If you're like most parishes, September is the month of ALL THE EVENTS.

Every group is starting back up (and competing for your parishioners' limited calendar space).

And of course, everyone wants to be promoted in the bulletin, on the website, in the email newsletter, etc.

But after a while, all of these promotions start to blend together...which means they're probably only being skimmed (at best!) by parishioners.

There are a bunch of strategies you could try to help these groups promote their events and meetings better, but here's a really simple one to try first:

In your promotion, instead of leading with the name of the group, lead with what someone will get out of it OR the audience for which it's intended.

For example, maybe not a lot of people are signing up for the upcoming Bible study.

Instead of "Bible Study Group" as the main part of your promotion flyer, try instead:

"Wish you understood the Bible better?" or "Figure out what it really means to follow Jesus."

Or let's say you've started a new program for families. Start off the promotion with "Families with young children" in big font, and then share the rest of the promotion after.

We see thousands upon thousands of ads every single day, so our brains are trained to filter out what isn't relevant to us for survival.

So starting out with the title of the group or ministry in big letters might not be "catchy" enough to break past that filter.

But if you call out a feeling or identity your audience might resonate with, it's much more likely to make it past that filter.

Just like Jesus didn't go around inviting people to join "Discipleship School."

He instead invited, "Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy burdened (audience), and I will give you rest (what people get out of it)."

And when we call out that audience or transformation too, people are more likely to notice and take action from our promotions.

Like I said, there's other strategies you can try as well to increase the effectiveness of your event promotions, but that's an easy one to start with and see if it makes an impact!

Is event promotion something you're struggling with? Hit reply and let me know specifically what you're struggling with when it comes to event promotion (organizing requests, how long to promote, designing promotions, getting people to show up, etc.) and I might make a series out of it or even some resources!

For His greater glory,

Emily

P.S. Promotion is only part of it - you also have to get them there! Try to get contact information so you can send out a reminder email or text prior to the event or meeting.

Can't get their contact info easily? Include an "add to calendar" link so they can add the event to their own calendar, which will remind them for you! There's a bunch of free tools out there to help you create add to calendar links, but here's one I've used in the past. https://calendarlinkgenerator.com/​