Things You Can Still Do to Improve Your Church's Easter Marketing

Show Notes

In this episode

With Easter only a few weeks away, it's time to make sure your communications are set up for success. Here are some ideas to help you take your Easter communications to the next level, inviting others into the conversation, and some out-of-the-box ideas.

Links and resources

• Easter Communications Checklist
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Transcript

Jeanette:

Easter is just a few weeks away. So now is the time to make sure your communications game is set up for success. Today we're talking about things that will help you make your Easter communications, kind of take them to the next level. We're going to be talking about inviting others into the conversation and some of the out-of-the-box ideas that you can use to invite people as many people as possible to the greatest celebration of the year.

Bryan:

That's right. Hey there, church communicator. Welcome to the Church Juice podcast, where we are energizing church communications one 20 minute episode at a time. Whatever your role is at your church, we are here to give you the tools and resources that you need to be successful. I'm Bryan Haley, and I'm joined as always by my awesome co-host, Jeanette Yates. Hey, Jeanette.

Jeanette:

Hey, how's it going?

Bryan:

It's going, it's going. Let's talk about Easter. We're just a few weeks away.

Jeanette:

We are hop hop hopping towards Easter. It's coming very soon.

Bryan:

Very nice, very nice. That landed well. I hope that most churches have already started talking about Easter in their communication, but we want to take some time today just to give some kind of last minute, semi last minute things to think about, things to improve and just help church communicators, however you're watching or listening today, take your communication to that next level as you prepare for Easter. So yeah, I'm excited. I'm excited for Easter. We're, I don't know, less than a month away.

Jeanette:

So it's my favorite time of year, the whole Lenten season. I don't know if your church does the whole Lent thing, but we do, and I just love this whole time of year. We just had a great Ash Wednesday service a little while ago and just that's how we kick off the season and we just kind of keep going right away or keep going right to Easter. So we love it.

Bryan:

And I think that as a Lent season leads into Easter, so does our communication. So it really is a good time to take just your overall communication strategy to that next level to just make some small improvements that you can do right now, because you know that Easter is for most churches, is a higher attended Sunday. You get more guests on Easter, you get more of those non-regular attenders, the sporadic people that come maybe just at Easter and Christmas, but you know that they're going to show up. So when you know that you have an influx of people coming in, it's a good time for us to think about our communication and what we can do to improve it, to make sure that everyone is in the loop and everyone knows what their next step is too. So, that's kind of what I was thinking about today as we were planning this episode and just what to talk about and what to dive into.

Jeanette:

Yeah, I think it's really important like we were saying Easter is just around the corner, about a month away, you're not going to have a problem of people not... People are trying to figure out where they want to go to church for Easter. People that normally don't, they're thinking about it. It's a tradition, that kind of stuff. And you also want to make sure that you are making it clear to people who don't usually come, but also to the people who do usually come. So I don't know about you, but depending on the year and what's happening and who our pastor is, we don't change pastors that often, but it does happen. Your schedule might change or maybe one of your buildings are being worked on, so you're only having services in the other building or whatever.

So you want to make sure that the people who aren't normally coming and the people who are normally coming do know exactly what to expect for that day. So you're almost helping everyone plan a visit. So sometimes you talk about having that guest plan a visit, but really you need everybody to be planning their visit and knowing which service they're coming to and how all of that's going to work on that Easter Sunday.

Bryan:

That's a really good point because not only do you have people who come once a year, but because of the pandemic, this might be the first time that someone has stepped foot into your building since 2019. I think we're really still at that point where people are slowly returning. So things have probably changed somewhere in your building or like you mentioned service times or whatever. So really it's a good time for you to think about what has changed over the last, let's say five years, and make sure that everyone knows exactly what they need to know when they show up on Sunday or in preparation for showing up on Sunday. That's a really good point.

Jeanette:

Let's go ahead and talk about, okay, so how do we do that then? We know what we're doing as a staff. How do we make sure that we get the information out there? And there's several different ways to do that. And of course, first communications 101, got to have that landing page. Absolutely got to have that landing page on your website and make it pretty prominent. Now, if you're running Facebook ads, it may not need to be your first page because you can directly get people to that page. However, as Easter gets closer, your landing page may become your homepage, right?

And also you do want to have, even leading up, your homepage may still be like, this is what's happening this coming week versus on Easter. But you do want to have a place where someone can see, oh, I'm planning for Easter. I'm planning to have a little bit farther out. Where do I go for that? So have that available on that homepage. But until you're getting right up to Easter, you want to make sure that people can still come on other Sundays too and know what to expect those Sundays. But then have that landing page that's number one. Get that information out via your email list. So you have your members, you have your attenders, you have your infrequent attenders, you probably have multiple lists. You're going to need to email them multiple times. And then, I don't know, Brian, what do you think about mailers? What do you think about direct mail?

Bryan:

Yeah, so-

Jeanette:

Where are you on this, this hot topic?

Bryan:

I think that something like Easter, I think direct mail, a neighborhood mailer or city mailer or whatever it is, I think those can be great opportunities, but it should only be part of a larger communication strategy. Because you know that if someone gets something in the mail, I'm probably going to throw it away unless it catches my attention. But it is also another way that we are giving that visual branding, that visual message. And so it's one way that we're grabbing people's attention. So if we make it good and it looks great, it could be one way that we are driving people to that landing page on our website. It could be another way that we are just reinforcing our message around Easter, because it takes several times for someone to hear something or see something before they actually grasp what's happening or make any sort of decision on it. So I'm a fan of direct mail when it's used for good specific purposes like Easter.

Jeanette:

Well, and I think I said this before we started recording, but this idea of, well, people know when Easter is, I said that, but then I was like, that's not true. If you're busy and your nose is to the grindstone and you've got a lot going on and you don't have kids that are going to school and they're getting all that, that's probably more on your radar with that. But you may look up and you're like, "Oh my goodness, it's Easter." So, so that's not true. So having those multiple ways, and like you said, we talk about this a lot, but one time inviting someone, one time someone seeing a social post, one time them getting an email or a mailer, that's not going to cut it. They're going to have to see something seven times, hear something seven times at least before it clicks in their brain. So that's really good.

Bryan:

And Easter is not the same Sunday every year either. So it changes. And unless you have spring break right there, and you have kids, then it's probably not something that's on your radar. So the more that we can do to get the word out and reinforce that message, the better. I think as part of just that omnichannel approach to the way that we communicate about Easter, direct mail is a great way to do it. You know, mentioned Facebook ads already. You could also use search ads, Google Ads, Google Ads Grant, if you're not using that already, that's a great way to spend Google's money essentially and advertise. So you can advertise your Easter and point people right to your Easter landing page. It's a great way to connect people and use ads that way as well.

But there's another way that we haven't talked about yet that I think you are the expert on here, and that's texting. So I think it's a great opportunity to bring people into the conversation. So how do you think that we can use texting and text ministry or text communication as we kind of talk through Easter and market Easter a little bit?

Jeanette:

So I'm going to try to keep it short because I could go on and on and on. So I'm going to keep it simple. Cause we are trying to keep these Church Juice episodes, little sips of information for you. So there's a couple of different strategies that I've heard that work really well, especially with texting. Of course, like we just mentioned you want to let people who already go to your church know what the plan is, partially so they can invite other people, but also so that they can make their own plans for Easter Sunday. So that's one thing. Another thing is a lot of times churches, maybe your church has some sort of event prior to Easter. So at our church, we do an egg hunt and we do some other activities for children because a large section of our church is children or families with children.

And so we do a lot of activities for children, and when we're doing that, we're gathering their information so that we can follow up with them. And one of the things that we follow up with them about is join us for Easter. So we loved having you at the egg hunt, join us for Easter, that kind of thing. Sometimes we even give the kids a little, we tell part of the Easter story at the egg hunt, but then we say, we're going to tell the rest of the story on Easter Sunday. So when we gather that information, when people are coming to those events prior to Easter, we can follow up with them and invite them to Easter. So that's just a really easy way to get people in. Maybe you're like, well, we don't have an egg hunt. We don't do that. Well, you had people coming at Christmas, I bet you got some of their information there.

So even if you don't have an event, I mean you don't need to try to come up with one in the next couple weeks, that's a lot. But just message people that you already have information for that like I've mentioned earlier that they're not regular attenders. They've come for another outreach or event maybe or they've visited before, all of that kind of thing. So that just that simple text. Now, I will tell you a little strategy because we advocate at Texan Church and we try to do this at my church. You are trying to get information, this is when Easter is happening, but also try to start a conversation with them. And one strategy that I heard that was really great is, as someone asked as part of the, we hope you'll join us for Easter. We hope you'll join us for this Easter event is like, what's your favorite candy or what's your favorite color?

And then having some sort of piece of candy or we have balloons or flowers or whatever. And having that as a conversation starter in your text messages so that when they show up, they feel like they've already started a conversation with you. So like I said, I could go on and on and on, but those are the two basic ways. So just just texting people when the information is, but then also texting those people that maybe you've had an activity, you've gathered their information, you've done an Easter egg hunt and you've done another type of pre-Easter event. Go ahead and follow up with them and invite them to your service.

Bryan:

Well, even for the people who are, let's say you have a plan, your visit or however you have it on your Easter page, you can take that information you have text them, and when you ask questions about their favorite candy or whatever, that gift that most every church gives people to guests on Sunday, you can incorporate something now and make it more specialized and more specific to that person. So I think that's a really great idea. You talked about the other events around Easter, like an Easter egg hunt and all those different things. But another thing that I think churches overlook a lot of times and is really important for communication is what happens after Easter? What are we inviting, especially guests, but maybe it's those non-regular attenders, whatever. What are we inviting people back to, or what is their next step on Easter Sunday? What is that call to action on Sunday?

What are we inviting people back to? Maybe that's something the following Sunday, maybe it's Mother's Day, that's another high attending Sunday for a lot of churches. But really think through not just Easter Sunday, but what happens that following Sunday or three weeks from Easter. And that's really a great opportunity for you to reconnect with people to make sure that you have clear next steps at the end of your Easter service or whatever, and that you're inviting people into the larger ministry of the church that it's more than one Sunday every year, but that there is actual ministry happening. And so it's important for churches and for communication leaders to think through what's happening next and what are we inviting people to next and continue that conversation.

Jeanette:

You can think of Easter as almost like the start of the conversation. So having it be, like we said, people are already... You don't have to convince people to go to church on Easter. A lot of times they're, even if they're not plugged in that that's something they're going to do, but convincing them to come the week after Easter that's where... And so like you say, having a strategy in place, having something to invite them to, even if it's not the next week, but soon. I know at our church we've done a couple of different things where my pastor has either started a sermon series and then one year we did, it wasn't inviting them to another service, it was inviting them to a food truck rally or something. Something that was just come and hang out with us, get to know us better. Let us get to know you better. So it doesn't have to be, there's a lot of different ideas out there.

Bryan:

Absolutely. Relational is important too. I can remember a church that we were a part of a while ago, we would put so much energy and focus into Easter Sunday that everyone was burned out Easter Monday and the following Sunday, if you came back, if Easter Sunday was your first time and you came back the following Sunday, it would look like a completely different place because it was a different band. Because we had used up all the good musicians.

Jeanette:

The pastor's not preaching.

Bryan:

The pastor took the Sunday off. There's no more choir, there's no more. All of these different things. So make sure that we are consistent and authentic on Sunday too. I think that's important.

Jeanette:

Yeah, I agree. That's something we haven't touched on, but we have had people on before that have talked with us about everything communicates, and so you want to make sure that what you're communicating on Easter Sunday is, like you said, authentic to who your church is. So you don't need the brass band if you don't always have a brass band, that kind of thing. And so really making sure, and like you say, you don't want to present your church as being something that it's not really. But then of course if it is vacation time for your pastor and he has taken off, go ahead and plant that seed. Next week so-and-so will be preaching on da da da or whatever. So set expectations, but one of the ways we do that is by being authentic when we're doing our worship, which is what God wants of us anyway.

Bryan:

Good point to end us on. Well, I would love to hear, as you are watching or listening today, I would love to hear how you are communicating about Easter. So if you haven't already join our Facebook group and join the conversation, we'd love to hear how you are communicating about Easter, what messages you guys are sending, or what is your approach to marketing and communication for Easter Sunday. We'd love to hear from you and have you join the conversation as well. Thanks for taking time out of your busy day to listen to the Church Juice podcast. But listening is just the start to take today's topic to the next level and hear from other church communicators head over to the church Juice Insiders Facebook group like I was just talking about. You can find a link to the group along with today's show notes @churchjuice.com/podcast.

Jeanette:

The Church Juice podcast is a listener supported production of ReFrame Ministries, a family of programs designed to help you see your whole life reframed by God's gospel story. Church Juice is produced by Brian Haley with post-production by Minimal Media Company in Grand Rapids, Michigan. For more information about church juice, visit church juice.com. For information on ReFrame Ministries and our family of programs, visit reframeministries.org.