Here are my notes from the second main session at BUG 09 featuring Maurilio Amorim. Great introduction to church marketing. The ARC guys have put together a great one day seminar full of information on marketing, social media and how to effectively reach your community.
Ignore your Audience
- Marketing is to your people as much as anyone else. Help your people understand who you are becoming.
- Understand your culture. You can only move people 2 steps over. If you at a traditionally church, don’t expect them to become edgy.
- Ex.- The Church at Brook Hills. There old website had a ton of info. They are passionate about world missions/poverty. They wanted a new image and brand. The Church became the prominent image and Brook Hills became secondary. There is always great imagery of the countries they are praying for. Worship, Local and Global are the main tabs. It helped them present themselves to the community in a new way. It also helped to communicate who they were to their members.
- If you have to transition your church/culture, use images and media to communicate. Not everyone will make the transition with you.
- Side Note: Marketing Evangelism “And the lord said unto the servant, go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled.” Luke 14:2
Fail to deliver on your promise.
- Told a story about a church that did a marketing campaign. They promised great children’s ministry but weren’t ready. 350 people showed and none came back. Not only did they not come back they told other people not to come.
- Don’t make promises you can’t keep. Hire someone to do a secret shopper visit. Talk to them about their experience.
- Ex. Paralyzed series: Finding Hope when life stops you cold. Are the messages preached going to deliver that?
Ignore the Four Windows of Church Growth
- Jan 1, Easter, Back to School, X-mas Eve
- New Year’s Resolution, people are more open to change and church.
- What happens the weekend after Easter? You give everyone time off. Use Easter to launch a teaching series that gives people a reason to come back. If you don’t, people will see the hypocrisy that you just put on a good show for Easter.
- Not December but Christmas Eve. Do the best traditional, sentimental thing you can do. Do candles and snowflakes, etc. People are so disconnected in our culture they want something traditional and warm. They want the postcard Christmas. Take up a special Christmas Eve offering. Have your first of the year marketing tools ready to go. Promo your first of the year series and give them something to come back to. Its like a simple momentum.
Fail to speak the language of culture
- When you present a truth present it in a way that people are willing to receive.
- What marketing does, is I know what I want to say but can I say it in a way that my audience will receive it.
- Too often churches are preaching in a language that people don’t understand. If I went to China, I’d learn Chinese. Same thing here. You need to contextualize.
“Drip” your marketing dollars.
- If you can only do one thing, do it in January and do it well.
- Don’t trickle out your marketing money. It’s a waste of what money you have.
- Marketing dollars in the NE have to be tripled because people are cold and resistant to church.
- All drip marketing does is dilute the message. Do one thing and do it well.
All you need is a free online strategy.
- Marketing connects message/story to someone who wants to hear. People will only receive the message in way they can hear it.
- Mini invites: Business card size. They allow your people who are their Sunday to put it in their wallets and quickly transfer the information. Resource you people to make the ask.
- Evites: All websites should have an evite. Create an evite for each message series.
- Direct Mail. You have heard of the demise of direct mail. When we started A Group 10 years ago 80% of what we did was print. Now its only 20%. Don’t give it up yet. Its specific to an event. Link the direct mail to a message series. It works because it lasts. If you can’t at least send 20,000 pieces don’t do it.
- Billboards. It has to be specific. You can’t afford to do it just for branding. Tie it to a message series or event.
- Inserts (newspaper). Newspapers are dying right now. Find out how much it costs for the paper to distribute your direct mail piece. Print extra direct mail pieces and give to paper to distribute.
- Door hanger. One church said write your prayer request here and we’ll pick up in 2 days.
- Radio & Television. Get a media buyer who knows where to place your ad. 10:30 at night on FX is not the time to run your ad. Don’t put your ad in the wrong place at the wrong time. Make sure someone knows how to buy the right timing for your ad.
- Microsites. Ex. www.mymessedupfamily.com People may not go to your church website. They will go to a site like this.
- E-blasts
- Yard signs. You can do this very cheaply in smaller communities.
- Movie Theater. Make sure you have slides in the theater you meet in. Talk about the teaching series not just the church.
- Social Media
- What is the magic mix? There isn’t one. The number one rule is don’t just do one thing. We all see things differently. Look at what communicates well to your audience.
Don’t Teach Through Series (consider spending three years in the minor prophets.)
- You are only asking someone to come for a few weeks. It’s a lower bar. It allows the ask from someone to be specific and ties the ask to a felt need in the person’s life. It also allows the person being asked, to bail out without damaging the relationship.
Fail to Create Curiosity
- Be unpredictable in a way that creates conversation.
Fail to Create Controversy
- Ex. – The ignorance of Atheism. A big monkey scratching its head. People were really mad. I’m the happiest when my clients get a cease and desist order.
- What happens is people start talking.
- The controversy is not what you need to be concerned about but how you answer the controversy and engage people in that.
- Ex.- The End: What the Bible says about the last days.
Q&A: When do you launch ads on Facebook and Google? In marketing give people a week to take action. If you want them to come Sunday, have the marketing hit Friday or Monday.
What is a successful response rate from direct mail? 2%
