The fall is one of the busiest times for a church. September kicks off a season filled with fall kick-off, back-to-school events, fall festivals, giving campaigns, and — dare I say it this early in the year — Christmas. 

Apart from the major holidays, the end of summer is one of the biggest times of the year for people to return to church. Once fall begins, seats are refilled, people are re-engaged, and for leaders and staff, it can feel like a dead sprint to New Year.

As the busiest time of the year quickly approaches, what are you doing to attract people back to your church? Getting strategies and systems in place as early as possible is a crucial step. Don’t wait for September 22nd to shift gears or you’ll be playing catchup until January 1st. 

I’m proud to work on a team of church marketing and communication experts. Collectively, we bring over 30 years of faith-based marketing experience to the table. We want the Church to win in this season because we believe in the Church and we love the Church. For those reasons, we’ve compiled some of our top tips to ensure you’re using these final summer days wisely as you prep for this upcoming fall.

Assess Your Current Strategy (and Look Back to Last Year’s)

Before you begin brainstorming ideas and making plans, assess your current situation. Church marketing and communication is one of those taboo concepts for many ministries. No one wants to talk about it (even if everybody is okay doing it). 

The truth is, you’re always marketing your church, whether it’s through word-of-mouth, a sign posted out front, or updating a social profile. So, what is the state of your church’s marketing right now? Look for strengths and weaknesses. Are things active and focused on summer activities? Are they lagging and uninspired? Organized, chaotic, outdated?

Now, look further back. What did you do last year in the fall and autumn? What events worked? Which ones didn’t? What do you wish you were better prepared for? What feedback did you note to make sure you implemented for next year’s event? This is the time to pull all this information together — in the summer, well before you’re gearing up for your first fall kick-off event.

Look Forward to This Year

Now comes the trickier part: looking forward and planning ahead. This is hard because the summer is a time when everyone wants to temporarily tap out. They want a break after the first half of the year. Attendance is often low. Who wants to think about the busyness coming down the pike when everyone returns from summer vacation and warm weather holidays?

Trust me, though, when I say that thoughtful forecasting is essential to success. For the fall of 2024, in particular, it’s important to prepare for a few major events. There are the obvious big-ticket items like harvest festivals, Giving Tuesday and other major end-of-year giving campaigns, and of course, Christmas is always a big deal and often requires concerted promotional campaigns.

It’s also worthwhile to think about how you’ll handle the fact that it’s an election year. Partisan extremism is going to be a factor for the short term this year, even if it isn’t likely to impact long-term strategy. Every church is different. How will you handle the pressure of this election cycle?

Additional Tips to Prep for a Busy Fall Marketing and Comms Season

Along with looking back and projecting forward, here are a few actionable tips you can use to set the stage for the coming months:

1. Set Clear Expectations and Objectives

   As you consider events, set top-level objectives. Clarify the metrics that will define success and make sure you have the tools in place to measure outcomes. 

   Working with a faith-based third-party marketing firm (which, for the record, is more than a consultant) can be an effective way to organize your operation, establish and delegate organizational consistency, and ensure everything is humming in a month or two.

2. Delegate Responsibilities

   Who is in charge of what? It’s an endless question and one that can devolve into anarchy and micromanagement quickly in a church setting. Don’t let that happen. 

   Assign roles, set up committees, and do whatever else you have to so that your staff is aware of and empowered to execute their role in the coming months.

3. Identify Your Audience(s)

   Who are you communicating with this fall? What is the target audience for each event? Who is in charge of reaching them with your ministry’s message? 

   Identify this early so you can begin considering effective channels to reach them in the lead-up to, during, and after each event.

4. Align Tools and Teams With Mission

   Finally, as you set the stage for a fun fall, make sure you’re keeping everything in line with your church’s larger mission and vision. From maintaining the right culture within content creation and event teams to social account and email messaging, are your marketing and comms reflecting who you are as a ministry?

   Tending to these needs early gives you the breathing room to address each item without rushing. Trust us when we say that this can be a game changer for a streamlined and effective fall marketing and communications campaign for your church. 

Conclusion

We understand that it is hard for church staff to rally in the summer. Pastors are taking turns on vacation, student teams are busy with summer camps, and whoever is onsite is trying to oversee a skeletal crew for Sunday services.

Tossing in fall planning can feel overwhelming and even impossible. But it doesn’t have to.  If you already have enough to focus on, digifora can help. 

Our team of veteran fractional CMOs and church marketers collectively have decades of experience. Three of our team members have even worked with five or more of the biggest churches in America. We’ve been in your shoes and we understand the complexities of fall calendars at scale and the importance of getting the right things in motion early. 

Reach out, and let’s talk marketing strategy and how we can help set your church up for a smooth and successful second half of the year.