The question that seeks an answer is, “how can one effectively publicize church events for better attendance?”
We will provide you with 7 ways to do this in this post. When you are done, you should have gotten some ways to effectively promote your next church event.
Promote the event
Sometimes, church don’t want to promote events. Breaking news!!! Whether it is a church or not, you can’t be shy of promoting your event. If you are, you should expect people to treat it with laxity.
The effort you put into promotion will determine how much attendance you’ll get. Your church event is just like any other product. When you promote it, people are more likely to patronize.
There are several ways to promote such events. One way is to use efficient church management software like ChurchPad. One thing you must always remember is that “when you don’t tell others about an event, they wouldn’t come.” The funny thing is that they may have heard about the event somewhere else. But since you didn’t actively invite them, they’ll feel like their presence isn’t necessary.
Run targeted ads
Every event you organize at your church has a specific target audience. Proper church communication requires you to reach out to the exact target audience you need. It is a waste of promotional effort publicizing a special needs program in a regular school. This brings us to the question, “how do you run targeted ads?”
Thankfully, technology has made it a lot easier these days. You can run targeted ads on Facebook and other social media channels as well as your church app. If you can, make use of Google Ads.
Don’t assume that no one wants to come to your events. You probably have been promoting your events all wrong. Top businesses know that with targeted ads, you can maximize your promotional efforts. Well, the church is a business on its own and you need to be smart with your publicity.
Tell people what they stand to gain
When you invite a person to an event or tell them to make a purchase, there is something they expect to hear. People want to know how attendance will benefit them. What do they stand to gain from attending that event?
Different church events have different benefits. Some of them are spiritual while others have physical, financial, or emotional benefits. When selling the idea of a church event to your invitees, tell them the “payoff” for their attendance.
For example, if it is a prayer conference, tell them about the speakers and how impactful the conference will be. If you have had this kind of conference before now, add some testimonies to your publicity campaign. Do you know that it is always easier for people to accept a product when they hear someone else’s testimony?
Get ready. People are going to ask why they should come to your church event. They could go to a party or watch the game instead. You should have a pitch ready for them. If you’ll be publicizing the event with volunteers, prepare each person for this kind of question.
Push the events via your pulpit
Every church has time set aside for announcements. While this is a great time for you to announce your church event, it shouldn’t be the only time. The funny thing is that most congregants are less attentive during the “announcements.”
How then do you push church events during a church service? Every person that comes to the pulpit should maximize their time to publicize the event. It isn’t enough to use social media or your church app. People must hear about the event from the pulpit.
This means the preacher has to announce it and the prayer leader must raise prayer points about it. Even the praise leader can mention it before a praise session. Note that you can’t be all in the faces of your congregation with announcements. Some subtlety is required as well.
Promote pre-registration benefits
Sometimes, people just need an incentive to register for church events. Use this as bait to pull in people. The benefit can be a free sermon CD, a t-shirt, or one of the pastor’s books.
When people know that there is an incentive, they are more likely to sign up for your event. They’ll even tell others about the benefit. This will help attract more people to the event.
Promote referral benefits
This is another interesting way to publicize church events. In this case, you are creating an incentive for individuals who will invite others. Again, you don’t have to go above board trying to impress with your incentive.
Anything of value will suffice in this case. The idea behind this is that people will tell their friends that don’t attend your church about the event. When they come with someone, you present them with a gift. Doing this makes your congregants more interested in the event and makes them publicize it on your behalf for free.
Make use of registration software
Many churches will argue against this because they think it is an extra cost. Interestingly, several tools can help you achieve this goal easily. A church app like ChurchPad will do the magic easily.
When you tell people that they can register for the event electronically, they are more interested. No one wants to go through the stress of registering at the venue especially in these times of social distancing. A huge benefit of doing this is that you’ll have access to their information after the program. You can leverage this for other publicity campaigns.
Conclusion
Publicizing your church event the right way is just as important as organizing the event. We have shown you 7 ways to effectively publicize church events. Which of these have you tried out? Don’t forget, with ChurchPad, publicizing your events is far easier.
