Launch and Lead Practical resources for launching new churches and leading them well

Advertising When Money is Tight

Barry asks how he can get the word out about his church plant when he doesn’t have money to pay for postcards and his city won’t allow him to put out road signs.  Here’s some thoughts, and I would love for you to chime in.

1.  Make road signs and have people put them in their own yards.

2.  Print simple flyers (you can get nice full-color ones online for cheap) and get a group of your people to put them on doors personally.  The most expensive part of postcards is the postage.

3.  Print up some t-shirts and ask your people to them around town on a certain day or give your people bumper stickers for their cars.  Or have them write with shoe polish on their windows.

4.  Print business card size invites to a series (less than $50) and teach your people how to use them.  Personal invitations are the absolute best way to invite people to church.  About 75% of our first time guests come because they are personally invited.

5.  Go through your budget and cut some internal stuff and use it on getting people there.  My guess is that you could cut somewhere.  You may need to sacrifice something you think is necessary to free up some money to get people to church.

6.  Hire The Change Group to help you generate more operational revenue.

7.  Make sure your church service is amazing.  Somehow, people show up at what is good.

What would you add to this list?