In church communications our focus can often be around large-scale broadcast communication. Sometimes when we communicate we only add to the noise and clutter that is going on around our various audiences. Today’s post is a relatively short post, but I want to give you an example of really effective communication that cut through the clutter of my day.
We’ve recently been on a long holiday and are re-entering church life. In what I think is a great example of communicating to the heart, our kids ministry sent my children a postcard after their first day back at church.
I’m fairly task driven in our communications, ‘sign up for this, register for that’. But sometimes you the response you are looking for isn’t a cognitive one, it’s an emotional one.
Here is how I felt after receiving the postcard.
“Wow, they really love our kids. In a big church, they actually noticed that we weren’t there. It’s nice to be appreciated once in a while.”
Now while the communication is addressed to our children, they actually got the parents to buy into them. High emotional IQ. Smart. Here are three more reasons why I think it works so well.
1. Highly personalised in a real way
Hand-written communications has a great way of making anyone sit up and take notice. In the age of ‘mass personalisation’ we actually feel much more appreciated when people actually sit down and take the time to write to us.
2. Timely
It was sent in the same week as we returned as a family to church. They noticed us and connected. Cool.
3. Original
They could have sent it through an email to the parents. It would have lasted all of 3 seconds of the read, then deleted. In an age where information obesity rules and attention scarcity it at an all time premium they choose a tool that said ‘we care’.
Creating WOW communication touch-points are nothing new. You can create them for any audience. What examples have you seen that work really well? Or do you have any questions? Comment below.
