“Marketing is a contest for people’s attention.” – Seth Godin
Jesus…the Public Relations Guru
Jesus was a leader of people, not things.
- Mark 12:37b “…the large crowd listened to him with delight.”
- Calling and leading of the 12 disciples
- Always had a call to action (repentance, giving, what not to do, etc.)
Marketing and publicizing is not just information transfer.
It is creating like mindedness amongst your following.
Where do I start?
Here are 6 questions to regularly ask in a world of communication:
- Who is my audience?
- How does my audience want information?
- What is the irreducible minimum amount of information I can give them?
- How often do I need to communicate with my audience?
- When is my audience most likely to listen?
- What is my tone?
Marketing Strategy: Go find your nearest 7th grade girl…she’ll help you!
You must be involved in the big 5:
- Facebook – have a group or a page
- Texting – use a free app or a paid service
- Website – if your website is the newspaper, then everything else is the paper boy delivering the newspaper.
- Email – have an updated database of emails
- Printed information – bulletins, postcards, posters, flyers, etc. Often this is the most expensive and most time consuming.
Best Practices in Ministry Marketing
- Facebook – Groups allow you exclusivity, privacy, and more inward focus towards subscribers. This is good for security and often notifications are more personal and info is received preferably. Facebook Pages are outward focused and attract new subscribers. Anyone can see the content and you can pay for marketing options for as low as $5.
- Free Texting apps – GroupMe, Group Text, What’s App, Facebook Messenger, Google+. Make sure you have an unlimited texting plan as some apps may use them up! Specify groups accurately so that everyone is not receiving everyone’s texts. Don’t make it a group text where if someone replies everyone gets it…we’ve all been on “that text group” that won’t quit.
- Paid texting services – Your Mobile Church, Group Texting, EZ Texting. Watch for high monthly subscriptions and “use it or lose it” plans. Rather, get a bucket of texts for a flat rate and use them all up.
- Paid texting services – Your Mobile Church, Group Texting, EZ Texting. Watch for high monthly subscriptions and “use it or lose it” plans. Rather, get a bucket of texts for a flat rate and use them all up.
- Website – leave this to the professionals. Have an easy interface where everything is accessible by 3 – 4 clicks. Have a reactive site that looks good on all platforms such as a smart phone, tablet, or desk top. Keep it updated and looking professional. Visitors will often not take churches seriously if they have a poor internet presence and won’t visit. Members will not trust your site if links are broken, info is out of date, and there are kids camp pictures up from 3 summers ago.
- Website – leave this to the professionals. Have an easy interface where everything is accessible by 3 – 4 clicks. Have a reactive site that looks good on all platforms such as a smart phone, tablet, or desk top. Keep it updated and looking professional. Visitors will often not take churches seriously if they have a poor internet presence and won’t visit. Members will not trust your site if links are broken, info is out of date, and there are kids camp pictures up from 3 summers ago.
- Email – What would be the first impression of my email visually? Watch out for eye atrophy! Erase the fluff. Test all the hyperlinks. Make sure your sending list is correct. Have an “opt out” option to keep your audience happy. Have a campaign to update member’s information annually.
- Printed information – It doesn’t have to be full color. The bigger the church, the smaller the bulletin. Does this help or hurt my ministry brand or image? Pictures > Words. White space is good (Think Google home screen). More is NOT better. Ask, “What if this wasn’t printed?” Cater towards guests.
Written by:
Keith Badgett
keith@fbcjenks.org
This month Mr. Mark is resharing some of his favorite posts from this past year.
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