How Churches Can Use Texting to Attract Visitors
Every church wants to get new guests in the door. Text messaging might be the latest way to do it.
It’s hard for somebody to visit a new church for the first time. A lot has to be stacked in your favor, from the potential guest being remotely interested to the potential guest even knowing about your church. Then you still have hurdles to overcome, including guests being nervous or deciding they’d rather sleep in.
Here are some ideas for how you can use texting to attract visitors to your church:
1. Easy Introduction
Texting can be an easy way to introduce people to your church. You can promote your text service on all your marketing materials—print ads, billboards, direct mail, etc.—and encourage people to “Text CHURCHNAME to 81411 for more info.”
You can immediately send people the details they need: service times, locations, what to wear, where to park, etc.—all the details first-time guests wonder about. You can send them a few texts with details or point them to a welcome page on your website.
2. Contact That’s Not Intimidating
People interested in visiting a church often have questions, but they can also be shy or too intimidated to reach out. Texting can be a quick, simple way to make contact that’s not as intimidating as a phone call.
You can welcome questions or put first-time guests in touch with your pastor. That removes one more barrier that could stop someone from visiting your church.
3. Share Quality Content
A third way you can attract guests to your church is by creating and sharing quality content. Give people something worth checking out and sharing with their friends.
- It could be daily or weekly texts with Bible verses or inspirational quotes.
- Maybe you have a calendar of social events and can invite people to subscribe and receive reminders.
- Pull out sermon insights and send them throughout the week.
Whatever the content is, just encourage your congregation to share it with their friends. You can include directions for sharing and remind your members not keep it to themselves.
Texting to Attract Visitors
Text messaging isn’t a magic bullet to bring in the visitors, but it can be a way to lower barriers and make it easier for guests to check out your church. And that’s a big step forward.
Interested in learning how TextMarks can help your church with text messaging? Contact us at 800-696-1393 or email tmsales@textmarks.com.
