Get Shipshape With A Marketing Plan
by Chris Forbes
Free tips for getting the word out about your church from the Ministry Marketing Coach
Building a boat without a blueprint isn’t a good idea, and neither is setting off in the ocean of media available to your church without a marketing plan.
Yet, that’s exactly what many ministries do. Like a rowboat with broken paddles, they work feverishly trying to reach people, but they don’t seem to get anywhere. That’s because they don’t have a precise understanding what they are doing and why they are doing it when it comes to media. Often, little continuity exists among the various media and marketing elements that come from these ministries. If that is the ship you are in, don’t worry you are not sunk!
A simple tool to remedy this situation is having a written marketing plan. This simple act of planning can put your ministry among the top 5 percent of ministry marketers. Write down your communication plans before you set out into the uncharted waters of media with your message. Planning will help you, especially as you look for ways to connect your church’s marketing into a meaningful integrated whole. There is no need to overcomplicate your planning. Just put down on paper what you are going to do each week for the next 12 to 18 months.
For example, look at your ministry plans for the next months. Will you start a new sermon series in this time period? What events are scheduled for the next year? Do you have
Vacation
Bible
School
, a Christmas play, or a special service at Easter? And, what are the Women’s, Men’s and Children’s groups doing throughout the year? Often churches only consider these ministries one at a time. What would it look like for your media planning, if you could leverage the way you use media more toward building and maintaining outreach momentum in the next months?
Does the sound of all that planning make you want to walk the plank? Consider this, there’s an added benefit of running a tighter ship buy putting your plans into words. In doing so, you will more naturally build integration and purpose into your marketing. And best of all, important ministries within your organization won’t be forgotten, left marooned on an island with no media and marketing promotion attention.
The mere act of making a list of marketing needs also allows other people on your church’s ministry team help you reach your ministry’s marketing goals. That’s because they know which direction you are sailing and can see how they fit into the plans. Getting people helping you is great fellow-ship too. (Sorry about that one.) Decide today to start putting your marketing plans into writing. Soon you will be sailing smoothly, communicating better and more effectively reaching your community.
Action Point!
Sit down by yourself or with the other leaders in your ministry team and write down the specific goals you want to see accomplished through your marketing in the next 12-18 months. And then, convert those goals into objectives, strategies, and weekly action plans that you can accomplish to see your goals come to life.
