By Jonathan Howe
This post concludes a four-part series on church communications planning and strategy. I’ve previously written on engaging and informing your members and potential church guests. Today, we turn out attention to inspiring them.
It’s not enough to simply inform an audience. Ultimately you want them to pass on the information as well. These three elements of your church communications will help motivate your church members to share information about your church.
- Use high quality graphics. The graphics you choose can be the difference in someone sharing your content and not sharing it. When it comes to social media (especially Facebook), posts with good graphics are shared more than those without. Having a well-designed post and graphic can be the difference in someone sharing your information or not. And that can ultimately mean the difference in someone seeing it and taking action or not.
- Use the right tools. We recently dropped a podcast episode on tools of the trade for pastors and church staff. The tools we listed help make ministers more effective and more productive. When it comes to graphics and communications, using the right tools can make a huge difference. Here are some recommended tools:
- Email: Mailchimp, ConvertKit
- Graphic Design: Photoshop, Canva
- Stock Images: Pexels, Lightstock, iStockphoto
- Social Media: Hootsuite, Buffer, Sprout Social
- Don’t be afraid to ask, but use caution. Sometimes we are too hesitant to “make the ask” with church communications. If it’s needed, don’t be afraid to ask for the audience to take action. However, if every post or message is a hard sell, then people will tune your messages out. Use discretion when making the ask, but do it in a way that encourages them to act and doesn’t shame people for not acting.
What tools would you add to this list? Do you have certain language that you use to make the ask?
Jonathan Howe serves as Director of Strategic Initiatives at LifeWay Christian Resources, the host and producer of Rainer on Leadership and SBC This Week. Jonathan writes weekly at ThomRainer.com on topics ranging from social media to websites and church communications. Connect with Jonathan on Twitter at @Jonathan_Howe.
Consider your audience. To whom do you want it passed?
Be “for” things and people, not against them.
Good word.
I use picmonkey for a great tool for grapic design and editing.
As is pixlr
Yeah. Those are good tools as well.
Good insight. Graphics increases interest like little else and it’s so easy to find free tools via the internet. But, I still find that people in churches love to see their own pictures. Using lots of homegrown videos and pics keeps them looking…