How to Grow Your Church with Digital Marketing

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As we all know at this point, social technology is here to stay, which is why digital marketing services are more relevant than ever for churches, congregations, and organizations today. Thanks to the various metrics, social media platforms, website tools, and video services at your disposal, it’s now easier than ever before to grow your church audience simply through a mobile device or laptop.

However, as more and more content is pushed out into the Internet, consumers are wary of being overly pitched, preferring a softer, “inbound” digital marketing approach. They want to come to you as a result of your content, not the other way around.

If you’re ready to grow your church with digital tools, here are 5 ways in which digital marketing can make a huge difference:

1. Church Website & Giving Portal: Did you know that 90% of consumers read online reviews or other online information before visiting that business in person? Well, your church is part of those businesses, which means if you don’t have any online presence, you are as good as hidden. By taking time to invest in a website, you will provide consumers with the information they need to find you, know more about you, and know more about your community.

At the same time, within your website, you can embed a giving portal that makes it easier than ever before for congregation attendees, as well as donors, to donate to the mission and expansion of your church.

2. Live Streams: Many churches offer Live Streams of their services today. It’s a great way to keep people connected even if they can’t make it to a service. Plus, when you go “live” on Facebook, Instagram, and so forth, those social media apps actually push out your live video to new followers and viewers, making it an easy – and free – way to grow your church following.

This same Live Stream technology can be leveraged right on your website, or YouTube, as well. It’s wherever you prefer to offer your services through video.

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3. Social Media Profiles: People sift around social media sites for hours per day, not necessarily with an end goal in mind. If you take some time to curate profiles for your church on these sites, showcasing photos, articles, videos, and more, you will encourage these new visitors to explore your content and consider your church. It’s essentially a free look book that they can review at their leisure, helping to ultimately convince them to walk in your doors the next Sunday.

4. SMS Marketing: More Internet viewing and perusing is happening through phones over laptops and static computers today. Therefore, reaching your members through text is an incredibly effective way to retain your congregation. Since growing churches only average 18 to 21 percent visitor retention, handing out welcome cards each service and collecting numbers and emails is a great way to follow up with these attendees.

Don’t overdo the outreach but do remind them once per week about your church and your availability in their lives. Simple SMS texts, or even an email drip campaign, is a great church digital marketing tool.

5. Online Directories: Churches are an integral community player, which means it’s in your best interest to be as “locatable” as possible in online local directories. It’s generally free, and easy, to submit your church to local listings; but also make sure that you are registered with Facebook, Yelp, Google, and so forth. That way, you are guaranteed to show up when people search certain phrases in their respective search bars. Again, if these people don’t even know you exist, how are they going to find you? SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is a massive part of being successful with digital marketing today.

Digital Marketing for Churches

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The beauty of digital marketing is that you can never do too much of it for your church. It’s an infinite tool that is also relatively easy to manage. Between social media marketing, content marketing, video marketing, influencer marketing, and so forth, the sky is the limit in regard to your church reach.

We understand that as a pastor, minister, manager, etc. you might not exactly have time to manage every last SMS or email outreach. Registering for online directories is easy, but time consuming, and keeping websites up to date can seem like a full-time job.

Here at Worship Times, we provide website design and development, SEO, and social media marketing services for your church, so you can focus on ministering and connecting with your followers in-person. Consider the power of digital marketing for ministries today.

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