Whatever new thing you are going to introduce to your church members, it’s important to remember just mentioning it for a week or two will not get the results you want. It takes strategy and planning for outstanding results. If you will take the time and energy, and include the right people, you will see a positive outcome.
Here are 10 steps that will bring you accomplishment for whatever event or new program you may want to announce to your church.
1. Identify a leader/point person.
- Who is responsible and in charge?
- One of my old bosses used to say, “Who’s getting fired if this fails?” (He was kidding, but you get the idea)
- As I mention later in this list, the launch leader should be a long term strategist and “get it done” team member, not a short attention span team member.
- Invite the creatives, strategists, and implementers to the planning process.
2. Inventory all social and other communications channels you currently have available.
- Newsletter
- Text Notification
- App Notifications
- Phone Notifications
- Mailers
- Fliers/Handouts
- Blog
- Podcast
- Social
- YouTube
- Other
- Stage Announcement
- Sermon Announcement
- Video Announcement
3. What popular channels are you missing? Add them.
- Rank your communication channels in order of importance and effectiveness.
- Prioritize time invested and additional support needed for the top channels
- Don’t skip the lower importance channels. You will be surprised what channels people use to connect with your organization.
- Not every launch fits every marketing channel.
5. Decide what you will pause communicating during the launch to reduce the clutter and support your launch successfully.
6. Define your marketing’s branding guidelines.
- What should you say?
- How should you say it?
- Who should say it?
- How often should they say it?
7. Define the budget. Allow your vision to drive the marketing, not the budget.
- Creating the Content
- Materials Needed
- Determine Staff Hours
- Other?
8. Create a marketing timeline.
- Take a successful deep implementation and work backwards from there.
- What will it look like when this communication/launch is a success?
- By working from what success looks like, you can answer the question: when should we begin to get the desired results?
- To communicate effectively you have to over communicate. It’s best to measure effective communication from a team strategist or implementer with a good long term perspective.
- Add lots of details to each step for best implementation.
- Document everything for the next launch and share with other ministries.
9. Measure and review ongoing results. Adjust your strategy based on those results.
10. Conduct a post-mortem.
- What were the results? (Study the data)
- What worked?
- What didn’t work?
- What would you change?
Michael Gray does tech support for StreamingChurch.tv, ChurchAppLive.com, MyFlock.com and myChurchdaily.com. Michael has been involved in leadership in churches for over 15 years. If you have questions or need help, reach out to him today at [email protected]