Ministry Marketing CoachMinistry Branding and Marketing that Works

Ministers are often surprised to realize they have a way to speak to unchurched people available to them that is fully under their control and won’t increase their church marketing budget at all—the church newsletter they send out each week!

Some churches spend thousands of dollars in advertising to reach out to people who don’t go to church and find only a few responses from these promotions. Church leaders want to connect with people who are not yet believers through mainstream media so they can share the gospel with them, meanwhile, they send out a weekly newsletter of their own making to a list of people, half of whom are not active in church.

It’s true, look at your church newsletter mailing list. If you have a list of 1000 names, chances are great you are like most churches and only 400-500 of those people actually attend your church. Your church already has a large audience of unchurched people and you may not realize it!

I once conducted a survey in the state of Oklahoma for my denomination and found that 86% of the unchurched in the state had been in one of the denomination’s churches in the last five years. Meaning, if I wanted to mail a letter directly to the unchurched, I could have used the church newsletter mailing list of these denominational churches.

Don’t Ignore the Unchurched People in Your Church Newsletter Mailing List!

Each year, churches have several activities that are designed to reach unchurched people. I have never understood why, considering all the work put in to reaching new people, the names of these prospects are merged into the general mailing list of the active church member database. Think of it this way, the people on your church mailing list are people whom God has given you stewardship to serve and minister the gospel. Use your mailing list for what is it meant to be, as a list of names of people to whom your church ministers the Gospel.

A lot of people are bemoaning the flagging growth of churches in the United States. The critics blame cultural trends, lambast evangelism approaches, and rake each other over the theological coals, all while the real reason is—people fail to follow-up on the people they have made contact with through their church!

Many people miss the point of church marketing. They look at church promotions as a way to bail out the church and help it get growing again. But marketing can only help a church make contact with more people. Once the contact is made, the real ministry begins!

Some churches even become exasperated at the people on their mailing list for not attending church. They call for the church database to be purged of all inactive names. That is the most ridiculous thing I can imagine. Don’t purge the inactive unchurched from your database! Don’t drop old inactive people from your church rolls—go and minister to these people!

Another pet peeve of mine is when churches want to save money by eliminating their print newsletter because it is “too expensive”. Let’s look at this. You have a list of names, half of whom are the ones your church claims it wants to reach most, and you want to trash all those contacts, so you can go and get more contacts to ignore to death?

When some tells you church newsletters don’t “work” it usually means they don’t work the church mailing list. You will waste far more money in mainstream media advertising trying to reach new people, than you could ever waste in your entire lifetime with a church newsletter!

Unchurched-Friendly Church Newsletter Ideas

One way to improve your church newsletter is to take a look at how other organizations use their newsletters. I receive newsletters from an insurance agent, a realtor, and a local mortgage broker. These newsletters don’t only have content about their business angle; they also have content and news I can use in other ways. Your church can do the same thing.

Since you have the names and address of the people on your mailing list, it’s is easy to get to know your audience. Study the list of names, pull demographics from the zip codes, call and interview a few people on the “inactive” part of the list telling them you need help making the newsletter more useful to everyone.  Your research will help all your church outreach improve. Make your newsletter work for you!

• Instead of a sappy meaningless article targeted at active church members from the pastor, (Sorry, it’s true in most church newsletters!) how about something of substance in the article? Recap the sermon with a brief application and tease the full audio version on your website.  Half the people in the audience didn’t hear the sermon!
• Put content into the newsletter that helps people in their lives through the week. One idea, how about creative activities for bored kids who are home for the summer?
• Make an offer. Offer something people can request through the newsletter like a free book, or audio CD
• Make a theme and publish content like a magazine. You don’t have to fill the newsletter with only information from the church calendar.
• Include the gospel in the newsletter and/or point people to a place on your website with a gospel presentation.

Besides the people who read your newsletter who are on you mailing list, your newsletter can have what magazines call “secondary readership.”  Active and inactive members often inadvertently leave their newsletter laying around at home, in coffee shops, offices, drop them accidently, and leave them other places. People who are not in your mailing list find your newsletter and read it.

If you make your newsletter of better quality, you may find your members will request more copies so they can give them away. Imagine, people who are active in your church using the newsletter as an outreach tool!