Part 3 of 4 - How To Create an Effective Church Ministry
Marketing Plan
Does your church or ministry have an Evangelism plan? How
effective are you at reaching prospective worshippers and
members? Here are the four steps you MUST follow if you want to
kick-start your growth for the next 12 months ...
Step 2 - Know Your Target Audience Perhaps this (and the points
that follow) should be listed first, as they are critical to the
crafting of your church ministry marketing (evangelism) plan,
but it is important to impress upon you the necessity of having
a well-thought-out, balanced, and written plan in the first
place. This point and those that follow are however all key
points in the creation and execution of your evangelism and
marketing plan. When asked about their target audience,
churches, ministries and pastors will usually say that they want
to reach EVERYBODY (after all, the Great Commission does say "to
make disciples of all the nations ...", does it not?). And while
it is certainly true that the gospel message is for everybody,
as a church or ministry, and as a church or ministry with
decidedly limited staff, time, and resources, you must start
somewhere. You must strive to focus your efforts in those areas
that will do the most good, or which are most supportive of your
overall central vision and stated organizational mission. Not
every prospective member or worshipper will read, listen, or
watch the same thing, or even respond to the same message in the
same way. Therefore church advertisements and marketing efforts
must be tailored and customized to their intended audience or
recipient. For example, a young person or youth will have
different interests, perspectives, and problems than will a more
senior or elderly person. What will the tone and content of your
ad be? Serious? Humorous? Fun? Scholarly? Reflective? A young
prospect is more likely to hear your message on a radio station
playing "his" or "her" kind of music, or perhaps on the
Internet, or on television, or from signs or posters in places
where they hang out. They may respond to messages that offer
fun, an opportunity to socialize with their friends, or that
offer some source of guidance and direction to them as they
attempt to find their way in the world. An older prospect may be
more likely to read the newspaper, watch the news, listen to an
"oldies" radio station, or read a direct mail piece. They may
also respond more to a serious or reflective, inspirational
message. Adults with families are likely to be concerned with
bringing up their children in healthy ways, in family-oriented
environments. They may be interested in participating in
missions projects in the community or in other parts of the
world, perhaps in response to some recent event or disaster in
the news. Once you have a specific target audience in mind, or
have at least broken it down into identifiable categories, you
need to learn as much about each group as you can. What are they
like? What do they read, listen to, or watch? What message,
program, or activity will be of most interest to them? What is
it about your church that they will be most interested in, and
most likely to respond to? How can you make it easy for them to
become involved, or to participate? Some suggested resources for
helping you in gathering this information are included at the
end of Part 4 of this report. You need to develop a sense of
openness and a willingness to learn as much as you can about the
people you most specifically and immediately want to reach.
Making un-informed assumptions will not be productive, and may
even be counter-productive to reaching the people in your
community. For example, the needs, concerns, and culture of a
poor, inner-city multi-ethnic community will be markedly
different than an affluent, homogenous suburb, and different
from a small-town, rural, or farming community. Demographics
specialists and professional church ministry marketing
consultants can help you to identify and acquire the demographic
information that you need for your specific community and target
audience. You can also conduct your own surveys. Just walking
around the area where the people you want to reach live, work,
and play, can give you a lot of information as to what is
important and relevant to them, and how best to reach them. Step
3 - Match the Media Channel to the Target Audience We touched on
this briefly in the paragraphs above. It is vitally important
that you put some time, thought and effort into properly
matching your ministry communication and marketing to the needs
and preferences of the people you are trying to reach. Often,
churches will produce forms of media simply because they think
that they "need to" or "should", without giving much thought as
to the appropriateness of the form, content, or ultimate
message. One example is the ubiquitous church brochure. It seems
like a good thing to have, and generally it is a good
promotional tool, something to give to visitors and prospective
visitors, or even to new members, but it is of little value if
the target audience really doesn't like to read. Slick,
expensive, pretty-looking brochures are a waste of money if they
don't say anything or communicate any useful or motivational
information, that would cause the reader to respond. A church
website is one of the latest high-tech tools for reaching
people, but what if the majority of your target audience doesn't
yet have Internet access, or a computer? Newspaper, or radio
ads? Which newspaper? Which section? Which day? Which radio
station? What time of the day? What kind of message?
The more that you know about your target audience (or target
sub-group) the easier it will be to answer these questions, and
the more savvy and sophisticated a buyer you will be when
talking to the advertising reps at those media companies. What
about billboards, or church signage? The possibilities are
endless.
Next: Getting Started...