Improve your Church Bulletin so they’ll read it (5 Tips)

Want to improve your church bulletin? So your printed worship guide will be wanted and needed? You have an uphill battle since the print medium is dying.

The vast majority receiving a bulletin don’t read it. Most throw it away while some churches conveniently provide recycle bins to save the planet from the castaway printed items. So why create them in the first place? It’s a good question. The world is preferring digital communication over printed materials. 

Digital, done right, keeps people informed, and saves money in the long run!

However, some churches use church bulletins for service order or liturgy. If that’s you, then members probably need it — but you may want to drop the service order as most churches do — it’ll allow for freedom in your services. And if you have liturgy or lyrics in your church bulletin, consider projecting them in a format that matches your worship room style. It’ll get heads up so more will hear their worship!

Still want a worship guide though? Here are 5 tips to improve your church bulletin:

1. Make it smaller. OK, you (or your congregation) may not be ready to do away with it. The older the congregation, the more they’ll rely on printed materials. So save money by reducing its size. If you’re printing it in-house, go to the next smaller paper size, cut the page in half, or stop adding all those inserts. Receiving a smaller brochure will encourage people to look at it. 
2. Improve your website. This seems like a weird way to improve your church bulletin but it’s essential. Improve your website’s events/calendar area so people can easily find events for them. Then direct your print bulletin announcements to your website by showing web links or QR-codes for more details (and easy ways to add your events to their digital calendar). 
3. Tier your events. It’s important that every ministry event doesn’t have equal volume — or you’ll end up with a lot of promotional noise that’s ignored. Instead, create a hierarchy for all-church events. Then calm down all-ministry events. You may even want to drop all other events in the bulletin as part of your smaller size (send them to the website, rely on weekly emails or social media channels).
4. Segment by demographics. Make it easy on members by creating an easy and obvious organization that’s consist each week — so they’ll quickly see what’s for adults, students, and children. Ensure every event clearly identifies (through color, icon, or subtitle) who it’s for!
5. Edit. Edit. Edit. Get their attention through the benefits of attending the event. Don’t add all the event information as you receive it. Limit details to those that will pique interest. Then point to the website for the additional details. Once you’ve removed all the unnecessary, you’ll have improved your church bulletin so it’s friendlier. And your members won’t have to remember where they left the bulletin!