Worship + Digital Marketing – 5 Trends to Watch This Year

As we move forward into 2019, with the summer lingering on the horizon, it’s a great time of year to reflect on your digital marketing strategy and make any necessary changes to adapt to the ever-changing landscape of digital marketing. It’s a fast-paced industry, which is why it’s in your best interest to stay abreast with the latest church digital marketing tools and outreach patterns that seem to be working well for other organizations.

Trends to Watch

If you’re looking for an abridged version of what your church should leverage as part of its social media marketing and outreach plan for the remainder of 2019, here are our picks for the top 5 most important opportunities:

1. Put More Time into YouTube: Did you know that YouTube is the world’s second largest search engine after Google? That’s how many people use YouTube on a daily basis for all sorts of needs, from how-to videos, to simple time-wasting conspiracy theories. It’s where people go to relax, unwind, and perhaps even waste time, which is why it’s a great place for your church videos. You can even stream Live on YouTube, host your own channel, or upload predictable content every week that earns you a returning viewer base.

Now, given that the competition is stiff on YouTube today, you want to make a plan before you go headfirst into the platform. Maybe you just want to upload worship music that has been privately recorded; or you want to include all of your live stream services there. Whatever the plan, be sure to keep it organized before you end up clashing with classic YouTube etiquette.

2. The Rise of Micro Marketing: As the nature of marketing in our world changes, more consumers are expecting a custom-tailored advertising approach, as opposed to one big catch-all marketing scheme. People are picky, and they want an ad to take their wants and needs into consideration. Well, that holds true for churches, which is why you’ll get the best bang for your buck if you consider the value of micro marketing.

Micro marketing involves targeting a small segment of people at a time online, as opposed to your entire congregation. That means that making certain content for younger apps, like Instagram and Snapchat, different from sites like Facebook, will produce greater results for your church when it’s all said and done. Consider who you are marketing to each time you make a post, and watch the responses change over time.

3. Online Church Software: Tech automation can save you a lot of time, strain, and hassle managing your church and church team. We are seeing an increase in online church software that can be integrated into websites and social media sites, where you can manage everything from emails and team communication, to websites, file sharing, project management, and more. With this kind of automation, you can probably eliminate unnecessary expenses and team positions that were once needed in the past.

Here at Worship Times we can help point you to new technologies and integrations to help make running and organizing your ministry that much easier!

4. Don’t Doubt the Power of Email Marketing: According to 80% of business professionals, email is their preferred avenue for connection and business collaboration. Email comes with an incredible return on investment since more people open and respond to emails than they do website inquiries and social media requests.

Therefore, don’t doubt the power of an email chain or newsletter that you send out to your congregation weekly. It’s one of the most direct ways to ensure you stay in contact with everyone while updating people on changes, closings, and new information or biblical reflections that you want to share with your followers. Email is taken seriously by the majority of people, which is why you want to focus some of your effort on the legitimacy of this outlet.

5. Increasing Importance of Visual Branding: People are more likely to click on a video or look at a photo than they are to read an entire article on social media today. Therefore, visual marketing is more important than ever, which is why graphic design should be integral to your team. Making your own graphics with quotes or Bible verses is an easy way to keep people engaged.

Additionally, providing visuals of pastors, sermons, and church services is becoming more important. It helps people “see” themselves there before they arrive. If you don’t provide this content, some other church will!

Worship Times

Here at Worship Times, we work hard to keep up with the latest worship digital marketing trends in our world, so you don’t have to. We know how time consuming all of this can be, which is why we propose you outsource the task to our faith-focused team so you can benefit from digital marketing while running your church. We can create a custom plan to suit all of your needs. Let’s get to work!