CHURCH COMMUNICATIONS
How to Promote Your Church's Easter Events
A step-by-step guide
All event promotion comes down to helping people find the answer to 2 simple questions.
What are you inviting me to?
And more importantly,
Why should I go?
Promoting your church’s Easter events doesn’t need to be complicated. Answer these questions well and you’re most of the way there. In this simple step-by-step guide, I’ll teach you how to do that practically. In 10 minute, you’ll learn how to design and deliver a simple and strategic marketing campaign to promote your church’s Easter events.
Alongside this article you can download your free Easter Event Promotion Planner PDF providing checklists, templates and resources to guide you through your church’s Easter events promotion. Simply print out the planner and work through the steps are your own pace.
1. Gather your details
Take some time to compile all of the relevant information into one place. Creating an overview of the key details enables you to communicate with clarity and ensures you don’t omit anything important.
Anticipate the questions people might have in order to provide answers before they’ve even been asked. And scour your hard drive (or your memory) for photos, anecdotes or quotes from last year.
2. Uncover your why
Generally, people in your community expect you to run a service or event at Easter (you are a church after all). What they don’t know is why they should bother coming.
The goal is to give people a taste of what they’re going to hear when they come to your event. Perhaps your sermon will be focussed on how Jesus paid for our guilt on the cross. In that case, your publicity should appeal to people’s desire to be free from guilt.
Write a title that captures this idea, followed by a short sentence or two explaining how your events will help them. This should also take the shape of a call to action, encouraging them to come along. For example…
This is your why. In making this title and strap line prominent in your publicity, you’re preemptively addressing the question of why someone should bother attending your event. You’re not only answering the what. You’re answering the why.
As you write your title, take care not to offer something your church can’t deliver. False promises lead to loss of trust. I find that using scripture in your theme title can help you steer clear of this error. For help developing your event title, I’ve put together an article with 50 Church Easter Theme Ideas, complete with the Bible verse that inspired them.
3. Plan your timeline
Before you go making any plans, take a moment to pause and consider your capacity. How much time and money can you feasibly dedicate to promote your church Easter events this year?
This is important because your capacity can shift year by year. And your capacity is different to that church down the road. So carefully work out what is attainable for you. From there, you’ll be able to establish your timeframe and select your communication channels.
Reflect on your context and the people you aim to reach. How far in advance do they need to be informed about your event in order to attend? Do diaries fill up quickly? Then start your promotions early. Or are communications nearer the time more effective? I usually find that starting your promotions between 3-6 weeks before your first Easter event is a good guide for most churches, but this will vary depending on the culture of your community.
Decide how many different channels you plan on using to promote your events. Below you’ll find a a list of different channels you could consider. Don’t be overwhelmed, you don’t need to use all of these channels. Simply choose the ones that will work best in your context and forget the rest.
Printed Publicity
- Flyers
- Posters
- Easter Cards
- Banners
Social Media
- TikTok
- YouTube
Digital Publicity
- Website Homepage
- Website Events Page
In-service Notices
- Weekly bulletin
- Notice slot
- Notice slides
- Interview
Now you’re able to create a campaign timeline. The simplest way to achieve this is to draw out a table with your channels along the top and weeks down the left side. Then all you need to do is to fill out your plan with the publicity that you’re going to create for each channel.
Planning out your publicity in a visual way like this allows you to intentionally distribute your communications. It will prevent you from leaving all your publicity till the last minute, or from jumping the gun and starting too early. You don’t need to hit every channel every week, but try to use at least one or two channels each week, with a particularly big push in the two weeks before your event.
The template below is included in the free Church Easter Event Promotion Planner.
4. Build your website
One place that communicates everything. That’s the goal.
Create a webpage for your Easter events that includes essential details, frequently asked questions and descriptions of every event you’re running. This is your single point of reference that anyone can access. Every time you mention your events, whether formally or informally, in person, online or in print, if you point people here, they’ll have access to all the information they could possibly need in order to attend your event. This means you don’t necessarily need to include all your information on every piece of publicity, which frees up your designs so you can concentrate on the most important information.
What to include on your webpage:
- Event title
- Event date and time
- Event location (including maps or directions if needed)
- Who it's for
- Event description
- Photos from previous years (if applicable)
- Sign up link (if applicable)
- Frequently asked questions
5. Create your designs
As for the designs you use, don’t underestimate the power of visual communication. Most channels that you’ll be using will require you to design something. Taking time to make it beautiful is time well spent.
You have 3 main options.
Design it yourself
Pros
- It's unique to your church
- It's free, other than the cost of the software
Cons
- It's time consuming
- You might not have the design skills required
How I can help
I run an online course called the Church Graphic Design Training Programme. It teaches you the essential principles of graphic design and helps you apply them directly to your church context. Train once and use your skillset for years to come.
Customise a template
Pros
- Professionally designed
- It's quicker than starting to design from scratch
Cons
- It's not unique to your church
- You might not have the design skills necessary
How I can help
I host a growing library of Canva Templates that are completely free for churches to use and adapt. These have been professionally designed and created with churches in mind. I even have a curated selection of Easter templates.
Hire a Designer
Pros
- Professionally designed
- Will communicate the right message
Cons
- More expensive
How I can help
I’m a professional graphic designer with extensive experience designing for a church context. I take on a limited number of client projects each year. Get in touch if you’d like to hear more
6. Put your plan in motion
Start publicising your events, following your plan. But try and be flexible too. If you receive feedback on something and believe it’s worth acting on, do it. Your plan exists to help you, not hinder you.
7. Reflect
Once your church events are over and your marketing campaign is complete, don’t forget to reflect on what went well and what you can improve.
Learn Graphic Design for Church
The Church Graphic Design Training Programme is an online course that equips church volunteers and staff members with practical skills to create compelling designs which resonate with your community.
Browse free design templates for churches
Need some quick and easy professionally designed templates for your church? Explore our free, fully customisable templates for churches.
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