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Most churches are surprised at the many ways they could be engaging and communicating with their flock. Here are some ideas to make sure you’re getting the most out of Flocknote:
1. On your website: Don’t let another person visit your website without giving them the opportunity to easily give you their most important contact info (email address and/or cell phone) so you can continue the relationship. Drop a signup form on the front page of your website “above the fold” (i.e. you can see it without having to scroll down).
2. Event reminders: Resend information the day before big events. You can do this via email too, but a well-timed text message has been known to double (or even quadruple!) attendance the next day at an event. Flocknote makes this easier than ever, with automatic reminder texts within our Signups feature.
3. Targeted messages: Some churches have the bad habit of saying everything to everyone, and unfortunately, this is one of the surest ways to get people to tune you out. If you want folks to listen, make sure most of what you say to that person is likely relevant to that person in particular. For example, don’t announce something to 500 people on Sunday that really only needs to be said to the 30 people who went on the retreat last weekend. Simply send it to those 30 people. You can do this by creating segmented groups. Once you get this concept, your people start paying attention again!
4. Proactively help your flock: When most of your people are wondering about the same question (what’s the schedule on Christmas again?) – why not be proactive and email/text them the answer before they have to ask? They’ll thank you and more people will show up, too!
5. Drastically increase giving: Texting or emailing a direct link to where people can give/tithe/donate will give you drastically better results (than a paper form, waiting for them to go to your website, etc). It’s an easy win, and it’s really simple to do with Flocknote’s online giving (included free with all U.S. Flocknote plans). But don’t forget to also remind them why it’s worth giving financially to your church, by including videos or stories of all the great work you’re doing as a church.
6. Send out your weekly bulletin: Many churches aren’t doing this yet. But don’t simply insert an image of your bulletin into your email (hard to read on mobile) and don’t just link to the bulletin somewhere else (a waste of an opportunity!). Instead, one good way to do this is to use a unique subject line highlighting something happening that week, then write a short bit of intro text, followed by a few bullet points of the most important things going on that week. Then link or attach the full bulletin for more info and details.
Note: Some bulletin services will offer to email out your bulletin automatically for you. This is a bad idea for a lot of reasons, the main 3 being…
7. Tell your inspiring story: Make sure your regular emails and text messages are communicating your exciting mission as an organization! Everything you send out (or don’t send out) is telling some part of the story of your church. Is it an inspiring, challenging, rewarding story that your members are excited to be a part of? Make sure it is!
8. The big banner: Place a banner near the entrance to your church that says, “Text (YOUR KEYWORD) to 84576 to choose what ministries you’d like to hear from.” This is a fantastic and ongoing way to remind everyone of the simple step they can take to connect more deeply with any of your ministries at any time (whether they are new visitors or long-time members who haven’t done it yet). If you’re using Flocknote Complete for your member management, this is also a fantastic way to enable visitors and new members to register at your church.
9. Learn about your people: Periodically ask your members questions via Flocknote. We have built-in ways to capture their immediate responses via custom profile fields, or polls through your notes. Ask a question, listen, engage, and learn. Then you can serve them in even more radical and inspirational ways.
10. Live events: For example – send all attendees of a weekend-long event a reminder text the night before the event, make real-time text message announcements during the event, and then send a follow-up text message after the event asking what people liked most about it. The feedback you’ll get is super helpful and it’ll likely make you feel warm and fuzzy, too.
11. Be generous: Every once in awhile, just give your members something. It’s easy enough to text or email them a link to an inspiring video, podcast episode, e-book, or a helpful PDF guide.
12. Gratitude: Don’t forget to just say thank you once in a while. People really like that.
13. Teach: Your members have real struggles and questions about their faith. Use Flocknote to regularly answer those questions, helping them grow in their faith and equipping them to evangelize with joy.
14. Take them deeper: An email or text message is an ideal way to invite people to join a new group, study something, or participate in a community activity because all they have to do is simply reply with their question or let you know they’re interested.
15. Equip your leaders: Make sure you teach and require every ministry leader in your church to use Flocknote. It will improve communications for all ministries and the church as a whole, and it will allow you to keep a pulse on how each of your ministries is communicating. Rest assured, Flocknote is safe environment compliant. Plus, with Flocknote Complete, you can easily set up proxy contacts so that children can be in the database, but that their parents receive communications on their behalf.
16. Turn passive-pew-sitters into engaged, dynamic disciples: Typically, a sizable portion of your membership is not very engaged or involved in the many great things your church has to offer. The more you implement the above practices, the more likely you are to develop touch-points with these folks that will end up drawing them deeper into your community and a better relationship with God.
You can do this, and we’re here to help! Just ask, and one of our Happiness Engineers will get you everything you need to take your ministry to the next level.
Included in the Flocknote Starter package.