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The Importance of Prioritizing Your Church Messages

September 6, 2012 in Communications, Marketing, Strategy with 1 Comment

Imagine staring at 200 TV sets at one time. You see dozens of glowing screens stacked one on top of another like bricks. Each screen flashing different images. The sound from all the TVs mixing into a tornado of noise. After gazing at the screens for an hour, someone asks you: “What did you watch?”  You’re stumped. The answer is both “everything” and “nothing”. When you receive too many messages, you receive no messages.

The same holds true for your church marketing and communications. When you onslaught church members with messages, you overwhelm them. It’s a mistake a lot of churches make. They send out so many messages and force members to digest so much information. As a result, people take away no information. Nothing sticks. Remember – less is the new more.

How do you prioritize your messaging?

Here are four steps your church can take to prioritize your church communications and messaging and focus on what’s most important. Following these steps will enable you to whittle down the number of messages you pass along to your church members, and deliver the messages you prioritize more effectively.

1.  Clearly articulate the mission and vision of your church

For every message you are considering passing along to church members, ask the question: Does this message reinforce and support the mission and vision of the church? If a message does not advance the overall goal of the church, then you should leave it in the dust. Every message you deliver should reflect your mission.

2.   Gain a crystal-clear picture of your audience and community 

Determine who your church audience is and what matters most to them. This will enable you to focus on messages that better speak to church members. Evaluate and understand the perceptions people have of your church (both internally and externally). Research how your audience(s) receives non-church messages and what messages are received most effectively.

3.   Create a yearlong communications calendar 

A great way to make sure you are not overloading people with messages is to create a communications calendar. This will give you a convenient way to visualize all the messages you are passing along to church members in a given week, month or year. It will also lead you to ask: What message do we want every member to know, understand and remember this week or month?

4.   Limit the ways you communicate key messages 

Train your church members on how you want them to receive messages. Drive people to your communication hub: Your website. Use your website as the central place for people to find information. Let your audience know your website is a reliable area they can go to discover important messages. Always keep your website maintained and up to date. Make sure you communicate your messages clearly and effectively on your website.

Take the steps above to help minimize the number of messages you communicate to your church members. Prioritizing and streamlining your messaging will give the information you do pass along greater weight and impact. When you communicate fewer messages more effectively, you increase the likelihood people will actually hear what you have to say. In today’s information-overloaded world, less definitely is more.

How does your church prioritize messaging? 

The Power of Perception & How Church Communicators Can Shape It

September 4, 2012 in Communications, Marketing, Strategy with 0 Comments

In any organization, it’s extremely important for communicators to understand how the organization is perceived externally and internally. Why? Because perception dictates how you communicate with your audience. It informs what you will say and how you will say it.

For churches, communicators must understand how the church is perceived:

Internally – By members of the church

Externally – In the community the church resides

I have found many church communicators are busy with a ton of tasks and limited resources. They are on the go nonstop. They’re making sure this ministry is promoted, and that ministry is promoted. They’re trying to spotlight this event, and that event. They are constantly in production mode.

I advocate communication leaders step back and take time to think, evaluate and research. Why? Because your message – what you communicate – will eventually inspire the perceptions people have of your church.

Perceptions are formed in two ways:

#1 - How you communicate to your audience internally and externally.
(This is your mission and vision – who you are, why you exist, what you do, why you do it, how you do it, etc.)

#2 - The experience people have when they attend the church. Or what people hear from others who have attended the church.

So, on one side you have what you communicate to people: How you are messaging the heart of your church and passing along that information to people internally and externally. On the other side, you have what people ultimately experience when they visit your church. Those two factors merge together to form overall church perception.

What you communicate + an individual’s experience = The perception a person has of your church

Without question – whether people have a positive or negative perception of your church – they will share their perception with others. That’s why it’s so important for you to work to shape and protect the perception of your church within the minds of your audience. When people think about your church, you want their perception to be positive.

How you can help shape a positive perception of your church

First: Communicate who you are precisely. Don’t overstate or exaggerate your identity. Be honest and exact in communicating to people who you are and what you do. Spend time reflecting on your church, and identify what perception you want people to have inside their minds. Perception is reality. It’s what is true to that person. You can’t create perception, but you can help shape it through clear communication.

Second: Make sure what you communicate is what people experience when they walk into your church. You want the two to line up with each other as closely as possible. Give people an experience to match your messaging about your church. When they take in all the information you have provided about the church and why it is unique and then they actually experience it for themselves, a positive perception is born.

Remember, perception is a powerful tool. With a lot of research and diligence, church communicators have the opportunity to shape the perception inside your church and in your community. A more positive perception will ultimately produce a more positive future for your church.

What impact do you believe perceptions have on communication? How does your church attempt to shape perceptions? 

Are Church Email Blasts Worth It?

August 30, 2012 in Communications, General, Marketing with 4 Comments

Email blasts can be madness, especially the rapid fire kind. Preparing headlines, promotions, graphics and other related items can sometimes put a burden on your church marketing and communications team. It requires a great deal of planning and sometimes, emergency revisions. With all the madness, you ought to wonder: Is this really worth it?

By way of a client case study, let me show you how we measured their mail madness to put our time to the test.

Holy Land Gifts, a privately-owned seller of inspirational gifts made in Israel, sends a weekly email blast to its customer base (example). Each email blast contains the usual headline, promotion, call-to-action links, graphics and a couple of highlighted products.

We ran an email blast on the same day and same time for 7 consecutive weeks. Once we had sufficient data from our visits, we stopped cold turkey and went silent for a full week. Our hope was to see what impact a weekly email campaign was having. What we discovered was encouraging. During the week without an email blast:

  • Total weekly visits dropped 47%
  • Total daily visits (for email blast day) dropped 68%
  • Total weekly orders dropped 55%

Additionally, we found that more than 40% of visitors came from a link in the email campaign. During the week we were silent, we noticed 8% of visitors also came from a prior week’s email campaign—cheaters. (And, since these numbers do not include those who visit the web site after receiving the email, we can assume that the percentages are higher.)

All of this indicated to us that weekly email blasts do more than double our visits and sales. To us, the mail madness is worth it. Measuring your efforts is important to do. Time is worth more than you think. So make sure that your time is spent producing the results you want by including great graphics, content and call-to-actions.

Additional Resources:

3 Ways to Increase Church E-Newsletter Readership

3 Ways to Create An Effective Church Email Newsletter

How does your church use e-newsletters to communicate with members? 

4 Reasons Your Church Should Blog

August 24, 2012 in Communications, General, Marketing, Social with 4 Comments

Blog (noun): A website on which an individual or group of users record opinions, information, etc. on a regular basis.

Many church leaders hear the word blog and they immediately wince. They think of celebrity gossip or mean-spirited rants. But blogs don’t have to be negative. In fact, blogs are an incredibly powerful communication tool. Much like the stage a pastor delivers a sermon from on Sunday mornings, blogs are a place to share your church’s thoughts and views; and make a positive impact on people lives. Blogs offers an innovative and effective way to get your church message to more people.

Why should your church be blogging?

Because of the negative perception many church leaders have of blogs, too few churches are reaping the rewards of blogging. Don’t make that mistake. The benefits of blogging for churches are numerous. Here are four reasons your church should have a blog:

#1  Create a platform for interaction

The mission of your church is people. Blogs offer another way for you to start a conversation or discussion. Just like church services and events or your website and social media efforts, your blog is a place where you can interact with people. They can learn about you and you can learn more about them.

Use your church blog to:  

  • Test ministry ideas
  • Encourage prayer requests
  • Ask questions

#2  Distribute valuable content

A blog provides your church a great place to offer people additional content that reinforces your message. Rather than overstuff your website with info, you can provide updates and resources on your blog. If your website lays out the mission and message of your church, your blog gives it a voice.

Use your blog to post:

  • Sermons
  • Devotionals
  • Resources
  • Stories

#3  Generate linkbacks and boost traffic to your website

One of the most valuable benefits of a church blog is that it will drive more visitors to your website. People will link to your blog posts and they will also turn up in searches on Google and Yahoo. More links to your website means more ways people can find you, and learn about your mission and vision.

Use your blog to get more links from:

  • Search engines
  • Social media
  • Other blogs

#4  Establish an online reputation

A blog is a great way to carve out your church identity online. Through regular blog postings, you can show and tell people more about who you are and why you are unique. Because of your blog, people will talk more about (and even share) your great sermons, stories and devotionals.

Use your church blog to:

  • Reach more people
  • Engage your community
  • Strengthen your identity

If your church wants to reach more people on the Web, don’t be afraid to embrace the power of blogging. A church blog gives you an ideal stage to voice the message and mission of your church on the Internet.

Ready to start blogging? Here are five quick tips:

  1. Always reinforce the vision and mission of church
  2. Share valuable content 3-5 times a week
  3. Keep content simple
  4. Develop a blogging team to help curate content

Include your blog address in all church communications.

Does your church use a blog for communications? If so, how?  

6 Ways to Maximize Church Stage Announcements

August 6, 2012 in Communications, General, Marketing, Strategy with 3 Comments

Inside the church (internally), stage announcements are a constant battle. The people programming services, who are in charge of the flow of services, are constantly asking:

  • Do we really have to do announcements?
  • When can we do announcements so it doesn’t mess up the flow of worship?
  • Is it worth it since people aren’t even listening to the announcements?

Then you have every single ministry leader fighting for stage time. They want their ministry, event or serving opportunity presented from the stage. So now you have the conflict of everybody wanting stage time, and the people who are directing the flow of the service forced to decide what will be communicated and when it will be communicated.

With all the chaos and discord, I’ve often heard the frustrated refrain behind the scenes at churches: We’re not going to do announcements anymore. Yet they all continue to do announcements because it is a great opportunity to speak to your congregation as they are sitting in a seat right before you and you have their attention.

Make no mistake, announcements are extremely hard.

As a communications professional and former communications pastor, I know firsthand the challenges posed by announcements. Yet when I sit in church as a member and somebody says the word announcements (“I have a couple announcements for you this morning…”), my mind automatically checks out. It always leads me to wonder:

  • How can we better maximize this stage time when we’re announcing what is going on inside our church?
  • What can we possibly do to take full advantage of having the attention of all these people?

In answer to those questions, here are six ways you can capture people’s attention and maximize stage announcements on a Sunday morning.

#1. Follow the 80% rule.

When you’re deciding what you’re going to communicate from stage, unless it’s an abnormal situation, you want to ask yourself: Does this impact 80% of the audience sitting inside our worship center? If the event, ministry, serving opportunity or message does not impact 80% of your audience, then you do not want to dedicate stage time to it.

Remember you only have an hour or so of people’s attention a week. You don’t want to waste a single minute. If a message doesn’t impact 80%, as a communication leader you have to politely say “no” and give them other ways to communicate that message – through the e-newsletter, social media, or the website events page. You have to protect the stage with only messages pertinent to 80% or more of the entire audience.

#2. Lead with “the why”.

I see this all the time with church leaders. They stand on the stage and start rambling about the what, when and how of an event, ministry or message. They throw out words, dates and times, and people turn their ears off because it doesn’t capture them. I say this over and over on this blog because it is so important – you have to lead with why. Capture their heart about the event, serving opportunity or ministry, and then subtly and quickly give them the what, when and how.

You can even give them the what, when and how on a media slide projected behind the stage presenter. That way you don’t even have to state the information and people can still absorb it. Then you can really zone in on the why. The why is also the perfect opportunity for you to tie a life-change story to an event, ministry or serving opportunity. If it’s a teen event you’re promoting and you’re telling them the why, throw in a story of a young person who was changed by this event. That will propel and lift up the message to make it much more effective.

#3. Keep clear and concise.

As the person responsible for picking who will do the announcements, it’s important that you provide the announcer with a script. You are the communication leader. Your team needs to write the script with the why, when, where and how. And you need to help the announcer rehearse and practice – not to be perfect – but to move on and be clear and concise. You provide them the script and you encourage them to rehearse, so they can be clear and concise on Sunday (not perfect).

#4. Revitalize your presenters.

Don’t use the same rotation over and over again. Eventually, people will hear that person and begin to tune out. You want to keep things fresh. I recommend that you get really creative in this area. For example, use children and students that you have trained, taught and practiced to do the announcements alongside an adult.

You can even video the child or student doing the announcements. That way you can edit and add music. Another idea is to use Skype and pipe in missionaries from around the world to give the announcements. Do whatever you can to revitalize the presenters, mix it up and catch people’s attention.

#5. Play background music.

I’ve seen music used in church announcements very effectively. It helps keep the flow and energy of the room up – especially if you’re coming out of a song or you’re moving into a song. It keeps things smooth and natural. People are used to listening to individuals speak in movies, shows and YouTube with music in the background. It makes the message more engaging and exciting. The key is not to overwhelm people with the music so they can’t hear the message.

#6. Rotate the way you communicate.

You have this announcement time and you can use it however you choose. It’s not restricted to the normal person standing up there for 5-10 minutes rambling on without anyone actually hearing then. You can use this time and space in countless different ways.

You can use a live person on stage. You can use a prerecorded video to communicate your announcements. You can do it in print, where one Sunday you simply print out the announcements and place them in every seat. The person doing the announcements simply says, “We’re moving on in the service, you can read today’s announcements from your seat.” The options are endless.

While announcements may not seem like a big deal (the common thinking is, “it’s only 5-10 minutes inside a service”), you have to recognize you only have an hour of people’s attention. Even then, you really don’t have their full attention every minute. You want use these 5-10 minutes when you’re communicating ways for people to engage with your church in a very clear, concise and compelling way. Lead with the why, be fresh and creative, and make sure you maximize this time using the tips above.

How do you maximize your church stage announcement time? 

 

3 Keys Ingredients to a Successful Communications Ministry

July 23, 2012 in Communications, Culture, General, Leadership, Marketing, Strategy, Technology with 0 Comments

Within the church, most Communication Directors fall into the trap of viewing their positions as administrative rather than ministry roles. That couldn’t be farther from the truth. It’s way beyond an administrative role. Leaders, pastors and directors need to view it that way, and so does the rest of the staff. When I worked on a church staff in a communications role, I fought long and hard to be called a Communications Pastor instead of a Communications Director. I felt that strongly about it.

The reason I believe it’s a ministry role is because we play such a huge role in communicating the heart, uniqueness and message of the church to the congregation and the community. If we do a poor job of communicating not only the gospel but also the heart of the church, we’re not bringing new people to the church or keeping current members engaged with the vision and mission of the church. Leaders have to recognize the work we do is eternal work and not simply “marketing”.

Here’s an example: My team was working with a church on a project where we built their entire web experience. Afterward, one of the pastors came up to me and said, “I really want to thank you for the work you did for our church.” I asked him, “Why are you thankful for the work we’ve done?” He replied, “Because of your ability to put every effort you have into our web experience, we’ve had several people join our young adult ministry. When we ask them, why did you decide to look at our church? They said because of the website.” That confirmed to me we do play a role in ministry.

With that in mind, here are three essentials to creating an effective communications ministry:

1. Standards – When I refer to “standards”, I’m talking about brand standards. This is where you articulate the mission, values, strategy, measures and vision of the church. Inside the Brand Standards document, you have:

  • Your church logo, tagline and statements
  • How to use the logo and how not to use the logo
  • The fonts you use (heading font, subheading font, etc.)
  • Style (professional, clean, modern, etc.) and color template
  • Email signatures and phone messages

Those are just some examples of the standards that protect your brand. If you don’t have standards, you have no foundation to protect and communicate your message.

2. Strategy – After you develop your standards, you’ve got a good idea of who you are as a church. Your strategy involves understanding your audience, and then identifying the best way of communicating who you are to that potential audience. You have to bridge the communication gap between your church and your audience.

One great way to do this: Survey your current church audience. Ask them how they prefer to be communicated to on a regular basis. That will give you a pretty good idea of how people outside your church want to receive communications.

You have a lot of options in how you communicate – from traditional forms like radio, newspaper, billboard, magazine and direct mail to new ways like inbound marketing, search engine optimization, social media, e-newsletters, video broadcasting, websites and blogging. All these are available, but you need to identify what’s best for you. You have to decide:

  • HOW you are going to communicate to your audience
  • WHAT you’re going to communicate to your audience
  • WHEN you’re going to communicate to your audience

And you have to make sure you have metrics in place to gauge whether or not you’re achieving your desired results.

3. Systems – You can have great standards and strategy, but if you don’t have systems in place it will not be upheld. Let me repeat that: If you don’t have systems in place, standards and strategy mean absolutely nothing. The systems that you must set in place are the wheels that turn everything in action. It’s what allows the day-to-day operations to run smoothly.

Your systems are how you handle projects internally. They include how you work with:

  • Outside agencies
  • Other ministry staff leaders to communicate their message
  • Senior staff to make sure the most important messages are being communicated the right way

You have to put these systems in place and communicate them to the staff. The Communications Pastor must be directly connected with the senior leader and leadership team – if not on the leadership team. If the Communication Pastor doesn’t fully understand the mission, values, strategy and vision of the church, they won’t be able to communicate them. They’ll be walking in the dark and all communication efforts will be futile.

Once the senior leadership has committed to the standards, strategy and systems, they need to be communicated to the entire staff and volunteers. For communications to be effective, everyone must “buy in” and treat the Communications Pastor and his team as the experts in the field. It is also advantageous for the Communication Pastor to include other staff members, volunteers, church members and community members to help shape the standards, strategy and systems. Doing these three things – and doing these three things first – will enable you to create an effective communications ministry in your church and for your community.

5 Keys to a Successful Church Communications Strategy

June 11, 2012 in General, Marketing with 4 Comments

Whether you’re a mega-church or a a recent church start-up, to grow, you must have a communication strategy and you must implement it consistently. However, it doesn’t have to cost a fortune and you don’t have to be a creative genius.

The key is constructing a communication strategy that forms a firm foundation for your marketing efforts. Launching marketing and promotional activities such as social media campaigns, direct mail blitzes or even developing a website without a communication strategy is like buying curtains for a house you are building before you have an architectural plan. How would you even know how many curtains to buy or what size they needed to be?

Here are the keys to a successful church communications strategy:

#1 – Define Your Church

Your church is different and unique.  The combination of your people, resources, passions and location is different than any other church.  Step back and define your church.  Answer the questions: who are we? what do we do? how do we do it? why do we do it? where are we going?

#2 – Know Your Audience

Everyone or anybody might be a fit for your church.  However, you probably lack the budget to market to everyone in your local community or around the globe via the Internet.  Investigate your current church members to capture commonalities and similarities.  More than likely the people attending your church will reflect people who might attend in the future.  Target these people initially.

#3 – Study Competing Forces

Hopefully in most communities churches do not view other churches as competitors.  In corporate America a marketing team would fiercely study their competition.   The church must do the same.  Instead of studying other churches, we must study competing forces.  What forces keep from people attending and visiting a church? Sports? Sleep? Location?  Evaluate any and every competing force and adjust your communication efforts.

#4 – Identify Communication Methods

With a clear definition of your church and audience, select the most appropriate communication methods.  Allow your audience to shape your decision making when selecting methods.  IE – Facebook would be an obvious communication method with a church full of young families active in social media.  Examples of methods: website, social media, email, video, mobile application, etc.

#5 – Act with Consistency 

It is imperative for your communication strategy  to build credibility with church members and your community.  Credibility requires consistency and focus.  The strategy will fail without a focused energy on implementation.  Here you must stay on budget and on-time with all scheduled communications.

Before you even consider developing a website, running an ad, implementing a social media campaign, printing bulletins, begin by mapping a path to success through the development of a consistent, focused communication strategy.

What additional key would you add to list? 

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3 Questions to Answer Before Vision Casting

April 2, 2012 in Communications, General, Leadership, Marketing with 2 Comments

Vision casting is an art form that all great leaders must master. Whether you’re leading a small business, local church or Fortune 500 company, you have to be able to communicate your unique vision for the future to others. Simply identifying a vision is not enough. People are skeptical. The casting and communication of your vision must be clear, concise and compelling. If it is not, your words will float in one ear and out the other. The best way to cast vision is to answer tough questions ahead of time. These three questions provide leaders the clarity they need to communicate a vision to the public.

Realize the weight and power of your words

Everybody possesses the ability to cast vision. Think about it – most of us cast vision everyday. We make comments about what could be or should be. You’ve probably suggested to a friend or family member how they could improve their life; or shared ways your company could do business better. All of that is vision casting. The position we hold in people’s lives determines the weight of our words and thus our potential to shape their future. But vision casting is not just about the content of your vision – it’s also about how you transfer that vision to others.

Answer these three essential questions about your vision - 

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4 Signs of a Catalytic Vision

April 2, 2012 in General, Leadership, Marketing with 0 Comments

cat·a·lyt·ic  adj.

Of, involving, or acting as a catalyst:

cat·a·lyst  noun

A person or thing that precipitates an event or change

You hear the term “catalytic vision” and you may imagine a person foreseeing a catastrophe like an earthquake. Rest easy; the catalytic vision I’m referring to is a very good and positive thing. It means an idea or action that brings about positive change or compels people to take action. In the professional world, catalytic vision is an all-too-rare commodity. Most organizations lack a clear vision that inspires people and ensures the organization remains strong moving into the future. So how do you know if your organization has a catalytic vision?

Does Your Organization’s Vision Include the 4 “M”s?

Find out if your organization has a truly catalytic vision by seeing if these four signs are present in your workplace:

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First Time Visitor to Member

March 26, 2012 in Culture, General, Leadership, Marketing, Strategy with 6 Comments

When is the last time you thought about what a “guest” thinks about before attending your church?

What should I wear? Will I fit in? Will our children have a great experience? Do I have the right Bible?  

These are questions people ask before they even step foot in their vehicle and depart for a church service. It’s easy for church leaders to forget the emotions people face when visiting a church. Or the stress and anxiety people experience as they make their way to a church for the first time.

The car isn’t loaded. The kids are half-dressed eating Pop-Tarts. Mom can’t decide on an outfit. Dad forgot to iron shirt. The kids begin to whine. Anxiety is boiling and rising. Finally they pull into church parking lot…

What will they experience? Are you ready as church leader for these guests? How can you give them the guest experience they desire and deserve?

Guest Experience Checklist 

From start to finish, you need to show your guests they are welcome by providing them an ideal visitor experience. Here’s a step-by-step guide on how you can do that:

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