Tis the season to get people to come to church!
Dec 8th, 2008
Our local group of churches have used various means to publicise jointly the fact that Christmas is a time to go to chruch. This year we managed to get nearly half a page in the local paper for a bargain price and so here are three ideas for an ad. You can vote on which one you think we should run with.
Ad #1
Ad #2
Ad #3
Help me out here
The ad will appear in the local free paper and will cover nearly half a page. In amongst the rest of the Christmas ads, which of these do you think will have the greatest impact?
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Not sure I have a preference over the ads themselves (perhaps a slight preference for 1 or 2 over 3) but may I make a suggestion over the wording. Rather than asking people to email you for details (which entails making themselves known) couldn’t you put the details on a website and publish the URL on the advert. That way people can look them up straight away (without having to “check local press and church notices” and anonymously.
I was about to suggest a web site rather than an email address as well, so another vote for that. Privacy is important to people, and they will be suspicious of what you’re going to do with their email address. (Are you going to spam them about Christmas services every year until He comes again?)
Guys, good points about the e-mail. I was thinking about ditching the e-mail but in preference for a good old fashioned phone number!! l really don’t have the time to create yet another web site to cover 10 or more churches Christmas programmes.
Thanks for your feedback.
Hi – we like ad 1 best – but prefer the text at the bottom of ads 2 and 3. Also agree with the other comments about email addresses. Can you buy a bit more of the page and print the services in the paper.
No preferences between 1 or 2, but I hate 3. I think it sends a terrible message about Jesus being a “commodity” rather than Lord.
Helen & martin, in the past the churches have indeed publsihed what can only be described as a telephone directory of services (there are, I think 12 churches each with several services).
Jeff, I am coming to see that too, though may be that is the point of this and perhaps with different words would make that kind of statement about how we treat the real Christmas message.
Thank for your feedback though.
Personally, I find the first advert a bit “twee” and more akin to an old-fashioned roadside pulpit than a slick marketing campaign (no offense
). I voted for the 2nd one because it’s a little more subtle, and nice and relevant.
In an ideal world you would have “visit http://www.mywebsite.com or text XMAS to 89999 for more details” but I’m guessing that gets expensive
Thanks mrben. In the end I have gone for #2 and have used the graphic to create a quick web site address instead of the e-mail. http://sthelenstcf.org.uk/.
Thanks for everybody’s comments.