8 Strategies for Effective Church Event Promotion

[00:00:00] Speaker A: One of the challenges that we as pastors have is getting people to show up to our church events. And so in this conversation, we're going to unpack eight tips to help you get more people at your church events. Let's do this. You're listening to the reach, right? Podcast, the show dedicated to helping your church reach more people and grow. Well, hey, guys, I'm Thomas. [00:00:26] Speaker B: And I'm Ian. [00:00:27] Speaker A: And today we are talking about church event promotion and some strategies that we've laid out here that we think are going to be effective to help your church get more people to show up to your events. And so the format today, Ian, we're going to be talking through, I think we have eight different mediums for promoting church events, and we just want to give one quick tip for how to help with each one of these mediums here. Yes. To kind of keep it interesting. And I think it'll be helpful. Some things that we, as we talked about this, there were some things that I hadn't really thought of, and I'm not doing it my church, but I think would be effective. I've heard other churches doing them. So I think it should be a good conversation today. [00:01:06] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. I think promoting church events at a local church, you know, is sometimes you could just kind of get in the grind of the way you've always done it. And, you know, it's an obvious thing that every church does, right? So always good to kind of revisit and see if you're doing it the most effective way. So I think it'll be helpful, too. Thomas. [00:01:25] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. Awesome. Well, good. Well, let's just dig in. The first one is event promotion through your bulletin announcements. Now, this might sound to some churches, they're like, they don't even haven't done this in years. Do you guys do bulletins at your church, Ian? [00:01:41] Speaker B: No. [00:01:42] Speaker A: You had to think about it, though. [00:01:44] Speaker B: You didn't know about it. Because we do pass out some things from time to time, but it's not like a weekly. [00:01:49] Speaker A: There's not a weekly bulletin. Archer. Just wrestling with the decision, I think, right now is that, you know, we have always done bulletins, and we are seeing that they're waning in their value in general. But we also know that there are, there's that certain subset of person that's like a bulletin collector, right? Like where they, like, have a file where they have kept, you know, 17 years of church bulletins, and they can go back and, you know, and that's when, you know, there were more sermon notes and those kinds of things and bulletins, if that's your church, let us know down in the comments on that. I'd love to hear. [00:02:21] Speaker B: Remember that month? That was the best month we ever had in our church with all those. [00:02:25] Speaker A: If you're a bulletin collector, let me know down in the comments on that. It would be. I'd like to hear your perspective on this and to know that you still exist. You're an endangered species, I think, at this point, but, yeah. Interested on that. But I do think that there is a sizable part of our audience that watch or listen to the reach. Right. Podcast that still do pass out church bulletins. And it is one of the primary ways, historically, that churches have promoted upcoming events. One little tip that we've seen be really effective for these is using QR codes in your bulletins. So giving people the opportunity to communicate and actually sign up for the event itself, it's kind of like taking the old school and bringing it into the new side of things here. So, yeah, the QR code, I think, is a really good hack to help you get better results out of your bulletin there. [00:03:15] Speaker B: Yeah, that's very common. My church most certainly does that so. Well. Next one, another thing that's been tried and true and still relevant is Sunday announcements. Making announcements, whether or not that's from the pulpit or video announcements. I know that that's the primary way that my church makes announcements is with a pre done video that we've, that we've certain staff has, has done, and always makes it pretty engaging. But even if you're still doing that verbally, and we at times do that, too, even though we have mainly video announcements, there's times, special times, where it is voiced from a pastor or the senior pastor, for whatever reason. So I guess one tip we would give here is, I mean, obviously continue to do Sunday announcements. It makes sense. People are there, they're seated, and not everyone will follow stuff throughout the week. So you will have some of those people that they still will only get the announcement when they're there at the Sunday service. But the tip we would give is just because people's attention span is short already, and just like when we talk about not having too lengthy of a sermon, don't make these too lengthy. If there is one key event that you want everyone to remember, then make sure you focus on that and not drown it out with multiple announcements and events. So keeping it, keeping it brief would be a very good thing to do. So. [00:04:43] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely. I think. And then, you know, like we always say, you know, almost every episode we talk about call to action. That's one thing that's missed. And I think giving people clear instruction on, you know, how do I take that next step with the announcement that we just had there? So I think that'll be really helpful to people. So, yeah, awesome. Next one is social media promotion. This is something that, surprisingly, I would say that it has waned in its value over the last little while here. And it's not so much because social media is going away, but just the way that social media works now, it's actually trained. It's actually changed quite dramatically. And how you can use social media so used to be that you could have a lot of followers on your Facebook or Instagram account, you could promote some kind of an event, and it'll, you know, have a graphic that says when it's happening and when to show up, those kinds of things, and then people would be able to see it. But now your reach is so limited with these image posts or like a graphic post that really your audience, that your reach would be so small with that, it's probably not even worth your time. I mean, you can do it, but I don't think it'll get very much reached that way. But there is still value, I think, with social media promotion of events. But the way that you do it, and I guess the tip we have for social media is making sure that you do it in video form and do it with storytelling. You have to tell stories with social media in order for people to engage with it. So I would recommend that you would do a short form video piece, whether it be a reel or a TikTok or a YouTube short, and you would actually make it, a lot of times, a testimony video or something that's got a highlight video from last time. Like, for instance, this week, we just ran a youth camp highlight video that was a reel and a TikTok, and you can put that out there. And when people see the kids of your church having a blast at camp, engaging with God, though, that kind of content, that's going to be. It'll have a much wider reach, especially to people outside of your church. So I think that's really the biggest opportunity there. Gone are the days where you could just post something and get the dates out there and expect everyone to see it. Now you have to actually make compelling content. And I think maybe testimony or, like, highlight videos are the way to do that. [00:06:56] Speaker B: I like that. It's funny. We always joke when social media first came onto the scene because we saw that when Facebook was born after the MySpace era that you and I as Gen Xers got to experience a little bit. But no, that was the only thing that churches did were here's the event time and that was it. And then here's the devotion for the day or the scripture for the day. So obviously it's evolved a lot more and you want to make the event sharing a lot more compelling than just the date. [00:07:27] Speaker A: Yeah, let me share this too. I do think the one exception to this is if you're gonna run paid ads on social media, there is still a place for using like the Facebook events system for actually promoting a paid event. So let's say you have a vacation bible school or you're doing. I know we did really well with our Halloween harvest parties. We did Facebook event promotion for those and you can still get some results there, but you're gonna have to pay for it. And that just kind of affirms what I'm saying is that if you're not paying for that kind of stuff, you're not going to get anywhere near the reach that we would have got five or certainly ten years ago on social platforms. So yeah, you have to make engaging video content now to play in the game. It's the cost of entry. [00:08:10] Speaker B: That's good. Next one is the email newsletter. Still very effective. I would say this is the primary way I keep up with my church's events. I more than even I do follow my church on social media and see what we do there. But as far as keeping up with events, I still like a good email newsletter. And so a lot of churches are of course still doing this. If you're not, we would recommend it. It's very valuable. A lot of people prefer it. Keeps you top of mind in someone's inbox and also having clear subject lines, clear, concise content in the emails. Again, just like we said with the bulletin and everything else, don't make it too busy and cluttery. So you want to keep it clear, concise and probably the biggest tip we would give, because it's an email newsletter and people get all sorts of emails all day long, is having a very clear call to action. Just like we said on Sunday announcements, having a good, clear call to action if it is to sign up for that event. Let that be clear, let that button, that form, make it abundantly clear. And don't let that get drowned out in a busy newsletter with too much content. [00:09:26] Speaker A: Yeah, good stuff. You said in the beginning that churches still use this. I would argue that churches don't use it. It's in its heyday right now. Email newsletters like this is. [00:09:36] Speaker B: You're right. Yeah. Yeah. [00:09:38] Speaker A: So it's so important. And I think that a lot of people have, like, and I'm not saying you did, but a lot of people have that perspective. That email is like the last thing that we should do because it has this reputation. Everybody's annoyed by all their emails. Everybody has these overloaded inboxes where there's just so much content that they can't even get through it all that being as it is, which is. That's not incorrect what I'm saying. It is still the one area that people do have to look at, because every time you get any kind of official piece of communication, it's coming via email. Your receipts and your, when you sign real estate documents now via email. And so people keep an eye on this and have to manage that email inbox. It is, it's more valuable and more effective today than it ever has been. Now, it's not as easy as it used to be to win on email. You have to be more engaging and like you were saying, better subject lines and those kinds of things. But yeah, it is absolutely a really important opportunity. Next one is your church website. It should be obvious that you want to promote all of your church events on your church website. Let me tell you how not to do it and then how you probably should do it. So 510 years ago, the most common way to promote big church events was to have a big sliding banner on your homepage that talked about the dates and times. And it was usually bright and colorful for when your harvest party or VBS or whenever that thing was going to be taking place. And that is one method. I don't think it's the best way to do it because it takes away from usually what you want to use that space for is really building the brand of the church and telling your story. Photography, or even better, kind of some of those, those videos that you see churches use now of little clips of people caught in the act living out the values of your church. So that's what you want to have there. But what you should do is have some kind of a section, probably on your homepage, but certainly a page dedicated to events that are happening there at your church. And the one tip I guess I have for those events is that I can't express enough how, how much opportunity there is for your church events when it comes to SEO and to actually have your events be discovered. People, every single day in every city in the country, are typing in things to do in blank in their city or events near me this weekend. They're looking for this kind of content out there. And if you can create content that would show up in a search like that on your events page, and maybe you use terms like things to do in Honolulu or wherever you live in some of your events page language. And then on the individual event you have dates and times and you really, you set it up properly. You can actually start to show up and rank for some of these things when people are looking for community events in your area. So don't overlook the opportunity for events on your church website, especially if you're going to double down and really go hard into SEO for them. So big opportunity, I think that's good. [00:12:39] Speaker B: And one thing I would add to that, since we build websites day in and day out, we're not saying you can't have an event promoted on the homepage, you just don't want it in that main big slider area or engaging area there. Right off the bat, people can thumb down still from their, from their phone and they can see that event and click out to that events page like you were saying. So we're not saying you can't have it there at all. But yeah, it's a place you're trying to tell your story and build your brand to first time visitors. So yeah, I'd add that one little thing there. Next one, this one tried and true. Word of mouth, still definitely not dead at all. No replacing the way the Lord uses us as his vessels to invite people to an event. Still a, of course, very, even in the age of technology that we're in and all these different things we're saying you want to encourage church members to invite people, obviously via word of mouth. And actually, we saw some really cool data on this. We saw, according to marketing charts, that consumers would prefer to be invited or learn about a brand or something new. 28% of them would prefer it to be a word of mouth, you know, update or announcement or invite. And unfortunately, marketers believe that only 4% of people would prefer that. So it's something that of course, when you're considering promoting your church and marketing and everything, it's still extremely valuable to obviously have members invite people word of mouth to events. [00:14:17] Speaker A: So, yeah, that's not going away, right? I mean, like, that's something. So we're in the church marketing business. That's what you and I do, Ian. That's what reach writes. Primary offerings are as we help churches do marketing. But there's nothing that we could ever do that will ever replace personal evangelism, word of mouth, people telling their friends about it. We can equip them to do it and encourage people. And that's take that as this statement, as that we want to encourage you, that that is still the foundational way that we grow churches and invite people into the life of the church is through word of mouth. So, yeah, absolutely, we are still for it. It's not going anywhere. Nope, I'm with you there. Next one is, it's community outreach. And this one, I have seen this in action, and it's a little bit less direct. So it's just really a matter of having relationship with organizations in your community. A couple of things that I've seen work at my church, we used to do, I was talking before about a harvest party, and one of the things that we intentionally did is we did not have that on location at our church, but at a public community center. So even though, you know, the facility would be easier at our own place, it felt much more engaging to our community and I think less threatening in a lot of ways if we hosted a community Halloween party and it happened at our local community center there. And case in point, we saw enormous turnout when we would do our events that way compared to when we had it hosted by ourselves or at our church. Doing those kinds of things, you'll do. You'll do much better if you can partner with a community organization like that. So find ways to do that. Find ways to partner with other organizations in your community. Tonight, actually, here in Hawaii is graduation night, and our church is partnering with our local high school for graduation to do project grads, set up for them and get everything dialed in. We actually share the space, like the. The place where Project grad is starting is actually where our sanctuary is on Sunday morning. So it was an obvious win win for all of us. We can connect with our community, bless them, and hopefully we get to rub some shoulders and encourage some of them to grow closer to Jesus through our church. So. And they'll let you look at ways to do community outreach. [00:16:31] Speaker B: Yeah. So. And I said, and they'll let you keep meeting there. So there you go. [00:16:35] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly. That's the big thing. Exactly. [00:16:37] Speaker B: So, last but not least, this one might be a surprise to some folks, but posters and flyers. So these still alive. That may seem old fashioned, but I would contest that they're kind of vintage and cool still, you know, Gen Z, the next gen down. They still like posters, they still like flyers and stickers and all these things. But I do think here's the key with this, though, is to be a little strategic with the way that you do it. So where the location where you're putting a flyer, maybe it's a cool, it's a youth event and you came up with a really cool artwork for parents to see this when they're passing by the youth area of the church or during youth service, it's just going to be very visible and then also just the way that they're distributed. I know one of the cool things that I've always liked that my church does is that around Easter we pass. And this is a little different than. No, it is a flyer or an invite card, if you will, to where we have a flyer that you can use to personally invite someone to Easter. And you get time to put a lot of. If you have a design team or graphics team at your church, they can get creative. But I think the key with this is that I don't think it's something that you rely solely on, of course, not in this day and age. But if you're selective, strategic with it could be a cool thing. Still sticks with people. [00:18:01] Speaker A: Yeah. I was in a church the other day, and they had posters above the urinals. What do you think of that? [00:18:07] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, I think we've done that too in my church. But that's, I mean, you know, you have to look at it. [00:18:14] Speaker A: I mean, captive audience, right? Isn't that right? [00:18:16] Speaker B: Hopefully you're not looking around in other areas when you're there. So you're looking straight ahead, typically is the standard procedure there. So yeah, yeah. [00:18:25] Speaker A: Reach, right? Family. Let us know down in the comments if your church has urinal flyers. That's the question of the day. I'd love to hear your thoughts on that. And if you think that works, if you got any feedback on that, I'd love to hear, let's share the wealth with other church leaders on things here. So, anything else to add as we close up, Ian? [00:18:44] Speaker B: No, no, this was fun. Hopefully helpful to folks. So. [00:18:47] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, you guys got it. Hopefully this has been helpful. If it has, let us know down in the comments. Hit that like and subscribe button. Thanks, guys, for being a part of the Reachwrite family, and we'll see you next week. [00:18:58] Speaker B: See ya.