them know about the different holiday activities you have planned. Or, you may want to use the month of December to prepare people for the New Year, and set up a series of messages to let people know what you have planned for 2022.
The key here is to offer something valuable and memorable during the holiday season to keep your organization fresh in their minds during the holidays and into the New Year.

3) Send Thanks To Your Community

The holidays are the perfect time to say ‘thank you’ to your community and let all of your different audiences know how much you appreciate them. Create a series of emails to show your appreciation during the holidays and into the New Year.
This could include a letter from your organization, an update on all the work that you’ve got done in 2021, and maybe even a fun and interactive thank you message, maybe even a video thanks.
You could also use this email series to share photos from throughout the year and recap all of the great moments from 2021.
Create Your First Autoresponder Series Today.
There you have it — three ways to use autoresponder emails this holiday season to close out 2021 on a high note.
Need additional help with setting up your first autoresponder series? Use these Constant Contact resources to help you get started:

 
This guest blog was provided by Miranda Paquet of Constant Contact. Amanda believes in the really big impact of really small businesses and is am constantly inspired by Constant Contact’s amazing customers and can’t get enough of their success stories! You can find her on Twitter @mirandapaquet.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *