Our team has a lot of creative conversations. Some are organized, some are on-the-spot. We love to creatively propose solutions from building systems, following up with first-time guests, tracking the health of our volunteers. In my world, almost everything can become a creative discussion.
Since discussions are based on the ideas we think and the way we communicate those ideas, we choose to be specific with the words we use.
Some things are decided (like what time your service will start) and some things are discovered (like how many people are actually interested in coming to a potluck.)
Deciding is when the ball is in your court. Discovering is when it’s in their court.
Decide how many time you’re going to try posting on your church’s Facebook page. Discover if that’s how many times people want to hear from you. Then decide how you’ll adjust your Facebook frequency, and discover if that shows an improvement.
If you just decide and execute, you may never hit your sweet spot.
Decide when your service starts. It would be a poor choice to say “We’re having service on Sunday” and wait to discover what time people show up to start service.
Decide what your values are. Discover how you can live those out so people will be receptive to them.Have you ever been a situation where you got these backwards? A time when you made a decision when you needed to make a discovery? I’d like to hear what you learned in the comments:
The term ‘digital signage’ is just a smart way of talking about the screens that are used to show content, from adverts in stores, through to weather and news in office lobbies. In churches, many are looking to invest in digital signage solutions that can be used to inform, entertain and share information.
You may already have a few screens around your church, but perhaps you’ve not been sure what to put on them. Or maybe you’re thinking of investing in new screens, in order to give your church a digital uplift.
Either way, it’s important to focus firstly on what they can do for your marketing.
Great marketing transmits the values of your brand and helps visitors to absorb them, often without them even realizing. |
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Here are five ways you can use digital signage within your church to aid and help share your marketing:
The reason most marketing campaigns lose velocity is because they don’t reach enough of an audience. When you create a new marketing campaign, it can be difficult to subtly drop it into a service, around the important notices, information and events that you need to discuss. This is where screens come in. Digital signage screens fill the gaps usually left redundant.
While visitors are waiting for a service they can read all about your new initiatives. As they leave, they can scan for the next event or session they want to attend.
Your church visitors are your biggest brand advocates. Chances are, they’re spreading the word through online communities even when you don’t know about it. Digital signage pulls together the voices of your community into one place. Through screens that show social media feeds such as Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, or create rich social media dashboards. Social media helps your church extend its reach right outside of the doors and into the minds and homes of a much wider audience than physical activity alone.
Screens are a great way to show off your social channels, encourage more of your audience to use them and to create content in an invigorating display.
Stories are often the foundation of marketing. They transmit a message in a more colorful way that can be appreciated by all audiences – old or young, male or female. Use digital signage to tell your stories.
A simple iPhone can now be used as a video recorder, helping you to film testimonials, clips and activities within your church to share on screen. Take images and upload them in a series to your social channels, documenting a project over a series of weeks.
Digital screens take snippets of your message and bookend them into one comprehensive story.
Allow your patrons to advertize on your digital screens to share skills and news with other visitors. Use the screens for your own advertising, allowing you to promote new training sessions, services and your most creative campaigns. You can also add your logo to each slide or image advertising a service or incentive, allowing you to become more memorable in the minds of your visitors.
Advertising on screens is natural, having been used in television and now the internet across desktop and mobile too. This makes it a key channel from which you can work out your message and share it with your audience – who will be ready and waiting to pay attention.
For churches who struggle to attract younger visitors, digitizing your offering helps to transmit information in a new format. Not everyone who visits your church wants to read lyrics from a print-out or scriptures from a book. For whatever reason (or even just the generational one) some will feel more comfortable accessing information on screen than they will in print.
The screens can be the first welcomer to a younger audience, allowing them to get a feel for your marketing and who you are without necessarily having to have human contact. Ideally, it’s people who make up your church, but letting the screens say hello first, in order to welcome and make younger audiences feel at ease, can help lead the way to new relationships.
(Post photos courtesy of Faith Community Bible Church & ScreenCloud – Thank you!)
Remember, these ideas are just a jumping point. Once you start you can incorporate feedback from your visitors to find out what works and what they want to see. Each church is different, but by working out a digital signage marketing strategy and going for it, you’ll be able to learn and reiterate quickly.
About the Author:Mark McDermott is Co-Founder of Digital Product Studio Codegent whose passion is to build world-class digital products. Mark is also CEO of ScreenCloud and spends much of his time empowering individuals to get their underused screens full of beautiful digital content.
Contact Mark on hello@screen.cloud or on Twitter @mr_mcd
It’s an incredible world we live in where we can create digital content to be shared, re-shared, and used in multiple ways. In a moment’s notice, a message can spread. It’s a two-edged sword we’ve created for ourselves because a request that used to take a meeting or a phone call can now be instantly in your pocket, and our schedules are filling up with clutter, potential distractions and efficiency tools. Knowing how and when to use these tools to your advantage can be a big help in spreading your message and using your marketing to move your church forward.
Here are a few ideas to repurpose created content with very little effort.
If you record a podcast through the week separate from your service like an interview with your Pastor, team conversations or testimonies, or a radio or TV show for a local station, here are some ideas. (These won’t work as well in the context of recording multiple takes or pieces of audio that will be assembled later like studio music. See the next area section for ideas.)
With very little effort, these graphics that are already on your task list are easily modified and repurposed. Consider using your series graphic for:
Maybe you already stream online or record the service for a podcast. Here are some other ideas for repurposing that content that you’re already creating:
Almost everything that ends in print starts as digital. Use that digital file to your advantage.
If it’s a print piece for an event, mock it up and use it as a reminder for the event the day before in your email newsletter or Facebook event or just generally on social media.
What have you found that you can repurpose easily? What has worked for your church?
You’ve been asked to help your church with Social Media. Whether you’ve been hired as a part of the marketing team, or maybe in a volunteer capacity, here are some questions to get clear about the expectations and ideas on where to start moving forward.
Whether you’re starting at ground zero, or taking over existing accounts, here is a checklist to get your efforts launched on the right foot. Take it to your next meeting with the person you’re accountable to, whether that’s your Pastor, the marketing manager, someone else on staff or another volunteer. Talk through it with them and create a game plan for your first 30 days. Set a meeting in 30 days to evaluate the results. If you need ideas, here are 31 social media post ideas!
Here’s your checklist for discussion:
Are we aiming to provide information to our current members, or is the goal of our Social Media to reach and invite new people? This will help identify the content and the network you’d like to focus on. Start by considering the target audience of your church. If you’re not yet sure about that, here is a way to start a discussion about your church’s target audience.
There is no shortage of Social Media networks and opportunities to spend time online. Refer back to your target audience. It’s easier to get out in the community on twitter (you can follow local organizations and comment on their tweets) or snapchat and it’s easier to provide information on Instagram of Facebook.
If you have to choose one, Facebook still has the largest audience, but you could also take a poll with your people to find out which networks they’re already on. Here’s a link to figure out if you need a Facebook page or Facebook group. and a bit different perspective if you want to hear another opinion from Jonathan Talley about Facebook pages or Facebook groups.
What kind of community do you want to build, and how do you want to build it? Does your leadership want you to create an opportunity for people to take a strong stance or keep the waters calm? Will I post about the church’s stance on current issues, or do I stick to promoting upcoming events and ministries?
The answer could be “Yes, always…” or it may be “Yes, for now…” or maybe “no, just go for it and we’ll discuss as we go.” but as the person posting, don’t take it personal if it’s decided that your posts go through a second set of eyes before they go live. This helps you get an idea of what’s expected and how your ideas for advertising the church on Social Media represent the branding and marketing of your church.
Setup a schedule for pre-approval… is it every Friday afternoon the posts are approved for the next week by email, and then they start to roll out the following Monday? Is it every other week, or every day before a post goes live it gets sent as a text message and approved? Not one is right or wrong, but what works best for your team.
Set the expectation and find out up front. Don’t submit once a week posts if your leader is hoping for daily posts. Don’t commit to daily posts on 4 networks if you’re a volunteer who can only commit to once a day. Have a discussion about what you’re capable of committing to and how close that comes to the expectations.
Don’t make a commitment you can’t keep, and suggest bringing in another team member to focus on a different channel in order to meet the expectations.
If another department in the church wants to have their own page (like kids or youth) who is ultimately responsible for their content? Who approves their posting, and do you have a minimum standard you want to maintain for content, image or video quality, etc?
If someone on staff posts something that you feel may reflect poorly on the church, do you have an open door to have a discussion with them, or is their personal social media considered entirely separate?
If a comment is positive, is the expectation that it’s acknowledged? Is that a like, a Retweet, a favorite, or will we type a reply to every positive comment? If a comment is negative, what are the parameters to address it?
My personal opinion is as much as possible to address a negative comment in a positive way… “We’re sorry your experience didn’t match our values. We would be happy to discuss a resolution if you’d call the office and ask to speak with…” but some times when a comment is vulgar or contains profanity, it’s clear that a phone conversation isn’t going to address the concern. In that case, I would just delete the comment. If the person persists, block them from your account. It’s not going to change their mind, and if they truly wish to make restitution, they’ll reach out in person – blocking them form Social Media probably won’t affect their change of heart.
If there’s a private message sent requesting prayer, or seeking financial aid or asking a question I don’t have an answer to, who do I forward that to?
Quantifiable like ‘How many likes?’ or ‘How many followers?’ or ‘How Many interactions: comments or shares?’ not things like ‘To spread the Gospel’ or ‘To keep people informed’. Quantifiable goals allow you to discover what’s working, and what could change. The success of unquantifiable goals are a matter of opinion.
There may be a great video on youtube that matches up with your current series topic or a funny quote from a famous preacher. What is the balance between finding other content and generating our own?
Is the content I’m sharing accurately reflecting our core values (read more about having your Social Media reflect your church’s core values in our ebook: Trust Glue)
Specifically. Is there someone who is popular on Social Media but doesn’t line up with our beliefs? Is there something that could become a distraction from our goals? Do we address prayer requests in the church with permission, or is this not the forum?
Asking these 10 questions when you take over your church’s social media will help you get clear on your leader’s expectations and the opportunities that you have to work within. Remember, these are a discussion starter – try and use them to ask more questions and be sure you’re on the same page with your leader. Also, remember that the digital world is always changing, and it’s probably a good idea to have this discussion again in another 30 days to evaluate your progress.
If you need ideas of what to post, her is a list of 31 Social Media post ideas I created, and another 25 quick ideas from Darrel Girardier.
I’d love to hear about your experience in taking over your church’s social media and what you learned in that process. Leave a comment below!
Remember when you were little and playing a game with the neighbour kids, then they change the rules and say “oh yeah, I forgot to tell about…” or if you’re learning a new game with some friends and they say “I’ll start with the basic rules so we can get the game going, and I’ll fill you in as we go on the details.”
I get frustrated in a situation when I can’t contribute my best because the parameters aren’t clear, and when it comes to our creative meetings, our team has found some really effective ways to maximize our productivity and effectiveness in a short amount of time – the reason: we’ve all agree to play by the rules.
These rules are not meant to limit participation (like saying you can’t touch the soccer ball with your hands) but are rather to give us a clear playing field so we can get to (in my opinion) the fun part of brainstorming and creating an execution strategy.
This list is not the 9 ways to have a perfect meeting, or 9 ways your team has to do it. Each team is different, has different players and is playing a different game (if I may continue that analogy). Take these ideas and figure out what they look like for your team, how they get applied and what your team needs to add to be most effective.
You may be asking “Adam, what does this have to do with marketing?” My answer would be that effective meetings will help you achieve results. Not sure what I mean? Try these on with your team…
I’d love to hear how you’ve implemented these or what you’ve added. Comment in our Church Marketing Ideas Facebook group!
If you’re playing football, and it’s the offensive line on the field, don’t invite the defence to the party. If your conversation requires one person, have a one-on-one meeting. If your conversation requires everyone on your team except one person, honor that persons time and let them know why you’re not bringing them in if necessary, but don’t bring them in to sit in an irrelevant meeting. If you have a set meeting where everyone on your team comes together, then only discuss issues relevant to everyone, and save the others for later.
Be clear about what you want to discuss and who needs to be in the discussion about those topics. Be clear about the order. Decide that information before you call the meeting. Sometimes you may want to share that agenda before the meeting, and sometimes it’s relevant to get everyones initial reactions at the same time. Whether you share it ahead or not, have an agenda.
I find it odd that we used to talk about when the meeting would start, but not have a clear plan about when the meeting would end. Based on inviting the right people and having an agenda, take a guess at how long the meeting will be and set an end time… this way people can schedule their next appointment or goals and tasks for the day after that meeting.
When that time arrives, END ON TIME! If there is more discussion to be had, book a follow up meeting with some or all of the relevant people.
If you’ve hand-picked who will be in the meeting, they’re here for a reason. Everybody contributes. We have some people on our team who are louder and some quieter. Some who process out loud and some who sit and think. Some people who want their opinion to be considered, and others who are happy to find a way to support whatever decision is made. Regardless of those factors, everybody contributes. After discussion and when a decision has to be made, go around the table and ask everyone what they’re suggestion is.
If you have a team member who likes to process, ask them last, once they’ve heard everyone else’s input. “Whatever the team decides” is not contributing, because if that’s your answer, you didn’t need to be in the decision meeting.
You could help that person by asking “If the decision was yours, what would you choose?” or if they say “I pretty much agree with everyone” then ask “How do you see yourself participating in implementing.” or “What would it look like if we made a different decision?” Learn to hear what’s not being said and draw the input out of that person. They have a unique perspective that is valuable to the team.
Your meeting has a purpose. It is probably meant to change something or cause an action. Write down what your action is, who is responsible for completing what portions and by when they will have it completed. Have everyone articulate back to you what their action is so that you’re clear.
There’s no point in making an action plan in this meeting if we’re not going to be sure those actions got completed. This isn’t an opportunity to come down on someone who hasn’t completed their task, but an opportunity to celebrate the completed tasks, help overcome hurdles that could have prevented previous tasks and be clear on what now needs to be achieved to move forward.
If you’re not sure of what the play is, don’t leave the huddle. This is each team member’s opportunity to clarify the action, the responsibility and the “by when”. If anyone is unsure on the motive, the big picture, the small details, the timeline, the key players or what’s expected of them, this is the time to ask.
Being sure doesn’t mean that everyone is on the same page… I could be 100% sure I heard something that you didn’t say, and you could be 100% sure I heard what you said. Being sure isn’t being clear.
Ask you team to summarize their understanding of the action plan and listen for hints that someone isn’t entirely clear.
Sometimes conversations go beyond the topic and sometimes they become emotional. We’ve agreed that we won’t hold someone’s actions or opinions for ammunition at a future time and we won’t undermine the public conversation with private conversations later. This trust allows us to be honest, admit our flaws, come up with genuine raw ideas and create an opportunity to be ourselves.
If someone said or did something in the meeting, at the water cooler or in an email or text message that didn’t sit right with you, ask them to clarify, get on the same page with them and come to the meeting clear. The last thing we need in our discussion about a website overhaul is to have a couple of people on about last Friday’s “Photocopier incident” or that they needed an elastic and someone had taken the last one in the drawer, or worse yet is having 2 people silently fuming toward each other and not able to draw them in to contribute to the conversation. You don’t have to go look for problems and then create resolves, but if there’s an unmet expectation of someone else on the team, we get that cleared up with them privately so we can contribute our best to the group.
I would love to hear what else you have setup for your meeting, how you live by or reiterate your meeting rules, or by when you’ll choose to explore and implement meeting rules for your team! Leave a comment below, or track me down on twitter @Adam_McLaughlin
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Have you ever had an experience at a church or business that didn’t quite sit right, but you can’t put your finger on why? This sensation is likely your response to a breach of trust: Their self-proclaimed values weren’t consistent with your experience.
Trust is like glue that makes someone stick around. Be true to yourself and live that out through your branding, marketing and advertising, and you’ll create trust that sticks.
Would you find it strange if you went out for a nice steak dinner at a high-end establishment, and they offered a $1.49 burger being served by a waiter in a tuxedo. Why is it not strange if you saw a $1.49 burger at a drive thru? Is one right and the other wrong? No. Simply put, your expectation wouldn’t match your experience. One of those restaurants is not being true to who they are, and that waters down their trust glue.
If you can sum up your experience with “I thought I was getting this, but they did that instead?” then it’s a trust issue. “They advertised having the best chef in town, but my chicken wasn’t cooked properly,” or, “The sign says they’re a loving church, but not one person was smiling.” Or “Aunt Gertrude said the worship leader sings like a bird. She was wrong.” In this case, the trust is more like water than glue; It doesn’t make you want to stick around.
Every opportunity that someone walks through your door is an opportunity to build and strengthen the trust glue, or dilute the glue. The difference between a visitor coming back and never returning is whether or not they trust you after their experience.
Trust Glue is stickiest when your branding consistently matches your marketing, and is relayed accurately in your advertising; When your church’s values (branding) matches how someone experiences your church (marketing) and what they heard you say about your church (advertising)…
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Somewhere out there someone said it’s a great idea to post something every day on Facebook. Then someone in leadership heard it. Then someone said, “Hey if it’ll work on Facebook, it’ll work on Twitter and Instagram too!” Then you were recruited and it got added into YOUR job description.
We’ve all done the obvious posts, and then hit a wall of creativity. I wanted to create this list so you can refresh your creative juices with some ideas and have no excuses for 31 days. At the end of the month, start back at the top of the list – 31 days from now, no one will remember what you posted!
(Side note: Since originally posting this article, I’ve realized that there is an intersection of content and format that is magic for a Church’s Social Media account: Sermon Videos. Read that blog post here!)
Share a recent picture or Facebook post from a missionary. Ask viewers to take a moment and pray for their ministry.
Share a post from one of the other social media channels in your church (kids/youth/small groups)
Read some of the best church marketing strategies.
Have a post idea that works well for you? Post it in the comments so we can all try it out!
Preamble: I’ve wrestled with posting this for a while. The reason is that everyone has different personality styles, leadership qualities and approaches and I don’t want to seem like I’m saying that there’s one proper way to lead or one proper set of guidelines to expect from your leader or that your leader is sub-par if they don’t meet these guidelines.
Hear my heart: we’re in this together and we each bring something unique to the Kingdom of God. We can do this!
After a recent poll on our Church Marketing Ideas Facebook group, I realized that a majority of people who responded that are in church communications / marketing / media, etc. find that the biggest obstacle slowing them down is getting clarity from church leadership on expectations and direction.
There is much more to be said about this, and each church is unique, but here is the number one question that I’ve found to start a discussion with my Pastor when determining how we move forward:
We’re not the church for everyone. I know that sounds odd since the Gospel opens a door for everyone, but think of your church as a unique expression of God’s church. If your leaders still is unsure about narrowing down a target audience, simply ask this “Do we have any regulars in our church that drive for more than 2 hours every Sunday to worship with us?” If the answer is no, then you have started the discussion on narrowing down your target audience.
The reason this question often comes with resistance is that for someone who doesn’t live in the marketing world, it sounds like you’re asking “Who do we want to turn away from our church?” or “Who are we not trying to reach?” but the real question is “Who is God assigning us to reach?”
I was doing some consulting for a church out of state, and when I asked this question the associate Pastor quickly shot back “Well, let me ask you this. Who was Jesus’ target audience?” He was expecting me to say “Jesus came to reach everyone and so should we.” but, I reminded him that in Matthew 15:24 Jesus told a Canaanite woman that he wasn’t sent to help the Gentiles, but he was on earth for the Jews. In the end, he helped her.
Without getting deep into theology, Jesus recognized that if he could transform the culture of the people he was sent to reach (the nation of Israel) that they would in turn reach the Gentiles. In business, Nike, for example, doesn’t target their marketing to gain the appeal of senior citizens or preschoolers, but they don’t stop them from purchasing their shoes.
Make it clear that you’re not asking your leadership to turn away people, but rather help you focus your marketing and communication efforts.
There are 2 big-picture approaches that you can take to determining your target audience, and both are modelled in business:
1) Has God called us to build our ministry to connect with who our audience is? If so, our marketing will be determined by our target audience. (ie. Most TV shows choose their topics based on the wants of their audience)
2) Has God called us to build our audience based on who our ministry is? If so, your ministry core values will determine your marketing, and the people who it appeal to will become your audience. (ie. The Nike example is to build a shoe for a specific need an audience. Those are primarily the people who choose to pay the premium to wear Nike shoes.)
• Who are we trying to reach geographically?
• What audience will our worship music appeal to?
• Does the teaching appeal to a person with specific goals? (ie. inspiration, in depth detail, real-life application, study and theology, etc.)
• What does that person’s schedule look like outside of church? What events / learning opportunities / relationship building / connection points are we providing that meet those wants
• What does that person perceive about church in general?
• What can we do to open the door for that person to hear our message?
I would love to hear more from you about the conversations this starts with your leadership. Leave a comment below or stop by Church Marketing Ideas Facebook group and let us know the progress you’re seeing:
