A Church Email Should Not Be A Sermon… The Close – Part 3

This is part 3 of my critique a church email I received from a well-known Christian online community that is for readers to discover great content and engage with their favorite Christian authors.  Click to read part 1.  Click to read part 2.

 Email below the fold

Finally, we get to a call-to-action, “Watch the Video” in the church email.  However, I’m still not certain what this is about or where it is leading me. What do they want me to gain by watching the video?  Is the story further clarified in the video?

Hold up but, there’s more.  Maybe this church email is not about the video.  Is it about the blog or the book the excerpt is from?  The entire story is an excerpt from a book.  The call-to-action appears to be about pre-ordering the book.  It would have been good to know that up front.

The end could and should have been the beginning.  Wouldn’t it have been more effective to use the existing subject line, the image, and call-to-action below?  The sender could have placed a form with a link to the excerpt.  With the form, they could have gathered additional information about the reader and taken them out of the email environment to the landing page where they would have their undivided attention.

Church email can continue to be a key component of your online ministry’s growth.  It’s important to think of each email as part of a larger conversation.  The order and content for every should be designed to build a case that will resonate with the reader.

What do you think?   What opportunities do you see for better online ministry?  If you haven’t already done so please click in the space for Sharing Your Expertise and select “Notify me of new posts via email”.