It’s a common saying among Unitarians that ‘more people would come, if only they knew about us!’, so much so that ‘If only they knew about us!’ was the name of a communications workshop at our Annual Meetings this year. My own feeling is that better communications on its own isn’t the single solution to declining attendance among some congregations that it’s occasionally touted as, but it’s hard not to argue that in a world where people are bombarded with information, it’s essential to proactively get your message out if you want people to actually find and join you.

Happily, the UK Unitarian and Free Christian movement has recently recruited two new members of staff, Pamela Welsh and Jess Ackroyd, to support communications, and they’ve been busy working on this! Among their work is the creation of a new monthly ‘Comms Clinic’ for Unitarian communications to share ideas and discuss problems, rather like the Unitarian Administrators and Unitarian Finance Networks. In their words:

“Doing comms for a congregation can be a lonely business. You put a post together, send the newsletter out, update the website, and often have no idea whether any of it is landing or whether you’re approaching it the right way. There’s rarely anyone to ask, and it can feel disheartening when your efforts aren’t rewarded with more people through the doors.

That’s why we’re starting a monthly Comms Clinic. It’s an informal drop-in where you can bring whatever you’re working on, or whatever’s been bothering you, and talk it through with others who understand the challenge. Expect practical advice, fresh ideas and plenty of peer support.”

I’ve long been an advocate of better support for, and links between, people working on the administrative side of keeping our congregations going, and as a member of the previous Uni-Coms network for Unitarian communicators, I attended the first Comms Clinic on 22 September. I’d strongly recommend it, it was a good discussion and as always, it’s just great to connect with others across the UK facing the same challenges and get mutual support and encouragement. The next one will be later this month, check here for more details: What’s Happening or email Jess Ackroyd at: JAckroyd@unitarian.org.uk.

Some very useful tools were shared during the meeting – here’s some links:

• Unitarian Congregation Toolkit
• For design, Canva
• For emails, Mailchimp
• Learning:
  • Marketing Funnel explanation
  • Social media  key data
  • Free marketing training
  • Comms training