A parish can create beautiful, effective and inspirational materials that are printed and shared to inform, motivate and teach about a particular topic.
The parish bulletin is a perennial publication that is a “go to” for weekly news and information. Keep these tips below in mind and view more tips here and here!
- Avoid technical terms and acronyms. Write for the long-time parishioner as well as the visitor who is learning about your parish and perhaps the Catholic Church.
- Designate certain pages for regular ministry updates so that readers can have an easy time finding the information they need.
- Articles and photos are helpful for personalizing your parish and communicating your mission and vision.
- Design your bulletin cover as a flyer and ask parishioners to cut on the dotted line to post or share with friends, family or co-workers.
- In addition to promoting your parish events and activities, promote diocesan wide events from our parish announcements’ page.
- This video from the Diocese of Pensacola-Tallahassee offers more tips for creating a captivating bulletin.
Additional Print Materials
Newsletters, flyers, brochures, fact sheets, infographics, banners, posters and annual reports are additional printed materials that can be effective tools for communication.
It is helpful to enlist the assistance of a professional graphic designer for the creation of these materials. However, if budget constraints are an issue, a low-cost alternative is Canva.com, an online platform that provides design templates and stock images. If you need assistance with Canva, contact communicate@dosp.org for assistance.
Also, writing and design tips can be found here.
To Print or Not to Print
Before deciding on what printed materials are needed and taking into account the budgetary and environmental concerns with printing large quantities, consider these questions:
Who am I trying to reach?
What am I trying to communicate?
Can this be accomplished without printing?
Can I use recycled paper?
How will I measure the effectiveness of my printing?
Can the printed material be recycled or repurposed?
How will I distribute the printed materials (i.e. event, direct mail, church office display?)