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The 5 Best Tips To Promote Events For Better Attendance, Excited Volunteers, & Community Engagement

Don’t let small church marketing mistakes affect your attendance. Become a master at promotion with these 5 marketing ideas that save you time, money, and effort. Marketing well in small churches is key!

This post is for you if:

  • You’re tired of pouring your heart into events when no one else seems to care
  • You’re frustrated when no one shows up
  • You’re sick of hearing “I didn’t know that was happening”

Uncovering The Real Reason People Don’t Show Up

Ask anyone in churches why people don’t attend events, and the first thing you’ll hear is “people are busy.” But the sad thing is, it’s just not true. While of course, it’s correct that people are busy, that’s not the reason they don’t come to your events. We all make time for what we find important. 

There’s only 2 reasons people don’t come: Either your events don’t meet their needs, or they aren’t hearing your message above all the noise. 

2 questions to ask when your attendance doesn’t match your dreams:

  1. Does your event or program meet their needs?
  2. Are they excited to come?

Before you blame low attendance on bad promotion, make sure your programs and events are meeting a need. Too often, instead of taking time to look at needs, we take a one-size-fits-all approach to church ministry.

We think every women’s ministry needs an annual retreat, a Mother’s Day Tea, and an ongoing Bible study. Or every youth group needs a lock-in. But the truth is, your church is unique, and your community has specific needs.

If your programs don’t meet needs, then there’s no point in advertising them. 

So, look back at those 2 questions again. If you’ve got number 1 down, this article is your ticket to answering question number 2 with a resounding, “Oh yeah, baby!” Keep reading to learn how to do great marketing in small churches.

BUT if you’re not sure if your events are meeting real needs … click to get my course How to Create a Small Church Ministry You Love! This course is a game changer for life-impacting ministry in small churches. It brings to light the often-ignored natural laws of ministry and turns your ministry frustrations into ministry delight!

How You Promote An Event Matters

We need to take a lesson from major companies that often spend more money on packaging than they do on the products inside the wrappers. While some think of slick advertising as manipulation, it’s really just about human nature. 

God made us emotional beings; we are attracted to striking color combinations, neat graphic fonts, and vivid word choice. Nifty packages and pretty bows pull us like a magnet!

What Does A Cereal Box Have To Do With Marketing Ideas In Small Churches?

If there’s only one gift to choose from, the packaging doesn’t matter much. But today, even walking into a cereal aisle at the grocery store can cause shopping anxiety. The more options there are, the more the packaging matters. 

Today we have a lot of choices, and not just in the cereal aisle. Of all the things to do, programs to watch, places to go, people to meet, and classes to take, why SHOULD people come to your church event?

Let’s take the mystery out of marketing in small churches and just say this:

Without the pretty packaging, you can have the best ideas, incredible events, and phenomenal volunteers, but no one pays much attention to your awesome gift because there are too many other pretty packages to choose from!

The way you talk about an event, the flyers you hand out, the announcements you make, that’s the packaging. If it’s flat, boring, and black & white, the expectation of your event dims to nil.

5 Best Tips To Get Your Message Heard Above The Noise

Take the mystery out of marketing.

There is no mystery to awesome marketing in small churches. It’s cheap, and it’s simple. It just takes some intentionality!

Here’s how to spend less time, less effort, and less money on promoting events with better results.

1. Engage Multiple Senses

God created us with 5 senses; some would say 6 and add the spiritual sense. The more senses you engage the better!

Engaging multiple senses does several things:

  • raises awareness
  • creates excitement
  • helps us remember

Yes, the Sunday bulletin is a great place to start. We can see an announcement in there. But what about the rest of our senses? How could we hear it? Touch it? Taste it? Even smell it? (If “smell” is a stretch for you, keep in mind that scent is one of our biggest memory triggers!)

Utilize skits, personal conversations, phone calls, mentions at events, social media, posters, flyers, reminder cards, sign-up sheets, creative take-home tokens, treats, and riddles –– all these things engage more senses.

Motivation and memory increase when more senses are engaged.

2. Use Multiple Channels & Multiple Messages

If all you use is the Sunday bulletin, you are missing out! Use multiple channels to promote everything, from a Sunday school class to a service project.

And never run the same bulletin announcement more than twice. Change the wording to include different information, or it will be ignored, and that’s just a waste of space!

The sky is the limit on how to get information to your peeps. Here are a few ideas:

  • Church Bulletin
  • Upfront Announcements
  • Social Media
  • Flyers
  • Posters
  • Phone Calls
  • Snail Mail Postcards
  • Bookmarks
  • Home Drop-offs
  • Personal Conversations
  • Magnet Reminders
  • Games & Challenges
  • Sign-up Sheets
  • Church Website
  • Facebook Group
  • Gifts/Trinkets

For more on using social media in small churches, read Connection Over Content, tips from a social media manager.

3. Think Drips, Not Deluge

No one wants to be constantly bombarded with annoying promotions. And you certainly don’t want your promotion to be the “noise” that drowns out other valuable programs at your church.

So think in terms of dripping and not drowning. Work backwards and start “dripping” your promotion with a “Save-the-Date” 4-6 months before your event. Then, increase the drip as your event gets closer.

If you plan with a year calendar, marketing in small churches gets even easier and more fun. (For youth ministry, learn how to plan a rocking year calendar in one night!)

4. Plan Your Promotion In Batches

Don’t let the task of promotion overwhelm you.

Make promotion easy by planning in batches!

I love eating cookies, but I certainly don’t make the dough and bake them one at a time! I make a huge batch at once and toss them in a Tupperware. Create your promotion this same way.

Work backwards for any event on your ministry calendar, and jot the promotion pieces right on the calendar. Plan your bulletin announcements, flyers, displays, and phone calls ahead of time. It’s much easier to write four different announcements in five minutes than create one each week and then forget to include it!

Here’s a sample promotion plan for a women’s retreat in April:

  • November: Put a “Save-the-Date” in the bulletin and on the church’s Facebook page for 3 weeks in a row.
  • December: Create a Facebook event & invite, and write a batch of announcements for the bulletin for Jan-Mar.
  • Early January: Hand out a Mr. Potato body part to each woman with a scripture (your theme is about spiritual gifts).
  • Mid-January: Announce retreat theme & details in the bulletin. Create a flyer for registration.
  • Late January: Begin social media posts (once a week to start).
  • Early February: Make phone calls to every woman with a personal invitation. Hang posters in the church.
  • Early March: Put a guess-the-number-of-gumballs game in the welcome center (next to a sign-up sheet).
  • 6 weeks out: Start weekly bulletin announcements, and increase the frequency of social media posts.
  • 4 weeks out: Do a skit in church. Make reminder phone calls the week registration is due.

5. Keep The Communication Flow Constant

Don’t think about one-and-done announcements, but make promotion a continuous party.

Think of your favorite companies. Whether it’s makeup, smartwatches, or restaurants, they never stop promoting. There’s always something happening, something that just occurred, or something that is coming up. It’s the same with church ministry.

Keep your ministry in the forefront with anticipation, excitement, and celebration.

  • Before an event, let everyone know about it.
  • During an event, share the news.
  • After an event, celebrate the impact.

And don’t forget to start talking about the next event before you finish the last. If you have a church bulletin, an email blast, or a social media account, there should always be something representing your ministry area. 

Involve Others For Best Marketing In Small Churches

If all this talk of promotion has your head spinning, find a creative mind to take this on. One person was never meant to do it all, which means you don’t have to do all the marketing in your small church.

You may have youth or adults who would have tons of fun with promotion. Remember, you’re not finding someone to write an announcement, you’re asking someone to come up with a creative promotional plan! Many creative hearts would love to take this on for you!

For more on finding volunteers, check this out: Team Building In A Small Church.

Developing a team is the heart of ministry, so involve others and allow them to use their gift mix. Forward this article for inspiration and ideas!

By working backwards from your event, engaging multiple senses, planning in batches, and involving others in the fun, your promotion itself becomes a ministry and a great tool for building relationships!

Read More

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4 Keys To Wake Up Your Worship In A Small Church

Social Media In Small Churches: What Might You Be Missing