Whew…you breathe a sigh of relief. You just finished your big event. You spent tons of hours and resources on it. Lots of people came. Many of them do not attend your church and walked in the door for the very first time.
Now the big question is, “How do I get them to come back for a weekend service?” Here’s some tips:
Make sure they have a great experience when they are at the event. If they have a bad customer service experience at the event, it will be very difficult to get them to return for a regular service. Do your event with excellence. Put the right people in place as greeters. Put your best foot forward. Exceed their expectations at the event. Add a “wow” factor to their experience at the event. Surprise them. Their impression of the event will form their perception of your weekend ministry.
Have information about your weekend ministries available at the event. Have information about key areas a family might be looking for help in such as marriage classes, a relevant teaching series, divorce recovery, financial classes, etc.
Collect their contact information at the event. We do this by having a prize drawing several times during an event. Families give us their contact information to enter the drawing. They have the option to check on the form if they would like to be contacted with more information about our ministry.
Send them an email that invites them to be your guest at a weekend service. Tomorrow I will post the follow-up email that we send. Make sure you include a link to your church or ministry website. Send this out within 24 hours of the event.
Send them a hand-written thank you note. A personal, handwritten note shows you took time for them personally.
Add them to your mailing list. Keep a data base of families that have attended special events and include them in any promotion you do for future events.
