Posts tagged Evangelization
Email Newsletters for Catholic Parishes
Feb 8th
Email Newsletters
With rising cost and hard to reach parishioners, email newsletters are a great way of contacting parishioners.
Before the closing prayer has always been the normal slot for announcements, but with so many important activities to engage the parish community that is not enough time. With email newsletters and announcements you can reach the parish community through the medium they check most regularly.
Who doesn’t check their email daily?
The traditional parish bulletin is essential to outreach, but often that’s not enough. With an additional weekly blast the parish can engage on multiple fronts and encourage parish participation.
Benefits of Email Newsletters
- Save Money on Printing
- Save Time by Reusing Announcements
- Track who opens emails
- No limit to length of information
- Easily Add in Video, Color Pictures, Polls, and Additional Web Sites
- People Read Emails
Additional Ways to Use Email Newsletters
- Insert Catechism lessons.
- Teach a course
- Capture responses automatically
- Track what people are interested in
- Manage from any computer, in any office, in any part of the world
Which Company to Use
I have personally used iContact.com and have been very happy with the price and service. With it’s ease of use and, low cost, and good customer service, it has proved itself to be CatholicTool of choice. I have used multiple competitors and been unsatisfied.
Techniques for Email Newsletters
These are a few article I read to ensure I produce the best email newsletters for the Catholic parishes I have worked with
Best Practices For Bullet Proof Emails
Design and Build Email Newsletters without Loosing Your Mind
Useful Web Design Email Newsletters – These are good to subscribe to if you are interested in design
Let me know how these work for you! If you have questions leave a reply.
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Loading ...How to Attract Youth to Youth Group
Jan 30th
More Proven Marketing Tips for Catholic Youth Groups
Greece, Yea it was fun.
Let’s face it…Youth groups in the Catholic Church are usually small; however, here are some sure methods of bringing more youth to youth group. Try them and tell me how they work for you!
1. Speak from the Pulpit. Right after all the Masses in the Fall and Spring speak from the Alter. Short, 2.5 minutes long and simply say (very enthusiastic ((I always wore a suite) “ Hi my name is Jason Buck and I am the youth minister at (insert Church). I am very excited to invite all the youth tonight to come our annual youth group kick off night. It will be filled with food, fun, and faith. So if you like food, (insert a pause maybe a little laugh), fun, and faith (all with pauses) come on out at 7pm. We have a large number of youth from the parish who participate all ready. I will be in the vestibule giving out more information. Thanks and see you there.”
Collect names and email addresses.
2. Get rid of the objection. Never ask, “Do you want to come to youth group?” because the answer is always “no.” Instead ask, “Does pizza, sports, and a ton of young people sound like fun to? Ok I will see you at youth group tonight, insert name.” If they say no, say, “What don’t you like pizza or making new friends?”
3. Bulletin Announcements for the parents. When you insert a bulletin announcement make sure to tell how much fun your last event was and how much greater this one is. It is good for the parents and parish to stay informed about the youth group.
4. Posters with Pictures. Place posters in the vestibule of Church with pictures showing how much fun the youth group is having.
5. Go to School. Make friends with the theology teachers, help out with retreats, and make a little nitch. The school can send out your information and put you in contact with the teens. Remember you must offer something to the teens and teachers if you want something in return. Don’t forget the home school crowd.
6. Offer Incentives. With the group of 20 you have to create an incentive for each person to bring one more person. That makes 40. Double that you will be making history.
More Tips
1. Use zoho.com CRM to keep track of your youth group.
2. Create a website using wordpress.org or finding a youth to manage it.
3. Always collect email addresses
4. Don’t use myspace.com
5. Read articles and constantly update yourself. Don’t be an authority, just be informed.
Any of these tips could work for other parish ministry organizations. Just be like Jesus and go out to talk with people. If you have to, perform some miracles in His name.
Popularity: 20% [?]
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...Bring People Back to Mass
Dec 16th
CatholicsComeHome.org, run by Tom Peterson, produces fantastic Catholic commercials. I have worked with Tom on projects in the past. He is a practicing Catholic who takes his faith seriously.
If you are interested in bringing more Catholics back to Mass, have seen a rapid decrease in mass participation, or want to engage in an evangelization effort in your area contact Tom.
While I was teaching in a Catholic school I would use these commercials as openers to talks; however, their best use would be across a diocese.
Inspired by the Holy Father’s call to a new evangelization, Catholics Come Home reaches out to inactive Catholics with inspiring TV commercials and an interactive Web site.
“Six months after the CatholicsComeHome.org media campaign ended, a comprehensive analysis was conducted, which revealed the average increase in Mass attendance (returned Catholics, new converts) was 12 percent, even though population growth in the Diocese of Phoenix was flat during that period. This equates to an increase of as many as 92,000 souls who came home!”
Ryan Hanning
Director of Adult Evangelization, Diocese of Phoenix
If you are interested in donating to the project: click here.
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Dec 14th
Have you considered airing commericals to bring people back to the Catholic Faith? Well, it has worked in Arizona and many other states.
Here is a Catholic commercial.
Popularity: 2% [?]
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...Flyers that Don’t Waste Your Money
Dec 5th
How many times have you seen a flyer made in Word with a little clip art? Yes it’s fast, easy, and takes no time, but it also doesn’t work. Youth today are used to glossy, fast looking, professional flyers and posters. They quickly overlook the cheap ones and they only satisfy your desire to “do something.”
Flyers and posters are important because they help make the invisible, visible. I used to go around speaking about adoration events and how much youth benefited from them. I saw the youth benefiting right in front of my eyes…vocations to the priesthood. It wasn’t until I had a professional looking poster put together that people were able to visualize the event and come. Even for myself it helped me realize what I was doing.
1. Outsource your job. Hire a professional designer. Find a college student. By a template online. Trade their time with some of your time. One time I let someone borrow my truck and they made me a poster.
2. Be creative, funny, and use color. Your poster doesn’t have to be unique.
3. Don’t over do it with information. Simple to the point with a web address.
4. Distribute Properly. Print them and then put them up where youth will see them…Schools. I like in bathroom stalls. That worked really well at college.
5. Less is More. Print on demand instead of printing to many and having leftovers. I like 11X17.
6. PDF. Turn the poster into a PDF and send it to all of your contacts so they can print it out and hang it up…Outsourcing works.
Popularity: 3% [?]
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