Marketing Template

How to Market Your Church Workshop, May 9, 2012

Review Your Church

• Church of the Heavenly Secret, located in beautiful downtown Anywhere, USA

• Currently has 72 members, 40 regularly attend• Average age is 62• Website needs work, communications (internal

and external) are poor• Active and engaged vestry• Ready to invite and accept new members and

change

Review Your Market

• The real estate commission is showing an increase in sales in single family homes near the church.

• The census reports an increase in young married couples in the area.

• A recent survey by the local seminary showed that what most people are looking for is an opportunity for spiritual growth.

Review Your Competition

• It’s not the other Episcopal Churches in the area!

• There’s a mega church 20 miles down the road that packs them in every Sunday.

• The service most attended by young couples is the 8:30 or 9 a.m. time slot.

Goal and Objectives

• Goal: Grow the Church• Objectives: – Increase the number of visitors by 40% to the 9

a.m. Sunday service– Target young couples, with and without children– Increase the attendance at adult education by 35%– Convert 15% of visitors to members

Strategies

• Strengthen the 9 a.m. service to be the most visitor friendly

• Bulletins explain Episcopal liturgical practices and include all of the educational opportunities at your Church

• Greeters at the doors• Options for children• Create a robust, interactive, and flexible adult education

program• Rectors and vestry are available for conversation after

the service

Positioning

• Advertising • Public Relations• Direct Marketing• Website• Social Media

Advertising

• Online is the best value for reaching your target audience: Google Adwords, Facebook, Yahoo

• Get on the lists: Yellowpages.com, superpages.com, churchangel.com, your local CVB

• All advertising roads should lead to your website• Use print ads for special services, programs,

events, listings in the religion section

Public Relations

• Take your local paper’s reporter/editor out to lunch

• Provide accurate, brief releases that will appeal to their audience

• More (releases) are not better• Press release template is provided

Direct Marketing

• Targeted• Flexible• Tangible• Measurable• Cost-Effective

Website

• The single most effective way to attract visitors

• Does not have to be expensive or complicated• Does have to have a dedicated content

manager• Be aware of what content your audience

wants, not what your staff wants• wordpress.com, blogger.com, or the Episcopal

Church’s template

Internal Communications

• Knowledge is powerful• Creates a firm foundation when everyone is

on the same page• Empowers your membership• Switch to e-newsletters where appropriate,

they are efficient and cost-effective• Again, drive everyone to your website

Social Media

• The new “word of mouth”• Recruit ambassadors• Blogs, Facebook, Twitter• Think of it as your virtual “coffee hour”• Photos and videos can give real, tangible

insight to your Church

Action Plan

• Budget• Volunteers/assignments• Schedule/benchmarks

Evaluation

• Tracking your web traffic - Google Analytics