Church Marketing Strategies For The Body of Christ

Church marketing for your corporate body of believers involves implementing strategic marketing to help fulfill the Great Commission of reaching out to save the lost. The church marketing plan discussed here is NOT about developing fancy flashy material, or expensive advertising campaigns with a "fast talking" preacher-salesman mindset. It is about using sound marketing principles and applying them to your church as you fulfill God's call.

In fact, church evangelism and basic marketing have some of the same purposes. It's to get the "word out", to make others aware of a service or product offered to potential clients (or members for the churches), and to motivate them to "buy" or take part.

A preacher or evangelists already has some great skills of selling. Instead of making a deal for a product, they are attempting to "close the prospect" in accepting Jesus as their Savior!

Hence, ministry marketing is put into place to reach out and attract the lost for salvation first, and then to teach and train them to play a vital role in your church's vision to impact the world.

This church marketing plan involves accomplishing what Jesus said in Mathew 28:19-20:

"Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the sonand of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you...."

So where do you start your own church marketing?

Clarify Your Vision

Identify what you believe is your church's vision or destiny. What part are you going to play in making disciples? Is your focus on the homeless on your city streets or the rich and famous?

Define and Write Down The Marketing Plan

Church marketing planning will help connect you to your desired goal and destiny for your body of believers. Having a written ministry marketing plan will put you in the top 5% of ministry marketers, according to Chris Forbes, the "Ministry Marketing Coach." Write out the goals and make a time table to accomplish them in one year to 18 months. Praying and asking for a "God-inspired" ministry marketing principle or a marketing anointing is a great place to start.

Find Your Focus Group

Focus on the "WHO" you want your specific church marketing to reach. You have to know who you will be talking to, in order to effectively communicate and speak to their needs.

For example, in my days of working at the Christian radio station, we knew based on Arbitron ratings and other studies, that are main listening audience base consisted of women in a certain age bracket. So we aimed our promotions and ministry marketing focus to reach out and help that particular group. When I was on the air, I knew I was mostly talking to this targeted group of women, so I spoke in a way where I tried to minister to their specific needs and concerns.

So take the time to write down characteristics, demographics and any information you can to identify your target group. Study and learn as many things as you can about them. As you get to know your target audience more and more, you will be able to connect and communicate to the people you want to reach.

Branding

Branding is what differentiates you from other ministries. Sometimes the religion of your church is what creates a branding. Non-denominational churches don't have this as much as say, a Baptist or Catholic church.

So branding is not about trying to get your focus group to choose your ministry over another, but to show them you have a definite solution to their need.

For example, I used to go to a church where people who ride Harley Davidson Motorcycles were accepted without a blink of an eye. Any given Sunday, you'd see many come through the church doors with their leathers on and some with their black Tee-shirts saying, "These ARE my Church clothes". This is a good example of how branding can attract the kind of people of which you desire to teach and minister.

(By the way, that's me on the Harley on the left here flying free. Don't tell my mom I don't have my helmet on!)

When you have a good branding in your marketing approach, you know your message is clear, you have established credibility, and you have found a way to emotionally connect with your target audience. The result is a motivated group of people who are loyal and want to help you to accomplish your vision.

It's interesting to note that the branding of your ministry often resides within the hearts and minds of your church members. It is the sum total of their experiences and perceptions, some of which you can influence.

Promotion and Using Video Ministry

Your church marketing plan obviously will have an element of promotion in it. But I am not referring to the kind of promotion that costs a great deal of money, such as advertising and expensive billboards. You can promote through learning to write news releases and sending them regularly to your local media outlets. Get the word out through Community Calenders, Public Service Announcements which many Christian Radio Stations offer, and local involvement in areas where your target audience is likely to be found.

Back to the example of a targeted group that includes Harley Riders, or Bikers. Find out when they have their regular rides, meetings and special events. You can find ways to use these events to connect with them. Have a special "Biker's Sunday" to invite more motorcycle riders to your church.

One key element in this promotional part of Church marketing is a website. Having a professional website is a must in a church marketing plan in today's fast pace world of technology. Almost everyone is on line. The audience you can reach there is incredible!

But let's make one thing clear. It's not just about having a website for the sake of saying you have one! It must be professional and exemplify excellence in all facets. Having a fancy web site with blinking animations and scrolling text is NOT what I mean.

Content is what keeps keeps people coming back and new people finding you on line. Write great content to meet the needs of your church body and your target group. Tell them not just what's happening at the church, but what is going on in heart of your pastor, worship leader or youth pastor. Ultimately they are desiring that you speak life into their daily challenges with words of hope and instruction from the Word.

Powerful testimonies of what God is doing in Church members lives should be featured and updated often. Testimonies will do more to "sell" the benefits of your ministry than anything else. Create a section in your website where you get members to speak into a camera and testify. This is one ministry marketing strategy that hits a "home run" every time.

This leads me to one passion I have in using video ministry and multimedia tools. We live in a media saturated world. According to comScore, 75% of Internet users watched online video in May 2007, averaging 158 minutes per viewer. Nearly 8.4 billion videos were streamed online in the month of May. That's a lot. And it's increasing day by day.

I started a Video Production Company a few years ago to help churches and ministries use video to promote themselves and to use on the front page of their website. I have also worked with Christian schools producing powerful video marketing promotional tools. You can check one I did recently by clicking here. I can think of no better way to illustrate this type of Promotional Video tool that can help in your branding and marketing than to show it to you....ON VIDEO. This is one of my favorite ways to help with ministry marketing.

Traffic Plan For Ministry

Check out a preview with this video:

Ministry Marketing Video Series Teaching The Power Of Social Media (Part 1)

Video is proving to be a key element in any market plan. Why not take advantage of it. You don't have to be a "YouTube" channel, but you can provide powerful videos on your church website or on your own church's video channel!

Click here to learn how essential it is to have a Church Website.

Click here for Pastor Chanda Simmons story of learning a ministry marketing strategy for herself as a minister and for her church, Christ Deliverance Ministries.


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