I work at a church. We send out a weekly ENews including a video devotional to members and prospects who have requested it. We also send out a shorter version of the ENews including the sermon video each week to the same group of people. The pastor who was responsible for this task retired this year and I became responsible for the maintenance and execution of the job with very limited training. When I took over, the open percentage was between 30-40%. It is now over 50%. The contact list was heavily laden with invalid email addresses, inactive accounts and more when I got it. I printed the entire list. Then I printed the list of inactive accounts. I proceeded to check our membership database and updated addresses that had changed. I called some people to ask if they had a new address. I still do not understand fully the difference in delete and unsubscribe. Our church is mostly senior citizens. Some understand how to use their devices. Some do not. Lots of times our people accidentally click unsubscribe. I have a standard letter I send to them recognizing they have clicked unsubscribe by accident. If it was accidental, I try to help them resubscribe. If it was intentional I delete them. The cleanup has been long and arduous. Since we don't have a "product" we are selling, many of your helpful hints do not pertain to us.
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