Cor Communication Strategy

Communication Strategy:

Effective and consistent communication is essential for generating awareness and successfully implementing and sustaining Cor moving forward. Your communication strategy should consider key stakeholders in the parish, such as the pastor, his staff, and other men's ministries or groups. Your target audience is every man in the parish. The greatest form of communication is a personal invitation. Additional avenues of communication can include parish bulletin, pulpit announcements, posters, emails, social media, and forms of text messaging services. Sample and customizable communication resources are available in the Cor Marketing Kit which can be requested by completing the request form online or by downloading from Supplies Online.

Bulletin Announcement:

The parish bulletin is helpful to generate awareness and develop a contact and interest list. Be sure to work with the designated individual in the parish office to obtain permission and the timeline needed to include your announcement in the bulletin. The bulletin announcement should have a link to an interest survey which will help you build a communication list moving forward for either email or text communication.

Pulpit Announcement:

A pulpit announcement is a great way to announce your council’s plan for Cor and to generate initial awareness. Once you obtain permission from your pastor, identify the best council member to deliver the announcement. Your council’s Grand Knight or Evangelization and Faith Formation Director are obvious choices; however, you want to find people that can deliver the message clearly and energetically. Additionally, since you should deliver this announcement at all weekend Masses, you may need to identify multiple people to help cover them.

Posters:

A variety of customizable posters are available for you to promote Cor. You should choose the image that best represents the prayer, formation, and/or fraternal aspects of your event. Additionally, you can customize the date, time, location, RSVP contact and other information. With your pastor’s permission you can post these in public areas of your parish community. Additionally, with your pastor’s permission, you may be able to have these printed and included as an insert in your parish’s bulletin. If doing this, please be mindful of any bulletin deadlines.

Emails:

Sample emails are provided as an initial invitation for your Cor gathering and to remind them the week of. In addition to sending these emails to your council email distribution, these can be sent to non-members who express interest in attending. You may also wish to share these with your parish secretary and other parish groups who might be willing to share and promote your event as well with their email lists.

Social Media:

A variety of social media assets are available for you to promote Cor. You should choose the image that best represents the prayer or formation aspect of your event. In addition to posting on your own social platforms, you should ask your pastor if the parish would be willing to post or share these on the parish’s social media accounts. Also, encourage members to engage with these posts and share with their friends.

Creating a short survey:

A short survey is a simple way to engage the men of the parish and create an email or contact list. Intentional questions will help you learn a lot about the men, particularly when they are most available, what they are interested in, and how often they are willing to meet. A generated contact list will enable you to provide attendees with updates or reminders. Keep your contact list up to date as Cor continues to grow.
Consider using one of the many free online services to generate an interest survey and a corresponding web link. Keep the survey to no more than 5 questions which equate to about 1 minute in length.

Creating a QR code with short link:

Once you’ve created your survey, you will want to make it easy to share and access. A QR code is a quick and easy way for individuals to access online content with their cell phone camera without having to type in a link or search online. It helps with convenience and speed, increasing the likelihood that it will be used.

There are free services online that will generate a QR code and a short web link that can be inserted into a parish bulletin announcement. Once created, insert your custom link and QR code wherever you intend to make them available.

Many QR code-generating services will create a “tiny URL” which is easier to put into a small bulletin announcement. In addition to the QR code, consider providing the web link in case someone is unable to use the QR code and would like to fill out the survey on a computer instead of a phone.