Getting the Word Out

The speaker may be excellent, the music a hit and the food delicious, but if nobody attends, all your work is in vain.

How can you plan and promote your special event so it reaches the audience you intend?

Target your target audience

It is important to identify who the program, event or worship service is planned for right from the beginning. You cannot expect everyone to attend everything that goes on. Knowing your target audience makes your planning more effective.

When you know this target audience well, you will also be more successful at planning your event and choosing a date, time and place that will reach them best. For example, older folks may be reticent to drive at night, teenagers may have a hard time getting up early Saturday morning, and parents may need child care.

If you have not planned your event with your target audience in mind, the most elaborate promotion plan will not do you any good. A program which meets persons' needs at a time and place they can easily attend is the first step you need to take.

Now, let's consider how to promote and publicize effectively!

Say it and say it again

The first rule of effective promotion is, "Tell them and tell them again!" In fact, some studies say a person must hear about something in five different ways before they will remember.

So, if you are in charge of publicity, this is the time to utilize your creativity, enlist the help of those with specific talents and start making plans to tell your story again and again and again. Ideally, you will meet with others some time ahead of your event to brainstorm ideas, select the best and write up a thorough publicity plan. Planning ahead--as much as three months--can make a big difference in the effectiveness of your work.

Here are some ideas you might consider:

• Use your church newsletter. Plan an article announcing the event, a feature article on something unique, a "you are invited" ad, and a follow-up report on your success. Spread these out over the month or two before the event as well as afterward.

• Announcements from the pulpit can be effective. They are more effective in the form of a skit, or when a visual aid accompanies the talk. Ideally, an announcement in the bulletin shares the details, so they don't have to be included in the oral announcement. Short and sweet is the rule.

• An attractive bulletin board or poster can help tell your story. Place strategically, where the people you want to attract will see them. Use photos to help tell your story. Smaller signs can be hung on doors, in classrooms or other places. Don't forget the strategic reading space on the back of the restroom stall door!

• Look at some other possibilities for signs as well. Smaller signs might be put on coat hangers in the church cloak room, on Sunday School door handles or bulletin boards, or wrapped around the hymnal cover. The most effective use is when the object has some relation to your program, i.e., a hymn sing announced on the hymnal wrapper.

• Even more attention-getting is use of a special display. If Vacation Bible School is going to be outside, set up a sample class on the church lawn. Costumes, free samples or other attention-getters are usually very successful.

• A special mailing may be needed. If you know many of your target audience will not be in the church building, then you may want to send a letter or postcard announcement. Again, short and sweet will help the materials be read.

• A personal phone call is always the best invitation. Share your list of names with group members and ask each person to make three or four calls.

• Take advantage of other gatherings to promote your event. Visit Sunday School classes and make a short announcement, ask for time at the CWF circle meeting or make an announcement at the church board meeting. Ask permission ahead of time for a warmer reception.

• Three or four times a year you may have an event special enough to merit mention in the local newspaper. Mail a news release with a good photo to news outlets well ahead of the event. Church members, as well as outsiders, will take more stock in the importance of the event by its mention in the paper.

• This list is just a start; there are many other ideas. Let your enthusiasm for what is coming spill over as you plan for effective promotion.