Ministry Marketing CoachMinistry Branding and Marketing that Works

If You don’t have news don’t send a news release! About this time of year churches are pulling out the stops for fall activities like carnivals, special programs and sermon series.

As usual, a bunch of them have not planned ahead or budgeted for promotion, so they come up with the last minute idea that maybe the media will bail them out with a little PR action. Many of them decide to write up a news release and send it to the media.

I hate to burst your bubble, but your release that “[Insert] Church has a Fun and Free Fall Carnival” is not news, it’s just an event notice. You should send your event notice to the newspaper’s community calendar. Many media like TV and newspapers allow you to post events in a free online calendar. All you have to do is register and take the time to fill out the form. And please,  when you send your event notice don’t load the announcement with frilly sales talk. They won’t print it and people hate reading it. Just the facts, ma’am!

So what is newsworthy? Here are some tips for what would make the news from Media College and a couple of my own.

• Timing: Is it really new or novel? Is it happening right now? If your church is the only carnival in town..say a really small town, that would make it news. In most small towns, just about anything that happens is news. Go ahead and send a news release! Take advantage of your opportunities in your small town!

• Significance: How many people are affected by it? Does it have impact? Does it relate to a larger trend? Ask yourself, “Will people really care about this? Or is it just me wanting attention because I am too cheap (or broke) to pay for an advertisement?”

• Proximity: Newspapers and media are looking for the local angle. Can you illustrate a national trend or news item locally by the event? Tie in to some safety issue to your carnival. Like partner with the police there to register kids with the local child abduction protection agency. (That might not work either if everyone else is doing it too.) When you are interviewed, be prepared to talk more about child safety than about the free hot dogs at your carnival. Do your homework on the topic or find an expert to be the spokesperson.

• Prominence: Is someone people have heard of involved? Is Elvis going to show up at your fall carnival? That would be news!

• Human Interest: Okay, you may think you have a human interest angle because you are fascinated by what people are like in your church. But the editor really is the one who decides what is of human interest in his TV news or newspaper. Human interest stories need to evoke emotion like sympathy, laughter, love, etc. The most read stories are of human triumph over adversity.

A handicap accessible fall carnival with “rides” for kids in wheelchairs might make the news as a human interest angle. Note: Nobody should do something like that just to get in the news. That’s creepier than Halloween! But if you are doing that from a pure heart–please let the media know, you are the salt of the earth!

• Unusual: “Man Bites Dog!” Is something that is not the run of the mill going to happen? Okay you have inflatables at your fall carnival. Whoopie-do! That’s not news. But if you had the most inflatables in the history of fall carnivals. Or the largest inflatable in the history of mankind, then you’d make the paper.

• Visual: Is there something about your event that is really eye catching? I know the ponies on the pony ride are cute to you. But is there a visual that is worth a picture in the paper or on the TV news?
• Conflict: Things that are controversial usually make the news or get attention. I am not suggesting you stir up trouble. But if there is a foe to overcome, like neighborhood crime, that will make the news usually.

Also if you have a provocative headline like “Your Church’s Fall Carnival is Not News–Sorry!” you might get attention too.

:-)