Many churches due to the fact that they are a local in nature tend to brush away internet marketing for the most part stick with a more traditional outreach approach – signs, fliers, ads in the paper, etc. I have to say there is a much better way to use your marketing budget to spread the world about your community and reach people you couldn’t before – church content marketing!
Church content marketing is a form of marketing that isn’t just having a Facebook page (though you should have one!), creating Facebook events or ads, posting photos on Instagram, or updating your blog. Content marketing is not just content (i.e. a photo, link to an article, etc) but creating content that is meant to engage with it’s readers and build your credibility online.
The content isn’t asking for event attendance or for you to *do* something like make a donation or sign up for something, just a way to publish great content online, which has an indirect impact on your visibility online and getting people looking for a church community to find you!
Obviously the final objective is to reach people and have them come to your church and check you out. But in order for this to happen, you need to produce great content first, get people engaged and interested and the rest will follow naturally. So that’s nice right, good content marketing = get more people hearing about your church, talking about your church and eventually attending your church. But WHAT IS good content marketing? What does this look like for a faith based community? And how do you get this awesome church content marketing you’re making out there in the world?
Below is a quick guide to achieving your marketing goals through church content marketing!
What are great topics to focus church content marketing on?
Anything that interests your community members. That’s easy, right? This sentence holds a lot of intent in it so I would like to elaborate on this. The idea is not to think about what will further your goals, your mission and your core set of beliefs.
The idea is not to look at your church and think what content will be good for it but what interests your community, what are they thinking about and what are the challenges they are facing, and then, what are they searching for when they are online.
Try to think of of yourself as part of your community (which obviously you are) and what you, as a member not someone running the church, would want to read about. Once you get into that mindset the ideas will flow and you will most likely need to filter out the ideas, and not struggle to come up with them.
Once you reach the right mindset, make a list of topics you would like to talk about. Now comes the tricky part – connecting this to your church. This can be done in very simple ways like photos of the community that are connected to the topic.
Examples that come from activities that were done in the church, quotes of members or the pastor and anything else you can think about. The idea is to talk about a topic that interests your community and then show how this interest can further be fed by the church.
If you record sermons every Sunday, this is a great opportunity to write a post about the topic and link in the recording so the reader can see what your church says about that topic or idea. The examples and real life experiences are the most important since it will show people that the connection is real and that there is a reason for them to start coming by.
When someone is considering attending a service or one of your events, if they are viewing your website or social media profiles they are checking out what you are posting. You want to share content that you know they kind of people you want joining your community would enjoy.
Remember, if someone is in the market for a new church, they are going to search for their options – through Google, on Facebook, etc. Your website, your blog, your Facebook profile are all a part of your ‘brand’ and an extension of your church.
When someone comes across one of these pages you want them to easily understand what you are all about and what kind of experience they are going to have with you. Content marketing is great for showcasing your point of view and your unique offering.
The purpose of a church is to serve the community and spread the gospel – so ask yourself anytime you post something: is this serving a specific purpose to my community? Is it a good representation of what we believe and how we practice our faith? If it doesn’t answer those questions well, it might not be a good option for content.
Here are some easy church content marketing ideas to get started. You can publish these things as blog posts, as a Facebook status (or both!), via photos and links to pages on your website.
- Sermons or speeches from church clergy.
- Curriculum from children’s programs, adult education programs, etc. If you do VBS or run a summer camp, share photos of activities you are doing with the kids!
- Presentations or other materials provided during guest lectures, guest presentations, etc.
How to share your content. What mediums should I use?
I will start by saying that it is important to understand that content marketing is long term marketing. You will not see results right at the start. It normally takes 3-5 months to starting seeing the results. The important part is being consistent and to keep publishing all the time.
So you have content, now it is time to get the word out. I would say that the work done on content marketing is 20% the content itself and 80% spreading it and making sure people are aware of it. Today there is so much content out there that if you do not do this part of the content marketing you will not see results.
The fact that there is a lot of content out there should not discourage you. On the contrary, it should help you focus on creating content that is specific for your community and the issues and dilemmas they face. So how should you push your content and how to get the word out that it is there?
There are few way to let “the internet know” the content is out there. If you are using WordPress there are a few plugins that will push the information into the search engines. Just search “publish to search engines for WordPress” and you will find a lot of plugins. Google will find your content anyway but using these tools will speed things up. These are methods that every online marketer will use.
But you have a very unique advantage: your community. Most marketers are trying to create a community through content marketing. You already have a community and you want to expand it. So use that community to help you out!
First create a mailing list of all your members so that you can send them a notification with new content is out. Ask them in the body of the email to share the content on their social media of choice. Then ask them to also send it directly to anyone they think will be interested in it. If you are using a church management software, sending out these messages should be super easy.
Once in awhile post content regarding your volunteer activities. Note, do not only post that you need volunteers or that there are new volunteer opportunities. This is good for someone in your community already, but you are seeking to grow the community, therefore, post content that showcases the activity itself. Photos of people volunteering, quotes from them, the goal of the activity and so forth.
This way people that are seeking volunteer options will read your content and say “wow, this is really great work, I want to be part of this!”.
In order for this to translate to new community members make sure you have an email address, a phone number and if possible a form they can fill out right online so that the people that are interested will be just one click away from becoming a new member.
Videos are a great content idea that can be shared across many mediums – YouTube, your website, Facebook, etc. Record the service weekly, the volunteer activities and anything else that can be recorded so those who cannot attend can still view it and those who are interested in attending can check out a service before committing to coming in person.
Consider also a podcast or recording, an audio version of your video if you will. The point here is making available your content in as many formats and ways as possible as this gives you the biggest possible reach.
A great church management software is a great way to disseminate your great curated content. Weekly or monthly newsletters, reaching out with targeted content to specific people (say prospective members, past donors, parents of VBS, volunteers, etc) is easily managed and automated with a church management software.
Using a software to automate admin tasks like payments for programs, schools, membership, etc allows your staff to devote even more time to more meaningful outreach and connecting with prospective and current church members to grow your community even more.
Looking for an online church management software to help you manage all your new members and compliment your church content marketing strategies?! Request a free demo today and learn more.
Another great way to spread the word is spending some time on social media and posting on local groups related to your church – every area is different but this could include a general group of Christians in your local area where you can post events your church is organizing, a place where parents connect locally to advertise kid focused events or to respond to questions members ask about church options in the area.
Again, this isn’t something that gives you results overnight, but its a way to ingratiate yourself with the local community and it slowly will get the word out about you. These places are also a great place to share your blog posts if you have one – since if you are writing about things your community will be interested in, people will first see a great article they are interested in reading, and not you just promoting your church.
Conclusion
If your goal is to get new members and spread the word about your church, think about the type of members you want to attract. In many ways this is the same content marketing strategy as your current membership. What is the message you are putting out there week to week?
What interesting things can you post that connect to that message and your overall mission? If someone is looking for a certain kind of church (ie your kind of church) what kind of content can you put out there that best showcases who you are? If someone comes to your website and to any one of your social media profiles, they should be able to get a good idea of who you are without talking to anyone at your church first.
Try to put yourself in the shoes of your target audience. What do your community members want? How can you supplement what you are giving them in person, online? So if your sermon one week is about giving to those less fortunate, what other resources can you provide to help them achieve this? What articles are out there to inspire this kind of service?
What have you done as a community (via pictures, videos, testimonials) have you done to live this message? Great content is easier than you think – many times it’s just taking what you are already doing and saying and putting it out there in a marketing format! Good luck!
Looking for an online church management software to help you manage all your new members and compliment your church content marketing strategies?! Request a free demo today and learn more.