How to Market an Event

Marketing a church event and getting the word out is critical for great turnout. We all know to communicate the date, time, and location of the event with families and volunteers. In fact, it might seem most natural to create flyers and pass them out during weekend services and for people to give to their friends and family. While this method is tried and true, check out these three tips to go beyond traditional marketing to take your church event to the next level!

Add Inclusive Language 

Most church events have a bigger goal in mind — to let your community know you are there for them. From Christmas plays to block parties in the summer, we all want our communities to get familiar with our ministries. After all, getting to know one another is the first step in building lasting relationships within our larger community. This goes beyond the people who share the same interests and family dynamics — true community building includes those with differing views, as well.

In order to appeal to people with different backgrounds and family structures, consider adding language that would truly make anyone feel welcome at your next event. As you market your church event, get curious about how you can be more inclusive by asking:

• Is our event marketed with clear details?
• Is our event accessible to people with various disabilities and/or needs?
• Does our event need translation at any point?
• Does this event require parent involvement? If so, how can we accommodate various family dynamics?
• How can we go beyond blanket statements of making others feel welcomed, and get specific about who exactly we mean when we say “all” are invited?

Use Social Media, Emails, and Texts

Flyers and church announcements can only go so far, even if we are most comfortable relying on them when marketing a church event. In a tech-central world, social media posts, emails, and texts will circulate peoples’ feeds online — a more effective way to keep them up to date on details.

It may sound simple enough to hit send and call your promotion strategy good, but the algorithm of social media platforms can be a bit more involved than this. Each post may garner comments and DM’s full of follow up questions regarding the event, and people may be so excited that they repost it! Be mindful If you want to get the word out about your event online, try these tips:

• Sign up for a blast text service for your ministry.
• Use platforms like MailChimp to promote your event with scheduled blast emails.
• Boost your social media posts for a small fee using Meta platforms.
• Create a social media post schedule and ask a volunteer to monitor comments, DM’s, and reposts.

Partner with Local Organizations for Donations 

Why partner with local orgs? Well, it’s a great opportunity to boost small businesses, and partner with your community in a tangible way. How do you do this? Say hi! Visit and support their business, and consider hiring them as a vendor for a future event.

When you support local businesses, they can get the word out about your event. Whether that’s by posting a flyer, or reposting about your event. Consider the following ways to incorporate local businesses when marketing a church event:

• Connect with food vendors for block party type of events
• Highlight independent face painters or bounce house businesses for kids events
• Promote local live bands and DJ’s for community events
• Partner with non-profits for outreach events or donation drives
• Support local artists who can provide their creative talents or mentor teenagers in your students ministry

We created Grow’s Volunteer/Parent Hubs — because we know goals aren’t easy to set or achieve without some help. Hubs are 100% FREE and included with Grow Curriculum, and today we are officially launching Hubs for Grow Curriculum subscribers. Next month we’ll open it up for anyone to subscribe to for $9.97/month – but it will always be free for Grow users.

What are Hubs?
It’s you’re brand new all-in-one platform for communicating to volunteers and parents. The main features of Hubs are . . .

• Editable online ministry calendar
• One to one and group messaging
• Announcement feed similar to FB or Slack
• Provide downloads to your teaching content

The Grow Team

A team packed with pastors, ministry leaders, writers, editors, designers, project managers, app developers, and more! The Grow Team works to bring curriculum and ministry strategy to church leaders everywhere.

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