By Wayne Hebert

Advertising for new membersis one of the most importantfunctions of a church. Newmembers bring vibrancy to achurch. They bring in new life.They make the church more in-teresting. They bring in new facesto see and new hands to shake. Theybring in new arms to carry the manyprograms that you support. And, theybring in their wallets to help fund thevarious church functions.

Since attracting new members is sovital to the livelihood of a church, whatis a cost-effective way to add new peopleto your congregation?

Your signs on the street, around yourgrounds, and in your buildings are vital toattracting new members and keeping ex-isting new members proud of your congre-gation and your facilities. How many timeshave you driven down a street and don’t see

anything new? You’ve made the trip hundredsof times, and it is the same view each time.Then, an existing business changes their sign, ora new business moves in and adds a new sign,and you notice it immediately.

Your mind is trained to see differences.Differences are what keep us safe. Differ-ences are what keep us interested. The newsign is different, and you immediately no-tice it and register that there is somethingnew there. The same thing happens withyour church sign. You need to updateyour sign to make it new and different.That way, it and your church will benoticed.

Signs are crucial for establishing in-stant credibility. Here is an example:You are on a trip driving down theexpressway and are hungry, so youpull off at an exit you’ve never vis-ited before. At the end of the ramp,there is a fast food restaurant andan independent burger joint. The

fast food restaurant has a big flashy sign, the parkinglot is clean, and the building looks great. It has a greatfirst impression.

The burger joint has paint peeling on the siding,the sign is old and decrepit, and there aren’t manycars in the parking lot. You decide to eat at the fastfood restaurant. You just missed out, and so did thenew owner of the independent burger joint. Youcould have had a fantastic burger with all the fixin’sand great fries served to you at a nice table for lessmoney than at the fast food restaurant. The newowner worked on the food and the interior first,while working on the exterior was next on the list.You just didn’t know because the exterior providedsuch a poor first impression that you chose the “safething.”

Perhaps you need to work on the credibility ofyour church building and the church grounds. Con-sider how well your inside signage communicatesabout your beliefs and programs and how well it pro-vides way-finding to help new people move around.Everything about your signage should communicatethat when a new family or a new individual attends

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your service that they have chosen the “rightand safe thing” for them.

Your entrance sign should serve as an ad-vertising attraction, as well as a source for ad-ditional information. The sign should includeyour website and phone number, and manychurches like to include service hours and

Bible class/study hours. Make sure your web-site address is easily seen by the passer-by.

Outdoor advertising works and is a greatway help the potential new member find outmore information about your church. Theroad that our manufacturing plant is on hasover 10,000 cars drive by daily. That is around416 cars per hour. Over the course of a year,that is a potential 3,650,000 impressions eachyear. It doesn’t really matter how many carsdrive by your church. If it is only 50 cars perday, that is still 18,250 chances each year inwhich to make a great impression and attractpotential new members. The better the at-traction you present, the more potential im-pressions you will garner.

Signs are a good investment. Many thingsthat a church buys are good investments, suchas new handbells for the wonderful handbellchoir you have, or a new organ or piano tohelp you all sing God’s praises in time and intune, or new carpeting to make the placelook fresh and new.

While many of your purchases may addto the overall good experience of a new po-tential member as a whole, there isn’t an easyway to determine that you can get a quickreturn on your investment. An entrance signis both a good investment, and it can giveyou a quick return. It can literally pay for it-self in a short period of time.

Here is some simple math to show youhow an engaging new church entrance sign

will pay for itself...and fast. If your new signcreates new impressions on the street andhelps inform potential prospects about yourchurch and entices new prospects to attendservices; if it can attract only two new mem-bers per year and they attend services 50weeks out of that year and contribute $20 tothe collection plate; that will add $2000 inrevenue! Many beautiful signs can be pur-chased for far less than $2,000. Only two newmembers should help pay for your new signin a year. This is how a sign is one of the bestinvestments that a church can make to attractnew members. The sign, when coordinatedwith all of your other messages, is the begin-ning of the attraction; it is the starting pointof all of your marketing.

The first question to ask when lookingfor any new church sign is if it is mainte-nance-free. Will it require expensive (hard tofind) bulbs and ballast when they burn out? Isthere any wood or paint used in the con-struction? (Paint peels when used on wood,and wood warps, cracks, and degrades overtime.)

While we believe it is important tochange the look of your signage on a regularbasis (remember that differences are impor-tant), it is crucial that the sign look fabulousthe entire time that it is on the street attract-ing attention. The sign industry today offersnumerous low-maintenance, durable alu-minum, PVC, and various composite materi-als to ensure that the signs are beautiful theentire time you intend to use them.

Many churches like to have a changeablecopy message board as an important designelement on their entrance sign. Much like asupermarket changes the “end cap aisle” dis-plays regularly so you see the new productseach week (they don't want you to missthem), the same goes for a fresh new mes-sage on your sign that is changed regularlyThis can be the difference your eye noticesthat we were discussing above.

This being said, don’t write a book onyour message board. Remember the averagedriver in a car only has a couple of seconds toread it. Keep it short and change it regularly;this draws attention to you and your mes-sage. In addition to weekly announcements,you might consider making your messagefunny, inspirational, or thought-provoking.Give someone a reason to watch for yournew message every week. Make it fun andkeep the readers’ interest in mind. Consider-

ing using your message board as a commu-nity sign, perhaps thanking the local fire de-partment or welcoming the new coffee shopnext door.

For churches on a tight budget, lookinto all your sign lighting options first. Lowprofile exterior lighting and a front-lit signcan save you hundreds, if not thousands, ofdollars over purchasing a back-lit cabinetstyle sign. Most hardware stores now sell in-expensive high-quality low wattage outdoorlighting that can easily be installed by any-one. Two or three small lights on each sidecan light a sign or building beautifully with-out hot-spots. Just plug in the lights andyou’re done; no need to fuss with expen-sive specialty bulbs or ballasts that are hardto find and expensive to maintain.

And, don’t overlook smaller “coordinat-ing signs.” Perhaps a few signs strategicallyplaced down the street with directional ar-rows. For larger churches, you may also needcoordinating directional signs in your ownparking lot or buildings. When added to yourentrance sign, your interior signs, your web-site, and other marketing collateral, this allhelps you make huge strides towards buildingyour brand and community awareness.

New members mean your church isgrowing. Attracting new members is yourdaily challenge. Build your brand. Makeyour message known and make the mes-sage cohesive throughout all of your mar-keting campaigns. Make it easy for newmembers to find you and then make it easyfor them to stay. RPN

Wayne Hebert is president ofEZSignsOnline.com LLC, which provideshigh-quality affordable signs for church,business, farm, and residential customers all over the United States.www.EZSignsOnline.com.