Transforming church communications with eCatholic Connect

January 30, 2024 by

 Katie Clark

A new era in communication for Catholic organizations has arrived.

Communication is more than just sending mass emails about updates to the Mass schedule or last-minute changes to the location of Friday’s Fish Fry. Communication should be centered around using a tool that empowers not only your staff to send messages but also individual members who receive them too.

Too many products and companies in the digital world promise great results with their communication tools, so long as you add on all those bells and whistles, which oftentimes just end up being noisy and costly additions that fall short of elevating the quality and effectiveness of your engagement.

At eCatholic, we believe that when you communicate, your brand should be front and center, and the tools you use should be reliable, effective, and easy to navigate. The communication landscape is changing rapidly with more rules and regulations governing mass email and texting, spam, and user privacy.

We've been working hard to build a communications tool that meets these criteria and addresses these challenges ... and we're finally ready to share.
 

Introducing eCatholic Connect

We’re excited to announce that eCatholic Connect is the latest addition to our digital product suite. With Connect, you can create unlimited groups and send beautiful emails (and text messages - coming soon!) to get the word out to your members effectively and efficiently. And it comes fully integrated with your eCatholic-powered website so that you can streamline new member and group sign-ups, all from one convenient location.

Reach out to our team today!

We’re so excited to finally share more about this amazing new product with you. Here are a few ways that Connect will empower and inspire.
 

1

Connect uses your brand to communicate (not ours)

We’ve had the privilege of watching countless churches, schools, and ministries work hard to elevate their brand in order to build recognition among members, evangelize to the masses, and instill a sense of trust. eCatholic Connect was built around the idea that you have a unique community with a unique brand and needs. Why would we ask you to send communication with our domain when yours is clearly what resonates with members?

eCatholic Connect lets you send emails from your individual domain (ex. OurLady.Church), which not only allows you to elevate your brand within your communications but also provides a few additional perks as well: 

• Emails sent from your individual domain are less likely to be automatically marked as spam by email providers.
• Bulk emails sent from your individual domain help you avoid landing on a blacklist (list that identifies domains that send spam).
• Your sending reputation remains just that: Yours. On a shared sending domain, poorly behaved ‘neighbors’ (i.e., other people sending emails through the same domain) can negatively impact the shared domain’s sending reputation. With Connect, your emails will always come from your domain.

Even the most eloquent emails are only effective if they actually reach your members' inboxes, and Connect offers the tools that help you achieve greater deliverability and more effective communication.

 

2

Connect gives your members a choice!

Good communication tools are essential for sharing the Gospel...but privacy and communication laws are rapidly changing. Gone are the Wild West days of mass email sending, where organizations could blast emails regardless of a recipient’s opt-in status. As big tech cracks down on spam email delivery (and sometimes even prevents emails that just look like spam from delivering) their goal is always the same: protect the communication preferences and privacy of the recipient. 

Here at eCatholic, we care about your parishioners and members as if they were members of our own parish. That’s why it was essential for us to build Connect with a simple yet intuitive member log-in, so your flock can decide how, where, and what type of communication they prefer to receive from you.

3

Connect fully integrates with your eCatholic tools

Creating easy-to-use tools for the Catholic Church is not something we consider “nice to have” or even “ideal”; it is essential for everything we create. That’s why eCatholic Connect will fully integrate with your eCatholic-powered website right out of the box. 

Once your Connect account is activated, you can click one button to turn on a slick sign-up form in your website’s footer (which will appear on every page) or add a module to any page dedicated to specific group sign-ups. Now members can easily sign up to receive your communications, and you can leave importing spreadsheets of information behind for good. 

And guess what? This integration is only the beginning. Like a fine wine, sometimes the best solutions take a little time to reach their full potential. We’ve got so many more plans for Connect that will change the way you engage and evangelize your flock, and we can’t wait to share. 

 

4

Connect is backed by our phenomenal customer support

And, of course, it wouldn’t be a true eCatholic product if it was not backed by our award-winning customer support that you already know and love. Because Connect is part of our digital product suite, you’re guaranteed 100% free and unlimited support during setup and forever while you’re using the Connect product.

If you’re looking to learn more about what you can create with Connect, check out this blog post, where we showcase our favorite tools and features that you’ll have access to once the product launches.

Know that we’re here to support you in all of your communication efforts, but we also want to know your unique needs. What is essential for you in your communications tools? Leave a comment below to keep this thread going!