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One of the most practical ways to equip your congregation to invite their friends to church is a sermon series. It gives them a tangible event where they know the exact topic that will be discussed. This makes it a lot easier to explain to their neighbors and coworkers because it’s not just, “Hey, you look like you need Jesus. Do you want to come to church with me?” Instead, it’s something exciting that will only be happening for a few weeks and, if you’re doing it right, will have a topic that is appealing to the outside eye. A series gives outsiders an excuse to check out your church for the first time.

Here are six easy and affordable ways to get the word out about your sermon series and equip your church family to invite their friends:

1. Invite Cards

This is one of my favorite ways to spread the word about a series. You can get 1000 business cards printed with your series details for around $25 and put them in the hands of everyone in your congregation. I like to give everybody a bundle of five cards and encourage them to personally invite five people to come check it out. Be sure to include your series graphic, dates, times, address, and website. Printers that I use regularly for these cards are Overnight Prints and Next Day Flyers.

2. Shareable Social Media Graphics

Social media is one of the best ways to spread the word about events, but you can take it a step further than simply posting on your church’s profile. Provide downloadable square (612x612px) promo images with all of your series details on your website. This will allow people to share them with their friends on their own Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram profiles. The potential for reaching people in your community is endless with this method.

3. Exterior Banners

It’s likely that numerous people drive by your church every single day. Take advantage of this by hanging a large banner that’s easily visible by drivers. Next Day Flyers has a 10’ x 5’ banner for only $140 that we’ve purchased several times for promoting events. When I was promoting for our movie theater church in Baltimore, the cinema manager even allowed us to display banners like this for movie-goers throughout the week.

4. Facebook/Twitter Ads

Facebook ads and promoted posts are super affordable and truly reach a lot of people. They are also really easy to target a very specific audience. These ads have been really effective for us. Also, Twitter has recently added some extremely powerful tools for advertising with graphics. Nothing stands out more on a feed full of 140 character tweets than a large photo.

5. Post Flyers Around Town

Take advantage of every community board within a 20 mile radius of your church. Print some flyers with your series graphics and post them at Starbucks, Panera Bread, and anywhere else that will allow it. These kind of places get a ton of traffic and require people to wait in line for their food. This is the perfect opportunity for them to read up about your upcoming event.

6. Email Current & Past Attenders

Have a database full of email addresses from people who have filled out your connection cards? Why not send out an email with the details of your series? Keep it quick and use images, rather than words, to do most of the communicating. Services like MailChimp are perfect for emails like this and have templates that make it easy to plug in your graphics.

Have you found any other affordable ways to promote a sermon series?

Kendall Conner

What do you get when you combine production, design, and communications together with a passion for the Church? It turns out, this is the precise formula to make up Kendall Conner. For over 20 years, this Christ-led creative has been bridging the gap between media and ministry. In addition to serving as the creative pastor in his local church, he is the Chief of Operations for Church Motion Graphics, a ministry-focused design studio that serves thousands of houses of worship around the globe. Kendall specializes in equipping church media leaders and volunteers to utilize creativity in their services to share the hope of Jesus.

12 Comments

  • Jim says:

    We do Bible bookmarks for each series, which people love , but I don’t know how much they share.

  • Dude…you’re so good at these super practical posts. Love it! I need to learn more from you.

    • Kendall Conner says:

      Jonathan, your book played such a big part in this post. It inspired me to share what has worked for us in the past and why sermon series’ are so important. Thanks for all you contribute to the Church Media world!

  • Exequiel Ossandon says:

    you could also include a hashtag for the series in everything. flyers and banners and squared images.

    • Kendall Conner says:

      Hashtags are HUGE for promoting events in your church and spreading the word about what you’re doing!

  • Ryan Kilosky says:

    It’s good to know about the Twitter advertising and the banner from Next Day Flyers, so thank you! I can definitely second the advantage of Facebook ads as we have used them effectively as well. But Facebook requires your image to be no more than 20% text which is a real problem when you’re trying to communicate the starting date of the series and you’re service times. You can eat up 20% of an image real quick. Nonetheless, this is so practical. Advertising used to seem like something you would hair a firm to do, but nowadays, all it takes is some time and a little know how. Thanks for sharing!

  • Alex K says:

    Interesting read, should be spread and handed out in banner prints on websites that help with this insight.

  • Karen Kubiak says:

    Hey Kendall, a little-known secret we’ve used with success is Every Door Direct Mail (EDDM). This delivery option from the USPS delivers your flyer to every mailbox in a given area, for around 10 cents apiece. No addressing necessary. We promoted our December series and Christmas services by delivering 13,000 pieces to the surrounding neighborhoods. Postage was less than $1350.

    • Kendall Conner says:

      Hey, Karen! Is this where you make the bundles of postcards and take them to the post office? A friend of mine just did this and was telling me about it.

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