How to Create an Effective Video Content Strategy for Your Church or Ministry

Jamie Jean Schneider Domm

Digital Strategist, Social Media + Big Data, North American Division

Justin Khoe

Digital Missionary, ​"I’m Listening with Justin Khoe; Life. Faith. And the things that matter."

One major question that you should ask yourself about any piece of content uploaded to social media is, “Why would anyone care to watch or listen?” While uploading your full worship service will certainly be a blessing to your current church body, think about each online viewer as a first-time guest.
 
Before a prospective viewer can get to the actual message, many ministries force them to sit through 20−30 minutes of content that is irrelevant to them. Why should someone who has never been to your church care about the announcements, special music, or offertory?
 
Instead of uploading your program’s entire livestream to YouTube, a better approach would be to optimize your content for this specific platform once the live event is over. Realize that YouTube is a search engine; it’s a social community with its own subculture and set of social norms. Upload just the individual sermons or messages from your evangelistic series or camp meetings, and optimize the videos to be found via search. 

Break your livestreams and longer videos into smaller segments for distribution and community engagement on YouTube and other social media platforms such as Facebook and IGTV. Consider breaking your videos into two- to three-minute, easy-to-watch clips that highlight the key points of an inspiring message, or pull out the children’s stories into their own dedicated playlist.

Your goal should be to create as much evergreen content as possible to promote your message, church, or ministry to seekers. Capturing the attention of your audience several different times can help build trust and value regarding your ministry. Evergreen content can be shown to new audiences repeatedly while retaining its intrinsic value, meaning it doesn’t become less interesting or less relevant over time. Be sure to avoid including the date in the title of your video or mentioning it in graphics or dialogue during the selected message. Perception is important in outreach. The more dated your content seems, the less relevant it will appear, even if it still carries tremendous value.

Questions to consider before uploading your videos:

1. Will my audience still care about what is covered in this video?
2. How in-demand is the information being presented?
3. If I was a part of my audience, would I spend time watching it?
4. What is the overall replay value of the video(s)?
5. Is the content in easy-to-digest segments that my audience can view on the go?
6. Does this video address a common question or solve a problem?

Follow the guidelines outlined in the How to Start A YouTube Ministry: A Comprehensive Guide.  These guidelines will help position your video in the best possible way, not only to be found, but also get watched. Be sure to follow these steps because your content cannot lead people to Christ unless it is viewed.

Download the Comprehensive Guide