50+ ways to improve your communications, emails and design

New members: be welcoming, get people involved, and cater to individuals and families

• Have a plan: be consistent with all new members.

• Welcome everyone, regardless of your prior knowledge of them or their family, and regardless of their age.

• Boost welcomes with an invitation or gift (e.g. wine, homemade challah from the Rabbinic couple).

• Welcome in person, from the Rabbi, Rebbetzen, Chair or a member.

• Publicly welcome people by name in shul.

• Encourage newcomers to get involved: this is personality- and skill-dependent, i.e. a photographer should be asked to take photographs!

• Hold new member evenings: even if small, these are still important.

• Ask integrated newcomers to become welcomers themselves after they’re comfortably settled: they are uniquely well-placed to fulfil this role.

• Consider asking members of your Synagogue Council to ‘look after’ engagement and communications with groups of new members who join within a certain time period, rather than ‘all new members, ever’.

Great photos: everyone can take them

• Use the best camera available and check after taking it, to ensure it isn’t blurry.

• If your photo is of people, make sure they are central (perhaps use the viewfinder grid).

• Avoid having the sun or electric lights behind the subjects.

• Make sure the photo is not too light or dark.

• Ensure any photos that are sent to us to be posted online are sent by email, because sending by WhatsApp decreases the quality of the photo.

• Get permission from your subjects, and from parents if photographing children.

• Don’t zoom in on your phone: you'll get better results taking photos close up.

• Make sure the subject of your photo is in focus.

• Always take at least a few photos so there are plenty of options to choose from.

Phone calls: the secret weapon of all communities

• Put time aside in your diary to make calls as you would with any other vital work.

• Make sure you are briefed prior to any call, particularly when making welfare calls: one doesn’t want to say the wrong thing to vulnerable people.

• If nobody answers a call, leave a voice message with your contact details.

• Make notes of conversations for future reference by you and others.

• Divide up call responsibilities amongst leaders or volunteers, so calls aren’t rushed.

• Try and maintain continuity: the same people should call the same people.

• When criticism is offered, listen – don’t defend.

• Build relationships, starting with calls: calls should not be ‘one off’ events.

Social media: target and tailor

• Use social media to promote upcoming events as well as to share engaging photos from events and stories.

• Tailor your content to the audience of particular social media: Instagram has a younger user-base than Facebook.

• If used, Tiktok and Instagram should be managed by someone from their user group.

• Post high-quality photos on Instagram, with minimal or no text; use captions for any text.

• Facebook allows longer posts with more text, but posts get better engagement when accompanied by photos.

• Tag relevant people and organisations to maximise exposure and increase the likelihood of likes and shares.

• Use the analytics of your page to discover the best time of day to post; most likely this will be late afternoon or early evening.

• If you anticipate making multiple posts, don’t bunch too many in one day.

• To schedule future posts, use Creator Studio on Facebook and TweetDeck for Twitter.

• Consider a Whatsapp Broadcast for ‘official’ messages and smaller Whatsapp groups for members in different groups.

Email: use sparingly and well

• Use email management software (ideally Sendy: it’s free and we can help).

• Be consistent with fonts, colour schemes and logo placement.

• To ensure faultless copy, check your spelling and ask someone to read your draft.

• Consider sending a maximum of two emails weekly, e.g. one before Shabbat and one for events. (You will probably still want separate bereavement notices.)

• Target emails appropriately to maintain goodwill, audience interest and to improve engagement; e.g. send notice of events for young people just to them.

• Only use your shul or United Synagogue account. Do not send shul communications from your personal email address.

• To reduce the number of clicks necessary to see them and to avoid spam filters, incorporate images and flyers into emails as JPEG files, rather than attaching PDFs.

• Use exciting and intriguing email subject lines: for instance, change “Shabbat newsletter” to “Hot Kiddush? Yes please…”

• Personalise emails with “Dear first name” or similar: Sendy makes this easy.

• Use friendly and welcoming language.

• Make sure that ‘calls to action’ (e.g. “Book here!”) are big and bold to draw readers in.

• Use hyperlinks or shortened links rather use cumbersome full links.

• Use the analysis tools available with Sendy: analyse open rates and click rates, using that data to improve future emails.

Website: staying fresh

• Keep your website up to date and accurate: there’s no point having a website if it contains wrong or outdated information.

• Consider modernising your website if it appears dated or its age hinders its usefulness: websites today are cheap and easy to create and straightforward to maintain.

• Use lively, up-to-date photos to draw people in.

• Your community is your people, not your building: try and picture them on your website, rather than your shul sanctuary or the front doors.

• Please add the current US logo to your website, and our charity number, 242552. You can hyperlink the logo to our website.

• Websites are a great place to explore your community’s character, not just operations.

Announcements: end Shabbat morning services on a high, not a sigh

• Smile! Thank people for coming to shul.

• Public speakers should have expertise and aptitude, not just an official position.

• Offer training to regular shul speakers, so they can represent the community brilliantly.

• Brevity is always a positive attribute in announcements.

• During announcements, try to welcome new members and visitors by name.

• Consider thanking all contributors, from daveners to security and kiddush-organisers to leyners by name if it’s practical but there is also value in recognising the teams who contribute every Shabbat, in part to encourage others.

Posters and flyers

• Consistency is a virtue: your posters should consistently use your branding, or be consistent with each other (colour schemes, fonts, layout) if you do not have branding.

• Your logo should ideally sit in the same place across all posters: it usually works best in the bottom-right or top-right corners.

• Use an online tool to create posters (e.g. Canva), not Microsoft Word. The free version of Canva is very powerful, but consider buying a Professional account if someone in your community can get value from it. With it you are able to add your own fonts/colour palette and gain access to stock imagery.

• Try and use no more than two fonts, for brand consistency and instant recognition.

• Less text is more: posters must grab attention and give essential information only.

• Don't throw in the kitchen sink: direct audiences online to get further information.

• The 'call to action' is where you direct your audience to do something specific, e.g. “Book now at www.theus.org.uk” or “For more info, call 020 888 8888”; the call to action needs to be clear and prominent.

• Format according to the advertising channel: if you’re advertising online only, you can use square or landscape format (not just A4); use Canva or search Google for the most appropriate sizes e.g. ‘Facebook Post Size’ / ‘Instagram Story Size’

Marketing in general

• Consider creating a branding identity using colours and fonts.

• Ensure your logo is in high resolution (if not, consider getting it redrawn).

• Make sure your identity flows across all of your outputs: not just promotional (e.g. event posters) but also administrative (e.g. subs letters).

• Audience: for every project, ask “Who is this for?” before deciding on the appropriate channels to reach them.

• For younger people, prioritise social media (FB for 30+, Instagram for 20+, TikTok for teens); for older audiences, consider traditional press, flyers and shul newsletters.

• If you are running a big event, consider using multiple channels, tailored and targeted for maximum exposure to different segments of your audience.

• Word of mouth is our most powerful (and cheapest) marketing tool: we are a small but connected community, so peer-to-peer marketing by informal calls, conversations or WhatsApp can have a real effect.

• Segment your membership into audience types and even predilections, only sending members communications relevant to them.

The Communications team: here to help

• For advice, help of all sorts, and to have questions answered, please call!

• Social media, press releases: Rebecca Harris, rharris@theus.org.uk

• Sendy (emails), websites: Jonny Ison, jison@theus.org.uk

• Design and marketing advice: David Nielsen, dnielsen@theus.org.uk

• PR, politics, problems or anything else: Richard Verber, rverber@theus.org.uk