Viral email builds communities of people and prayer by offering meaningful messages through a modern medium.
The kinds of organizations reaping the benefits of email are not limited to those selling products online. Many religious organizations have recently joined the internet age, combating the perception that they are too traditional in their communication strategies and too slow to adapt to a newly dynamic media marketplace.
Given consumers' rapidly increasing use of the internet, massive online prayer and religious groups creating community seem to be the way of the future. Successful email campaigns are proving that viral and interactive media can help a group not only to acquire members but also to keep them updated and engaged.
The Presidential Prayer Team
America's largest online prayer group, the Presidential Prayer Team (PPT), is one such group that used email to build itself from the ground up. It currently boasts over three million participants.
This independent, non-profit organization's initial goal in September 2001 was to send out emails in order to develop 2.8 million participants -- equal to one percent of the American population -- who would pray daily for the President, his cabinet and the nation.
Word of the new group quickly spread over the internet as people passed on the email that informed them of the new effort, invited them to join and encouraged them to send the email to a friend. In two weeks the group had acquired 500,000 participants. A month later, the PPT was ranked the world's number one most-visited religious website.
On February 16, Presidents Day 2004, the first ever Virtual Prayer Rally was held with more than 37,000 people committing to pray for a half-hour or more via the internet.
Kirk Calkins, vice president of operations at the PPT, claims that the primary method of growth for the PPT since its inception has been viral.
"Because the PPT was born in an internet environment, our most effective way of communicating is through electronic means," says Calkins. "Our participants receive their most important prayer resources both from the website and the email updates we send them every Friday."
The weekly email update helps members focus their prayers on the President's current challenges as well as on others who advise him. It also provides words of encouragement from past and current leaders.
"The survey we conducted found that each person who opens our email values the content so much that he forwards it on to 4.7 people on average," says Karen Randou, director of communications at the PPT. The website also provides eCards and web banners that users can insert into their email signatures.
Having reached its initial acquisition goal in less than two years, this coming September the PPT will launch the "Enroll A Million" campaign, an effort to add one million new PPT participants in the next 12 to 18 months. It will also launch a revised website that is customizable for each member.
The Hollywood Prayer Network
The internet's connecting, informing and enabling capabilities are helping even smaller and localized groups.
For example, the Hollywood Prayer Network (HPN), a group of Christian professionals in Hollywood in favor of supporting -- rather than opposing -- the entertainment industry's growing influence, has taken their cause online.
Whereas other conservative organizations and parents are fighting hard to control entertainment programming, the HPN is using email campaigns to invite churches, para-church organizations and individuals across America to commit to pray for the well-being of all aspects of the entertainment industry. This includes film, television, music, news media and the internet, as well as executives.
"We want to get people's attention, and the best way nowadays is communicating online," says HPN founder Karen Covell, a television producer, co-author of two books and co-founder of JC Productions, an independent television and music production company. "When people read about our purpose, they understand the influence that Hollywood has on the world, and they begin to realize that it is a mission field that needs attention, prayers, financial support and a place where missionaries need to be sent."
While HPN supplies monthly prayer requests, updates, praises and news breaks to its subscribers, its website provides articles on the entertainment industry, a resource page of books on the topic of Hollywood as a mission field, a chat page covering prayer topics and a list of links to other industry ministries and prayer sites.
Currently, HPN sends a monthly email to 2,500 email addresses, which represent individuals, prayer groups, small groups, prayer ministries and families. It estimates that between 5,000 to 10,000 people pray with HPN each month.
Although HPN's 50 new subscribers each month may seem miniscule in comparison to the PPT's thousands, Covell says that every person counts and can make a real impact.
Via its website, HPN has established over 400 one-on-one prayer partnerships, called "I to I" prayer partnerships (intercessor to industry professional), in which a Christian intercessor on the outside of Hollywood commits to pray for one industry professional on the inside of the mission field.
"We can truly see the strength and value of intimate, specific prayer to God to free the hearts and minds of all individuals, not just Christians, working in the entertainment industry."
What can marketers, not limited to those with religious affiliations, learn from the rapid acquisition growth of these organizations?
There are three key lessons. First, sufficient financial and human resources should be committed to continuously enhancing a website. After all, that's where consumers seek out your organization's value after receiving an email. Second, the PPT's Calkins believes that trying to convert direct mail-generated participants to the internet world will only be marginally successful (PPT only uses direct mail fundraising to supplement the financial resources it raises online). Lastly, the content of your communication tools -- whether email, a website or online video -- must provide something users are interested in, not what your organization thinks they should be interested in. This requires testing and feedback.
To shine above the thousands of marketing messages nagging consumers every day, offer a participatory and meaningful message through online media and they will spread the word like wildfire.
So remember: Acquisition success is not attributed to the message or to the medium, but to the marriage of both.
Rebecca Weeks is the content director for iMedia Summits.