Church Marketing Sucks

Every week I hold online office hours and answer questions from folks like you. This week we’ve got a question about service announcements. Take a look and be sure to join me every Wednesday from 2-4 p.m. CDT for online office hours!

What’s the best way to do church announcements? What part of the service, how long, etc.

My Response:

Let’s get this out in the open: There is no good place to put announcements.

Put them in the beginning, people dilly-dally and wait out in the fellowship hall until they’re done. Put them at the end and folks leave early while trying to gracefully communicate non-verbally, “listen, we like you, we just don’t care about the Underwater Basket Weavers ministry. OK?”

Wherever they land, announcements feel like a 13-year-old kid in junior high gym class: awkward, clunky, uncoordinated and rife with insecurity.

It’s a catch-22, really. It’s like the old marketing adage, “half of our marketing budget is wasted, we just don’t know which half.” Announcements must happen, but people are paying attention half the time (on a good day).

Having said that, there have been several churches I’ve visited where people have literally cheered for announcements. Like, Christmas-morning-as-a-kid level of excitement. Nearly all of these instances included video announcements.

These were short, professional-looking, well thought-out videos that communicated what was most important for the church that week. They said the same things had they done the announcements live, but by putting them on video, they created an experience that people didn’t want to miss out on.

Video announcements don’t need to be expensive, either. One church used an intern’s digital camera to record the video. It was one shot of a (hilarious) associate pastor reading announcements off a cue card while injecting a little humor. They produced it on iMovie and, as far as I could tell, spent no money doing it.

Simple, absurd, and it got people to ask questions.

Another thing about the location of announcements: if they’re good, it doesn’t matter where they go. One church mentioned above had them at the beginning, the other at the end. Find what works for your service order by experimenting. You’ll know when you’ve hit it.

Hope that helps. Great question.

Thanks for the great questions everybody! Hopefully this information will help you get from where you are to where you want to go. See you next time in the office!