10. Spreading the Word
So you have all your plans in place, and maybe you’ve started working with some children and young people already. But how do you make sure that more children and families are aware of what you are doing, and are attracted by the opportunities on offer?
Think about the best channels of communication and publicity, and what it is that children and families themselves will see as compelling reasons to want to get involved. Here are some thoughts.
What will attract children?
Children without a prior experience of attending church regularly will have no concept of what it means to lead music in worship. They will initially approach the opportunity to join a church music group in the same ways that they would consider any other activity: Is it fun? Are other kids (including my friends) doing it? Will I be doing something I’ll enjoy? Will I feel good doing it – will people look up to me with respect? Will I learn something new that I’ll find interesting? Is it all work and no play? What added bonuses are there – trips, club activities, pizza, biscuits, pocket-money?
What will attract their parents?
From the point of view of parents, offering their children an outlet for an existing love of singing or playing, opportunities to develop music skills, a free music education, the development of self-confidence and regular opportunities to use skills in public, is a potentially compelling set of incentives. Fundamentally, they will want to know three things: What’s the time commitment? Does it cost me anything? What does my child get out of it?
Word of mouth
By far the best way of engaging parents with these opportunities for their children is by word of mouth. Talk to any families who come to church. If you work with choirs or instrumentalists in schools, find opportunities with the school’s support to speak to their parents, at the school gate or elsewhere. Tell them about their children’s potential, and the enhanced opportunities you can provide for them to reach that potential. A personal approach, referring to and valuing the individual child and understanding the benefits that their family might perceive from their joining your group, is worth a hundred flyers. Encourage children in your group and their parents to talk to their friends about the opportunity – you may be surprised by how good they are at doing your marketing for you!
Events
One way of generating interest in your choir is through an event which allows children and parents to sample the experience without feeling like they are entering into a commitment just yet. Chorister Experience / Be a Chorister for the Day are traditional tools for recruitment in churches with well-established choirs, but be aware that they take a lot of organisation and management, that careful design of the content is needed to make it really engaging from start to finish, that effective marketing and a lot of word of mouth (especially via existing choristers and their parents) is vital to generate attendance, and that the end result might be few, one or no new recruits. When they work, they are valuable. When they don’t, it can be dispiriting after all the work that has gone in. Prepare the ground well, and go in with your eyes open and your expectations managed.
Social media
Social media can be a good way of spreading the word about your musical activity and the opportunity for children, young people and their families. Try to target what you do as locally as possible. Facebook, for example, often has a number of local Groups or Pages for your own town or area. Try posting in those. Keep your posts action-oriented: a picture paints a thousand words, so show your group in action at some special event. Don’t just repeat wordy marketing from your flyer. Link to your own group’s Page, if you have one. To ensure good safeguarding, always aim your posts at parents, not at children. Never post in fora or on platforms which are intended for children. Your safeguarding lead should be able to advise you, or point you in the direction of guidance, about the safe use of social media.
Print publicity
Flyers, banners and other printed material do have a part to play in spreading the word. Be clear about who you are targeting, whose attention you are trying to attract. Maybe you want a child to pick up a flyer and take it to their parents: if so, make it largely visual, relatively light on words, child friendly, but perhaps add (on the back?) some key bits of important information for parents. Think of where you need to put flyers. Simply leaving them at the back of church isn’t going to reach families who never come to church. Ask local primary schools if they will put them in book bags. Send them home with any children you work with in schools. Leave a stack in local libraries or other places that children and their parents may visit. At audience events in church, place a copy in every programme or on each seat.
Local media
If there are local newspapers or radio stations in your area, see if you can interest them in something that your group is doing. Don’t just expect them to offer free general publicity. Find a story that their readers or listeners will be interested in. Remember that most local news outlets don’t have capacity to write many stories from scratch, so provide some ready-made copy, with photographs. In all publicity, whether print or online, ensure that you have parents’ consent to use photographs featuring their children. You should have collected this consent when a child was registered for your activity. Check whether you have it before using an image, and if necessary seek it afresh. Do not name or otherwise identify children featured in photographs, except where essential to the story, and then only if you have specific consent to do so.
