Part 4 of 4 - How To Create an Effective Church Ministry Marketing Plan
By: Christopher B. Nelson-Jeffers
Getting Started
Often, especially if you are just getting started, you will find that pre-packaged promotional materials are a big time-and-money saver, and you can learn a lot by starting with them. After all, they were designed by professionals in the church marketing field.
On the other hand, such materials are often too generic, and do not specifically address your own church’s strengths, ministry message, or calling.
Another option is to employ the services of church marketing professionals or an agency to create customized and tailored promotional materials especially for you to use.
This can “quick-start” your efforts, and save you much time, and many dollars, in “trial-and-error” experimenting, but it usually will involve substantial front-end cost.
In the end however, it is how well that you actually meet needs and wants that will attract and retain people, not how “slick” your promotional materials are. Again, knowing your community and your target audience will better enable you to identify effective and appropriate methods of reaching them.
Step 4 - Following Up
There are two sides to the following-up stage. One is to follow-up with and evaluate the effectiveness of your various marketing and communication efforts, and the other is to follow up with the people that your efforts actually attract.
As we touched on earlier in this report, your efforts will be a colossal waste of time (and money) if they are not producing the results that you want - which is, getting your message out to the people, and getting them to actively respond.
And just what is your intended message? Ultimately, it may be to fulfill your role in the Great Commission, and to “make disciples of all nations”, or it may be simply to attract more people to become worshippers and members of your own local church, and thus to increase the amount of resources available for your church to conduct it’s ministry mission.
Are your media messages primarily positive “feel-good” inspirational messages? Or are your efforts intended to get people into the church, attending your worship services, and actively participating in your ministries and missions?
If they are the latter, just how effective has the particular channel or media been in inspiring worshippers to attend? Which method or message has been more effective? Time to evaluate, assess, and adjust your planning.
Find out how people found out about you. Ask them what specifically inspired them to begin attending, or participating in your church. What messages have they seen or heard out there in the various media? Do they use your website? Do they read your newsletters?
Assimilation
The other aspect of evangelism and church ministry marketing that is most often ignored, is doing something with the people once we’ve gotten them in the door.
Is your church a warm, welcoming, and friendly place? Is it really? Most churches think they are, but from the first-time visitor’s perspective, they are very often a closed, inward-looking group of insiders.
What programs and mechanisms do you have in place for getting the first-time visitor involved and included in the various activities of your church? Do they have a reason to return, week after week?
Is your church a place that they are likely to want to bring their friends or other family members? Before you say “yes”, think about this carefully, and be honest with yourself. You may need to face some unpleasant truths.
In religious circles, this process of involving new members is known as “assimilation”, now a popular buzzword for turning first-time visitors into active and continuing participants, and hopefully members.
You need a well-thought-out program and plan of follow-up and assimilation, just as much as you need one for marketing and evangelism.
The fastest-growing churches, and those most likely to survive and thrive, are those who know how to follow-up well with both new attenders, and also with current members, worshippers, and participants.
Recommended Church Development and Ministry Marketing Resources (all are available online through Amazon.com):
Double Your Church Attendance - Bob Hinds
ABC’s of Natural Church Development - Christian Schwartz
Market Research Made Easy - Margaret Doman
Focus Group Research Handbook - Holly Edmund
The Purpose-Driven Church - Rick Warren
Permission Evangelism: When to Talk, When to Walk - Michael L. Simpson
The New Marketing Paradigm: Integrated Marketing Communications - Don E. Schultz
Christopher B. Nelson-Jeffers is CEO of Breckshire Communications, which offers a free Church Growth Newsletter and articles to churches interested in church ministry development. He may be contacted at http://Double-Your-Church-Attendance.com