How & Why You Should Engage in Church "Marketing"

2/27/2018

Jason Alexis

Digital Strategist for PastorsLine and co-author of reTHINK.Ministry.

WHY ENGAGE IN MARKETING?

Churches have so much to offer the people of this world. You have been given a mission by Christ to spread the Gospel message to everyone. Deliberate and intentional marketing is an important way to connect with people and share your message with them. Developing church online is an effective way
to reach the new digital mission field.

WHAT IS EXTERNAL MARKETING?

This is how you communicate with the public. You’ll share why your church exists and tell them why they should care about your organization.

Here are some ways to engage in marketing and outreach:

Word of Mouth - Train your members to be ambassadors for your church. They can invite the people they know in the community to your services and events.
Website - This is the heart of your online outreach.
Live Streaming - Many people will want to check out your service online before actually attending. Setting up a way to live stream your services is really important.
Social Media - This is a great way to empower your members to reach out to people in the community.
Paid Online Advertising - This helps people in the community who are looking for churches find you.
Traditional Marketing - Direct mailing, billboards, television and radio are still relevant and reach many people.

Marketing today is largely digital and mobile. 64% of American adults have some kind of smartphone. Many more are using tablets and other mobile devices. Reaching people in today’s world is greatly dependent on developing a marketing strategy that relies heavily on mobile-friendly, online tools.

The strategic use of these tools will help you to effectively create a church online. Visitors from around the corner or around the globe will be able to connect with your congregation and have an experience of your vision and values. By bringing together all the digital communications tools, you create a 24/7 online
experience of your church that begins by attracting people to a live streaming service and encourages them to follow your church throughout the week via automated digital tools and social media that personalize the online experience.

WHO MANAGES EXTERNAL MARKETING?

Outreach and evangelism are mission-critical to every church and ministry. Senior church leadership should be involved in the planning and development of a marketing strategy. The execution of this strategy will fall to the same person in charge of internal communications. There may also be a marketing team made up of paid staff , volunteers, and outsourced freelancers.

WHERE IS THE FOCUS FOR EXTERNAL MARKETING?

Marketing is directed at the larger public in your community. You can focus on the local neighborhood around your church, but a digital strategy can also give you a global focus. You can spread your message to people online around the world. Marketing will be deployed on many communications channels. These include your website, social media, mobile devices, and other online media tools.

HOW TO IMPLEMENT EXTERNAL MARKETING

The first step is to determine or review the goals for your digital strategy that you set in the early steps of the planning process. It is important to understand the life-cycle of an interested person. How does someone go from an initial interest in your church to becoming a member? You want your marketing campaigns to help people along in this process. Learn more about this step here>>
Once you determine your audience, you can find out the best communication channels to reach them and achieve your goals. Learn how to improve your internal church communication here>
You can begin planning your campaign by determining your call-to-action. This is the action you expect people to take in response to your marketing. You could ask them to register for an event, attend a talk, sign up for a newsletter, or some other activity that makes a connection with your church.
Based on your call-to-action, you can develop a creative campaign to reach people through your best communication channels. External marketing in the digital age is highly automated. You want to set up systems that can interact with the public at any time of the day or night. Learn how to develop a digital campaign here>>
Finally, you launch the campaign and measure the results. You can track the response and make necessary adjustments for future campaigns. You want to motivate the healthy growth of your church and of individuals in your church. The ultimate test of your church online is its contribution to the health of your congregation. Discipleship and leadership training programs will keep people in the loop and using their gifts to help others along the process. Learn how to turn members into digital disciples here>>

WHEN TO IMPLEMENT EXTERNAL MARKETING

This is another activity that comes at the end of the development process. In order to engage in external marketing, you need to have a well-developed brand and clear goals that you want to achieve. You also need to have a strategy developed to achieve these goals. Without these, attempts to market your church may be premature. Learn about strategic branding for churches>>

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:

Posted with permission from the book reTHINK.Ministry.

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