At the start of school each fall, you may have opportunity to engage students as they first hit the campus. Here are some things to keep in mind in this very effective way of making contacts!
- Make sure to show up early so that you can get the best spot.
- Have one person standing on the side of the table asking people to come to the table and one or two people sitting down. Have no more than 6 people at the table at a time. Having more people often makes new people feel overwhelmed and then they don’t engage in conversation.
- HAVE FUN! Smile, joke around and have a great time. When you are at the table YOU are the face of your ministry. If you look boring then they will think your ministry is boring. It takes diligence to stay excited with every new person you meet. Make sure not to talk to each other too much but focus on making eye contact with the people who are walking by. Did I mention you should smile a lot?
- In between people coming up to the booth be praying silently that God would bring the right people to the table and use this to draw them to Christ.
- Whenever people walk up say “Do you want to do a free raffle for an IPAD?”
- Many people will ask “What is this for?” or “Why are you guys doing this?” you can just say “We are raffling off the IPAD for fun to get the word out about our group. We are a student group on campus that has tons of fun events, an awesome large group meeting and other Bible studies and trips. Tonight we are… (Tell them about our next fun event.)”
- If they don’t ask anything, start a short conversation with a couple common conversation starters like: “Where are you from?” or “Are you living in the dorms?” etc. Quickly say, “Have you heard about us yet?” then say “We are raffling off the IPAD for fun to get the word out about our group. We are a student group on campus that has tons of fun events, an awesome large group meeting and other Bible studies and fun trips. Tonight we are… (Tell them about our next fun event.) ” Encourage them to check the box on the prize entry. “If you check the little box at the bottom we can give you more info.”
- Very important! Make sure to invite them to the next fun event or meeting while they are at the table. Say something like, “We are going to be_____________ at _________on _________ .You should come hangout with us.” Make sure to encourage them to check the box. Say something like, “If you check the box at the bottom we can send you a text and invite you to it.”
- Make sure to hand them a flyer for our fun events and our large group meeting.
- If they seem super interested you can personally get their number and even set up a gospelappointment with them on the spot.
- The same day send them a text message for our next fun event or Bible study. Text something like “Hey _______ this is_________ from (your ministry) table you came by today. Tonight we are __________ at ___________. Do you think you can come?”
- That same day add them as a friend on Facebook. Send them a message that says something like, “Hey, _______! It was fun getting to meet you today at our table. I am part of a group on campus called (your ministry). We are doing a ton of fun events the first couple weeks to welcome everyone to campus. If you join our Facebook group (add link) we can keep you updated about our fun events such as a free BBQ, Concert and other stuff. Look forward to seeing you around!” Then add them to your ministry Facebook group. For more information see “How to follow up interested contacts.”Add the contact information into the Google document spread sheet and make sure to stay on top of it. This is how we will know if you are following up with them or not. If you can’t be consistent with every form of follow up then we need to give your contacts to someone else.Be consistently praying that God will use this effort to help new students start a relationship with Christ and get involved with your ministry!
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