As a Councillor, Clerk to the Council or Chair, you already know how important it is to engage the active involvement of parishioners...
 
“The role of the parish council is becoming increasingly important. The decisions taken by councillors vitally affect the quality of life within their area and the role of this local council is of critical concern to the community it represents. Such concern demands effective two-way communication.”
 
How will it be when you can:

• Promote just how good and improving your community is – and how well it is led and represented.
• Seek the views of parishioners; take account of their questions and concerns – and encourage a positive, inclusive two-way dialogue.
• Promote the good range of activities and local amenities that people find interesting and enjoyable.
• Make parishioners aware of new initiatives, support services and web-based information.
• Engage the active participation of more parishioners - more often.

eNewsletters4 can help you do all of this – and more.
 
Ours is a genuine service - not a complex computer program which you have to master. You need no special computer skills; you won’t have to manage the mailing list or arrange for publication; there’s no software to buy and you don't even need a website.
 
One client - the NGCAA - said this to us in June 2005:

“Many thanks for publishing the latest issue of our email newsletter. It is excellently produced and I am very impressed with the results – not least because you do everything except write the words for us!  The quality is marvellous - highly professional - and my committee should be well pleased. This takes our communication…to a new level and represents excellent value for money.”

You’ll find the three most frequently asked questions below but we don’t believe in running such a personalised service by remote control so…
 
Please call us for an informal chat on 01509 670612 or email us and we’ll get back to you! 

You'll want to know:

• Why an email Newsletter?
• How much work is involved?
• How much will it cost? 

 

Why an email Newsletter?
 
‘Traditional’ methods for communicating with parishioners have largely failed:

• Printing and postage is expensive and noticeboards are visited infrequently.
• Phone calls and ‘face to face’ meetings are time consuming and usually restricted to ‘negative issues’.
• Parish websites can be difficult to keep up to date and are rarely visited.
• The varied lifestyle of many parishioners makes attendance at meetings and events very difficult.
   

The same parishioners who are too busy to read notices, attend meetings or visit your website will check their email inbox every day! If there’s a Parish Newsletter which is personally addressed to them in there, they’ll almost certainly read it – and they’ll be in just the right frame of mind to follow any links to supporting websites; respond positively to you by email or complete an online questionnaire!
 
Over 80% of people who go online in the first place, do so for email – not ‘web-surfing’ – and, for many, it’s the preferred method of communication!

How much work is involved in producing our Parish’s email Newsletter?
 
A lot! These are the main tasks and we’ve highlighted what you need to do in red - we do the rest!.. 
 
Design your Newsletter template. Format your ‘copy’ into your Newsletter template then publish and deliver it to those on your mailing list on the specified date. Automatically deliver the best format to each recipient’s mailbox. Monitor delivery and open rates. For each issue, email us with what you want to say. Check on ‘bounces’ and ‘click-through’s’. Manage the registration process. Confirm registration with each individual subscriber. Input subscriber data onto your mailing list. Check for duplicate and erroneous addresses. Action additions, removals and amendments to your subscribers’ profiles. Capture requests for forwarding your Newsletter. Deliver forwarded Newsletters, together with sender’s personal message, to intended recipient(s). Input images, logo’s, messages and link addresses. Ensure adherence to Privacy Policy and DPA guidelines. Promote ‘white-list’ status with ISP’s and action ‘black-listing’ where appropriate. Action ‘one-click’ unsubscribe feature and ensure permanent removal on request. Review new measures for reducing unsolicited mail. Design and deliver on-line surveys for you (chargeable). Meet all software licensing costs and agreements. 

How much will it cost?
 
We know how important it is to get ‘value for money’ for your Parish. By now, we hope the benefits of your community’s email Newsletter are self evident but what of the costs – and who can you get to pay?
 
Let us know how often you wish to publish – we publish to your schedule, not ours – and roughly to how many people. We’ll get back to you with firm costings. Just as an example, a Parish which publishes monthly to 1,000 parishioners can expect the cost to be about half the price of a second class stamp per subscriber mailing!
 
Many Parishes will choose to attract sponsors for their email Newsletter – perhaps from local companies or generous community benefactors! The latest figures show UK shoppers spent over £1.5 billion online during May 2005, 35.6% (£408 million) more than a year earlier. In stark contrast, total retail sales growth was at its slowest rate since 1947, according to the latest government statistics, with a year-on-year increase of just 0.9%.
 
This means local companies will be keen to promote themselves online to ‘your’ community and we’ve made provision within our Newsletter template for this to be done subtly yet effectively. We’ll happily provide you with a draft letter together with some facts and figures to support your requests to sponsors for funding.