Church Branding Marketing Ideas
By Bill Ross
Promoting your church is not much different than marketing a secular business or service. You want to define your message and target audience and project a certain image that conveys your message using specific media or marketing tools.
Here are church marketing ideas that can help grow your church:
1. Your Logo – Before you can advertise your church, make sure you have a distinctive brand that is easily recognizable and memorable. Essential to implementing church marketing ideas, branding is the art of using a corporate logo or mark that reflects your church’s values, mission, or vision. For instance, a brand that says, “We are a church that loves,” might include a graphic with a cross and a heart or helping hands. The image you choose should reflect the message and the personality of your church.
2. Church Signage – Church marketing ideas that include signage are a practical yet effective approach. Your sign is your first impression on visitors and is the first thing your members see when they drive onto the property. Invest in a well-designed permanent sign at outside entrances and smaller signs in the lobby or welcome desks and throughout the church complex.
3. Printed Materials – Effective church branding ideas include developing, designing, printing, and distributing materials that keep your logo before the members’ faces. Your brand should be prominently featured on every piece of literature, church letterheads, business cards, envelopes, programs, offering envelopes, direct mailers, and pledge cards.
4. Your Digital Presence – Church marketing ideas also include placing your logo prominently on your website and in all electronic messaging, including social media, email, television, and billboards.
Church Social Media Marketing Ideas
In marketing your church, if you don’t have a social media page, you are at a disadvantage. Savvy churches realize that effective church marketing ideas include a strong social media presence that can effectively target potential members and retain existing ones.
5. Advertise on social media sites – To stay in constant contact with your membership, go social. Because social media also provides opportunity for feedback, your church marketing team can more easily gauge the effectiveness of other strategic marketing efforts like television, direct mail, or one-on-one contact.
6. Sign up for a paid advertising account – Social media sites also offer paid advertising to a specific demographic with benchmarks to determine your advertising’s effectiveness. You can target a specific neighborhood, local markets, and income groups to attract a demographic that will make your church more viable and boost membership.
7. Broadcast live – Your church doesn’t have to spend thousands on television broadcasts. You can use your social media account to broadcast live from a cell phone or tablet. Appoint someone to record every service and reach thousands at home, across the nation, or overseas. Church advertising ideas that incorporate live social media broadcasts are highly successful in building membership.
8. Drive potential and existing members to your site – Post a social media icon on printed and digital materials as a constant reminder for readers to visit and interact with your site.
Church Direct Mail Marketing Ideas
Effective church advertising ideas to grow churches should include a consistent direct mail campaign.
9. Design and mail materials – Fliers, postcards, brochures, and capital campaign packages mailed directly to a targeted audience yield amazing results. Invite area neighbors and schools to Fall festivals, concerts, and vacation bible school by mailing out postcards.
10. Develop and monitor mailing lists – Most church software programs have the capability of building a member mailing list based on specific demographics. Your church marketing team can use several mailing lists to target campaigns and elicit a specific response.
11. Design, print, and mail a monthly newsletter – In spite of email’s popularity, direct mail is still a viable option for marketing your church. Members may still prefer getting a printed newsletter in their mailbox to keep abreast of church news and special events.
Create Church-Related Items
Take advantage of every opportunity to emblazon your church logo or brand on items people love to wear or use.
12. Screen-Printed Items – Have T-shirts screen printed with your church logo for youth groups, softball teams, women’s auxiliaries, or men’s study groups. Print your church logo on coffee mugs. Order polo shirts for the ministerial staff with an embroidered logo. Hosting a conference or music workshop? Order notebooks, lanyards, pencils, pens, and goody bags that market your church.
Create A Great Church Website
In today’s market, if you don’t have a web presence, you simply don’t exist. People seeking a new church home are more likely to search the worldwide web than the telephone directory.
13. Hire a web designer to develop an interactive church website – An interactive website is your two-way window to the world. Church marketing ideas that incorporate a strong internet presence enable churches to reach thousands of potential members and donors, including people looking for a good inspirational message or a place to park tithes and offerings.
14. Record regular and special church services – Broadcast your services on low or no-cost digital media like YouTube.com or streaming video designed for churches and faith-based audiences. Viewers who cannot physically attend a church service will enjoy tuning in to a live podcast or downloading a sermon. Be sure to include active links on your website and social media pages that will drive viewers to your videos and audio recordings.
Church Email Marketing Ideas
Email is almost indispensable when it comes to knowing how to market your church.
15. Email Marketing – Contract with a cost-effective email marketing company to send out regular notices about special services like Easter and Christmas cantatas, advertise youth events, or recognize member birthdays, anniversaries, or weddings.
16. Be Consistent – An effective email campaign involves designing targeted messages and consistently sending those messages out on a regular basis without flooding member inboxes. The beauty of using email over snail mail is its relatively low cost.
Community Outreach Ideas
17. Outreach – Make community outreach an integral part of how to market your church by establishing a liaison of members and community activists. Open your doors to the community for vacation bible school, workshops, and special services. Share flyers advertising your church’s community outreach programs with neighborhood schools, residents, and other churches to spread the good news about your ministry and boost attendance.
18. Serve area indigent and homeless – A church soup kitchen or clothing bank is not only a great way to fulfill the divine commission to minister to the poor, but it is also a way to bring people into the church who might not otherwise attend.
Church Word-Of-Mouth Marketing Ideas
19. Word of Mouth – A fail-safe method of advertising has always been word of mouth. Encourage members to not only tell others about the work but also invite singles, youth, families, and elders to church. Special services for the holidays, musical performances, and casual gatherings offer opportunities to help boost membership and attendance through word of mouth.
20. Electronic Bulletin Board – Many churches utilize digital bulletin boards to keep members and visitors aware of church events while promoting the church brand. Placed in lobbies, common areas, cafes, and classrooms, a digital bulletin board is an appendage of the printed version passed out every Sunday with an appeal for members who love everything electronic.
The above article, “Church Branding Marketing Ideas” was written by Bill Ross, and can be found at https://linchpinseo.com/church-marketing-ideas/
The material is copyrighted and should not be reprinted under any other name or author. However, this material may be freely used for personal study or research purposes.
This article may not be written by an Apostolic author, but it contains many excellent principles and concepts that can be adapted to most churches. As the old saying goes, “Eat the meat. Throw away the bones.”
