This is about finding an appropriate way to “get your foot in the door.” Once you’ve done what you said you would do with their contact information, you can give them the opportunity to tell you how they’d like to continue staying in touch. They can opt-in to a new email or mailing list. They can schedule a meeting with a staff person, a small group leader, or a group of other new people.
The more people know about what it means to give you their information, the easier it is for them to give it to you.
You can (and should) communicate your intentions in the church bulletin, in the same place you ask for their information, and then whoever shares your announcements can help cast the vision for what you’ll be sharing with new people.
If your church calls new people, tell them what you’ll call them about and why they should look forward to that phone call. If you email new people, explain the benefits of being on this list. However your church follows up with new people, set yourself up for success by casting the vision for what happens next.
People make a lot of assumptions about what’s an appropriate use of someone’s contact information. Should you email them once a week, every two days or once a month? How soon is too soon to call them? Mail them? Invite them to something else?
When you set clear, reasonable expectations for how you will use someone’s contact information, there’s no ambiguity.
3. Provide a clear next step for Christmas visitors
When a Christmas visitor sets foot in your door, you probably don’t know much about them. You don’t know where they’re at spiritually—this could be the first time they stepped inside a church, or they could be a former pastor, an atheist or anything in between. You can’t make assumptions about what they believe or what groups, ministries or opportunities they’re ready for.
When in doubt, talk to the furthest out.
I’ve been volunteering in an outreach ministry for seven years, so I’m a little biased, but when you’re speaking to large groups of people who could be in very different places spiritually (like on an email list), it’s always safer to start with the absolute basics.
For your church, this means identifying the simplest next step. During the service, you might direct new people to a particular booth or person, where they can receive a free gift. Or maybe you prefer to mail people a gift (which creates more incentive for them to give you their address). If your primary goal is to help new people develop relationships, maybe you direct them to an event catered to new people, or a small group, or a meeting with a staff person who can afford to invest in the relationship.
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Maybe it’s as simple as getting Christmas visitors to come again next week.
Whatever your ideal next step is, it should be designed for people who are completely new to your church (for example, Christmas visitors) and it should be completely clear what you’d like them to do. Pick the most appropriate next step and focus your efforts on directing people to take that action. At most, include one secondary action you’d like people to take if they aren’t ready to take the ideal next step you’ve selected.
Giving people too many choices is almost as bad as giving them none.
4. Make it personal
When a new person gives you their contact information, that information shouldn’t go into some random pool of member info, and they probably shouldn’t receive your weekly newsletter. Whatever you send them should be specially catered to someone who just came to your church for the first time—because that’s who they are.
All they know about your church is probably what you showed them during your last service, so you should talk to them like someone you just met, not like a 30+ year member of your church.
Maybe you can introduce them to your staff, with a letter explaining a little more about the pastor they just heard preach. Or an explanation of your church’s mission—why you exist, and what you hope your church can be for this new person. Or some of the best ways to get to know people at your church.
Your “new people” email/mailing/calling lists should have a clear, straightforward progression that addresses where people are at when they leave the door of your church, and helps carry them back the next week, and the next week, and the next week.
Use their names. Talk to them like real people. Show them what your church is all about. Not a generic, cookie-cutter creed, mission statement or calling. Tell them about the people at your church. The story of your church.
People will come back to your church because of the people. That’s what your church really is, after all. When you’re trying to show Christmas visitors what your church is like, show them what your people are like.
