Sorry this is coming out a day late this week! But I hope it will be worth the wait because...

My bulletin research is completed! 🎉

And I'm so excited to start sharing it with you.

I ended up reading a total of 279 bulletins this month.

(Thank you SO MUCH to everyone who sent me your bulletins!)

And in looking at all those bulletins through the eyes of both a marketer and an outsider peeking into these parishes...

...I learned a LOT.

Current bulletin trends, some fun things being included in bulletins I've never even thought of, and some tips for how to maximize the bulletin's potential.

It's way more than I could ever fit in an email, so here's a video I made for you to share the top 10 things I learned:

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P.S. About halfway through the video, I drop a pretty big announcement about something exciting happening next week! 🎉

I know so many of you were just as excited about this research as I was, so I can't wait for you to watch.

Once you have, hit reply and let me know which tip was your favorite — #2 made the biggest difference, and #8 was something that surprised me.

And if you implement any of the tips, definitely let me know because I want to see!

For His greater glory,

Emily

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P.S. Two bonus things I learned that didn't make it in the video but were also super interesting:

1. I saw a lot of insider language in the bulletins I read. Which isn't a problem if your bulletin audience is intended for highly catechized, very involved parishioners... But if it's not, it's worth taking a look through and making sure our language is matching the level of the people we're hoping to convince with it.

(For example, even as simple as the difference between a "ministry" versus a "group" or explaining who OCIA is for, not just the acronym.)

Try this exercise: Go through your current bulletin and ask, Would our 8th graders in religious ed understand what we mean when we say this? If not, many of the people reading the bulletin probably won't either!

2. Many bulletins had an "at a glance" calendar which was a really nice touch! It's an easy way to make sure people know what's going on, and then you can have longer advertisements for it in the back.

Something to try: In your "week at a glance," put the page number in the bulletin of where they can go to learn more, and consider laying it out in a visual calendar format so it's visually appealing and people know to go look at it each week.