
4 Ways To Create Effective Stage Announcements That Are Heard & Acted On
Have you ever done stage announcements or video news at church which no one has responded to? The teams were all ready to respond, but the only response was the sound of tumbleweed blowing through the foyer?
Then the review/follow-up moment arrives and the way the announcement was done is blamed for the lack of response. Ever been there?
The challenge for every Communications Director is to ensure that any announcement adds value to a person’s spiritual journey. Here are a few tactics to help you get more return for the ministry you are promoting:
1) Message beats service structure
Your existing structure for announcements may not be the best approach to take. Look for opportunities in the service to see if the message is better placed somewhere else in the service. The regular announcement time slot may not be the best spot.
2) Align with message
I’ve written about this before at length here. You may have an announcement for connecting into groups. You will get more response if you time your announcement with a sermon that talks about community. It’s not hard to drop in a 2 minute plug that doesn’t feel like a plug.
To do this well means that you will have to know ahead of time where the preaching topic is. You can advise your small groups team ahead of time to build their response around the message.
3) Tap into the seasonal rhythm of life
Tapping into the seasonal rhythm of life is a very smart tactical move. People are more attuned to certain messages at different times of the year.
Do you have a season where more people visit your church? It may be just after summer holidays. This is the perfect time to promote ministries that help people find friends and connect into community. You are helping them establish a new rhythm. Again your Pastor may not be wired strategically, but it is your job to advise him about smart tactics.
By doing this you are adding so much value, not just to the ministry. But also to people’s lives.
4) Medium can triumph the message
The best place for a platform announcement may not be the platform. Even if the announcement is an ‘all church communication’. The best place may be another communications channel such as email. Email done well can be a highly responsive channel. You can also target the right people more effectively too.
I recently did an email announcement to help spread the word for our new church online campus (check it out here, you may even want to help us spread the word) and even though the platform will reach many people, email was the best way that people could click and respond to help spread the word (Check out my previous post about creating irresistible emails here).
Your turn
What has worked for you? Have you seen any good ideas about improving announcements? Drop a link or comment below. Do you have any questions about announcements? Drop a comment below.
We’ve used a number of methods….because people seem to LOVE to ignore announcements.
Sometimes we use a video to announce something, followed by a vocal summing up…
we sometimes announce something and then get Children or the stewards to distribute response forms to the people right then and there. sometimes we’ve asked that before people leave church that morning, that they read the slip they’ve been given and fill it out. sometimes we’ve given response forms out…taken a few minutes of corporate prayer to ask The Lord where each of us should be involved…and then asked people to fill out the slip.
But the best way to get a response going for us, has been (for example) we had a ladies breakfast recently…it was run by our pastor’s wife (my wife), and so SHE stood in the foyer of the church as everyone arrived and handed each lady a personal invitation that was laminated (we find people value a flyer far more, and will consider the event worth attending, if it is of quality design), and then it was announced in the service from the front…making reference again to the flyer given out, asking if any lady did NOT receive one, in which case we’d hand one to her right there…and THEN, after each service for the next week or so, Sarah my wife, would go in person to each lady, iPhone in hand, and ask them if they were coming, note down their response and if necessary, take their details. Following that, we would then text and Facebook message ALL the ladies / Men that didn’t attend church to get the invite, including of course, those who are not Christ Followers, and remind everyone a few days before the event and again the day before. She’d then get a 90-100% affirmative response.
I do this with the men’s breakfast too. Ok, it’s more demanding, but it absolutely works! ONE ON ONE is the key in our experience.
Short version – You MAY need to use every trick in the book for every event you hold, if you want a good sign up. who knows why!!!??