A Congregation with a Heart for Communication

Bethany First Church of the Nazarene in Bethany, Oklahoma, has been inspiring worshippers for 100 years. Its active congregation thrives on an innovative approach to worship and regular, creative communication.

Communications pastor Bob Miller has made it his mission to keep the church's communications fresh and interesting. "I am constantly trying to find ways to reach the young people in our congregation while not alienating the older members," he says.

Challenge: Connecting with Members of All Ages

When Bob first started at Bethany First Church in 2005, he found its member outreach practices lacking. A bi-weekly paper bulletin repeated information already available during services and was ineffective in engaging younger members or tech-savvy individuals who were more likely to check out something new in their email inboxes or read information forwarded from friends.

Bob also wanted to reach outlying members of the community and increase traffic to the website. He knew email marketing was the way to go, but found it difficult to identify a service that fit his needs. "When I started my research, I found that many companies required you to know HTML. That was just too big a learning curve for me and I didn't have the time," he says.

Then Bob learned about Constant Contact. After looking at the website, he thought, "This is so easy. I can do this."

Solution: Taking Member Communication to New Heights

Bob found Constant Contact's templates easy to use and the graphics "much more professional-looking" than the church's old newsletter. Now Bob uses emails to inform members about upcoming events, volunteer opportunities, blog posts, and concert details; he also includes a web calendar, sermon descriptions, and age-specific web information.

This is so easy. I can do this. Constant Contact's reporting features help Bob understand his community's concerns. He can see who opens the newsletter and what "hot buttons" draw the most readers. Other management tools ensure that his newsletter goes out on time, even when he's thousands of miles away. Before a recent church trip to Africa, Bob set up a scheduled distribution for the newsletter so there was no disruption in the schedule.

Bob finds email marketing with Constant Contact particularly beneficial for personal or emergency communications. The church pastor uses a special template to send letters to members, something "that is personal and makes them feel important," Bob says. In another instance, Bob used the service to inform congregants about an ill child in the church community. Through a quick communication to the entire congregation, Bethany First Church was able to link members to the parents' blog and solicit support for the family.

Connecting members through the newsletter has become one of the best, and unexpected, benefits of Constant Contact. "It has helped us provide much-needed support to members during times of need," Bob says.

Results: Spreading the Word through Email Marketing

Since sending its first e-newsletter, Bethany First Church of the Nazarene has witnessed great enthusiasm for its email marketing approach. Every Wednesday, when the e-newsletter comes out, Bob sees a huge spike in website traffic, illustrating that the e-newsletter is engaging readers and drawing them to the site. More than 1,000 members have subscribed to the newsletter, including many younger members.

In addition, email marketing with Constant Contact has saved the church thousands of dollars in domestic and international direct mail costs. In fact, with many members overseas, Bethany First Church could not spread its message worldwide without the help of Constant Contact. "It is an incredible feeling to know that people in another country want to be part of our extended family," Bob says. "Knowing that the work we're doing has a far greater reach through our newsletter than it ever could have otherwise has a positive effect on everyone involved with Bethany."