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Email Tip for Missionaries

Get More Supporters Reading Your Email Updates

What do you want every time you push send on an email to your supporters?…

You want them to read it.
But in a busy, noisy world, that doesn’t always happen. What now?
What do you want every time you push send on that email out to supporters?…

You want supporters who are engaged. You want supporters to know how important they are to your mission and ministry, not just your wallet.

But in a busy, noisy world, how do you cut through the static. Or as one friend puts it, “How do you rise above the threshold of non-ignorability?”

You’re not alone…nobody likes being ignored.

You don't write to your supporters to be ignored. You write to inform.

But…

Like you, your supporters get tons of emails throughout their busy day.

Somewhere, buried in that pile of emails, is one of your support emails. Maybe it’s your update from the field. Or maybe it’s your quarterly newsletter.

The point is, you wrote your email in hopes that supporters read it.

Yet many times they don’t. Your supporters don’t read it, or they only offer a glance.

The good news is…YOU can change that trend. YOU can become less ‘ignorable.’

Believe it or not, there is a simple trick YOU can employ to get your message in front of them more often.

How YOU Can Get More Engaged Supporters Reading Your Emails…

This trick is so simple you are gonna scoff, “No way” when I share it with you.

The crazy thing is, you have already seen me use the trick to engage YOU in this very article. (And you didn’t even notice it.)

Are you ready for the trick so you can start using it?

You sure are!

Did you spot it?

You should have…because you is the key to unlocking engagement (incorrect grammar intended).

You is the key to unlocking more engagement from your email list (incorrect grammar intended).
—Robby Fowler

Here’s How YOU Use This Trick

You don’t have to go as overboard as I have so far in this article, but you can.

(PAUSE: That’s the first use of “I” in the entire article so far!)

As the one on the mission field, doing day-to-day ministry, it’s easy for you to write emails in ‘I’ or ‘we’ language.
  • I shared the gospel with so-and-so
  • We saw the Lord do XYZ
  • I had the amazing opportunity to speak in front of ABC

This is reporting language!

You can certainly report what’s happening in your emails to supporters.

But the better approach is Interpretation, NOT Reporting.

Interpretation happens when you flip the conversation to “you”. When you interpret the story, event, or mission through the lens of your supporter’s involvement.
When you share missionary stories, interpret the story, event, or mission through the lens of your supporter’s involvement.
—Robby Fowler

For example…

Let supporters know…
  • Here’s what you are helping make happen
  • Here’s what we are doing together (your ministry + your supporters in partnership with Jesus)
  • Your support, prayer, volunteering, and involvement is key to making these things happen

How YOU Can Get More Engaged Supporters Reading Your Emails…

As missionaries, it's embarrassingly easy to put the spotlight on “us." (Ironic, huh?) In your communication with supporters, work hard to say “you."

Write your first draft. Then go back and search for first-person pronouns like “I", “we", “our". See if you can change the sentence to “you."

Or perhaps you can add a “you" setup sentence before you talk about your story, event, or important ministry update. Here is what it looks like…

"You generously gave above and beyond to meet this important need last month. Here's what you helped do…"

Make sense?

I told you it wasn't hard.

YOU can do it! YOU can use this trick on your next email and engage more supporters.
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