5 Ways to Promote Your Youth Event
Gerald Fadayomi

You’ve put in all the work, done all the planning, and finalized all the details to make your next student event one of the best yet. But then comes the biggest challenge of all: how do you make sure your students come? Figuring out creative and effective ways to promote your student events can be a challenge. Here some tips on how to successfully promote your next student event.

1. Meet them where they are. Don’t try to promote your event through channels your kids aren’t using. Promote where your students are to get the best response. Students today are using social media more than ever. Instagram, Snapchat, even Musicly (mostly for middle school students) are great places to promote. And they’re fun! You can get creative with it and have a little fun in the promotion process.

2. Find your few. Every student group has those few dedicated students who really love to take ownership and get involved. Find your few and let them do some of the promotion for you. Give them leadership in the process and the freedom to come up with some ideas of their own. Maybe even give them a role to play in the event—something they’re excited to tell their friends about. Students who are on board and bought in to the event will be the best resources to get other students to feel the same.

3. Go old school. In an overly digital world, old school promotion tactics stand out more than ever. Try a little snail mail or even a 4×6 flyer for students to hand out to their friends at school. Have someone on your team (or even a creative student!) design the flyer and get it printed at an affordable rate on a site like primaflyers.com. While you don’t want these old school ideas to be your sole promotion tactics, they’re definitely worth incorporating in your overall promotion strategy.

4. Partner with parents. It’s always important to keep parents informed and engaged with what’s happening in your student ministry, but it’s especially important for those middle and early high school students who can’t yet drive themselves to your events. Make the most of your interaction with parents and get them on board for your event. Send an email, give them a call, and even ask them to help out at the event as needed. Invite the parents in your ministry to truly be partners in promotion.

5. Talk about it early. Build anticipation for your event by talking about it a month or two in advance. Make a point to share it on social media and announce it from stage for several weeks to not only create a sense of excitement around the event but also to keep reminders fresh on your students’ minds. You have their attention every week so use some of that time to your advantage and get the hype going around your event.

We hope you find these tips helpful as you plan and promote your next student event!

The above article, “5 Ways to Promote Your Youth Event” was written by Gerald Fadayomi. The article was excerpted from www.bigstuf.com web site. November 2017.

The material is copyrighted and should not be reprinted under any other name or author. However, this material may be freely used for personal study or research purposes.

This article may not be written by an Apostolic author, but it contains many excellent principles and concepts that can be adapted to most churches. As the old saying goes, “Eat the meat. Throw away the bones.”