Sunday, June 27, 2010

Internet and Traditional Marketing Strategies for Churches

There is a considerable number of successfull Internet and Traditional Marketing Strategies for Churches.

Never throw the successful traditional marketing strategies out just because the internet may appear to be the only way to go! (Church marketing personnel often need to be reminded, or even informed, of such options.)

Similarly, do not just assume that the internet is the only way to market your church.

The Church Marketing Manual for the Digital Age (2nd ed) by Bryan Foster, published in 2010, is an e-book resource full of both these forms of successful marketing forms.

This 329 A4 page e-book is a concise overview of how to market your church in easy to read summarised point form.

Over 80 pages, nearly 140 weblinks and over 60 internet screenshots assist with the new Internet Applications chapter alone.

This e-book is an instruction manual which includes many samples. The contempoary and traditional approaches needed for marketing your church in the digital age are explained in this e-book.

Everything from 'parishioner power', the traditional media and parish newsletters to various internet applications, including websites and social networking, are explored in great detail. You will need to begin with a high quality church marketing plan, which is compatible with your particular budget.

This is another manual in the highly successful church and school marketing e-handbook and e-book series.

The 'Internet and Traditional Marketing Strategies for Churchess' blog post was written by Bryan Foster author of 'Church Marketing Manual for the Digital Age (2nd ed) 2010. Bryan also wrote the School Marketing Manual for the Digital Age (3rd ed) 2010 (364 A4 pages of summarized points) along with various other e-books.

Monday, May 31, 2010

Church Marketing - Instructions on Writing a Media Release

Instructions are needed for church marketing personnel to knowing how to write a media release.

Media Release Writing Skills

  • Develop effective Media Release writing skills so as to gain media coverage. This is often your best means of gaining this somewhat difficult exposure.
  • The media release should ideally be kept to one page to be effective. (See Sample at end of this chapter.)
  • One of the major difficulties found when beginning to write media releases is keeping the length relatively short. There is often a desire to give all the detail because you believe it enhances your case.
  • Sometimes a little more detail is needed, but not to the detriment of the success of the media release.
  • You may also attach supporting documentation. Supporting documentation is usually better than an extended release. It breaks up a long media release.
  • A media release is often read if the heading and introduction is captivating.
  • Long releases can be considered boring and hence not read.

Remember that the media outlets are receiving an enormous number of releases daily.

The best media releases and best stories usually gain the best attention.

Sending a Media Release

  • The media release is printed onto the church’s letterhead paper before transmission.
  • The media release is next faxed or emailed to the chosen media outlets.
  • In most cases this is to a list of media outlets which should have been stored prior in the memory of the fax machine’s / email group list.
  • Emailing is currently gaining more of a general acceptance from the media for media releases. You need to know each outlet’s expectations.
  • If they are not email interested, you may still be able to arrange emails with specific contacts for certain focused stories e.g. community service feature pages within the local newspaper.
  • Follow-up phone calls may need to be made if there is no response or if you just want to keep building on your relationship. Remember not to overdo this though.


Response of Media to an Event

  • Media representatives will usually contact you if there is an interest
  • The media may not always respond to your media release but may just turn up a few minutes before the event ready to do the coverage.
  • Have someone prepared to meet them in the Parish Office if you know they will be there or have some other contingency plans just in case they arrive without you knowing.
  • Be courteous and welcoming, have them sign in and then taken to the venue. They should then be introduced to the CMM who then helps them out.


Other Topics covered

The other topics covered in this chapter in the church marketing ebook include:

Media Release Outline Plan – a suggestion on how to write a media release.
Media Release – a sample.

The ‘Church Marketing - Instructions on Writing a Media Release’ blog post was written by Bryan Foster author of Church Marketing Manual for the Digital Age (2nd ed) 2010.

Church Marketing Needs to Use the Traditional Media Also


The traditional media – newspapers, magazines, radio, television – is still an important church marketing tool which has a powerful influence on people’s perceptions of churches and parishes.

Effectively using the media is of considerable advantage.
(It is also of benefit to the media.)

Do not be afraid of the media! Be respectful!

A common misconception is that the media will contact the church / parish on a regular basis for stories. Most often this is not the case.

When a good relationship is developed between the church / parish and the various media outlets, a balance and appreciation of each other’s needs will be reached.

Positive Relations

Parishes need to develop positive relations with the media. Having the media work for you is a real advantage.

Also, having the media not work against you is another advantage.

Most media outlets want to work with churches to portray positive stories to their readers. These are the feel-good stories, which sell newspapers, television and radio time. This builds the media’s advertising base, hence profits. They are also seen as good community advocates.

This positive relationship doesn’t just happen.

The Church Marketing Manager, in particular, needs to develop this relationship in a number of ways. These include contact with journalists, good media releases, advertising with them and the availability of the PMM to the media outlet.

Other Topics Discussed

These topics may be found in this chapter in the church marketing manual ebook:

  • Church Contact Person
  • Media Release
  • Direct Contact with Media Outlets and Journalists
  • Balanced Relationship is Needed
  • Church Marketing Manager’s Availability
  • Be Careful

This ‘Church Marketing Needs to Use the Traditional Media Alsol’ blog post wasa writtten by Bryan Foster author of Church Marketing Manual for the Digital Age (2nd ed) 2010

Friday, May 21, 2010

Mary MacKillop - Saint and Icon - a True Australian

Blessed Mary MacKillop is a true Australian icon and her saint.

Mary's life epitomizes all that is good about the Australian character.

Mary MacKillop's canonization will occur in Rome on Sunday 17 October, 2010. This follows her beatification ceremony in Sydney on 19 January, 1995. Cardinal Moran foresaw Mary's sainthood, when in 1909 at her deathbed he stated, "I consider I have this day assisted at the deathbed of a saint." (MaryMackillop.org.au)

The Australian characteristics that Mary personified included her belief in all Australians, Catholics and Protestants, Christians and Jews alike. This characteristic of the universal Australian view of egalitarianism was shown through her opening of many basic resourced schools for all children. At these schools there was no class distinction and opportunities existed for the most disadvantaged children.

Mary felt a lack of spiritual appreciation in society and hence wanted to bring an experience of God to all whom she met. This was achieved both through her personal generosity and lived example.

This very special person was above all a normal everyday Australian, born and bred in Australia. Yet her life was one of extraordinary accomplishments in very difficult geographic, economic and spiritual times.

She is a woman who truly responded to God's call to love - in a most loving way!

'Mary MacKillop - Saint and Icon - a True Australian' was written by Bryan Foster author of 'Church Marketing Manual for the Digital Age (2nd ed)' 2010, and based on the Blessed Mary MacKillop website.

Monday, May 17, 2010

Church Marketing Personnel Learn from Britain's Catholic Herald Newspaper



The Catholic Herald newspaper, Britain's leading Catholic newspaper, is a special website example for church marketing personnel, and is available in an abridged form online.

The online stories are detailed and often include colourful photographs to enhance each particular story. Online subscribers also gain access to a raft of archival material.

This is a very informative online Catholic newspaper. It is often detailed and contains a large variety of topics from a significant collection of journalists / authors. The stories are contemporary and relevant for a diverse readership.

The homepage is detailed, yet is easily usable, once an general overview is appreciated. Clicking on the main heading of interest, leads quickly to a clean page, which has the main story dominant. Other key links remain in a left side column.

The Main Online Toolbar includes key material of interest to a large demographic:
The homepage also includes links to:
This online newspaper would be of considerable assistance for church marketing personnel, both as an online website example, as well as from the news' worthiness of the content for local parish information. Remember to always respect copyright laws and ethics.

'Church Marketing Personnel Learn from Britain's Catholic Herald Newspaper' was written by Bryan Foster author of Church Marketing Manual for the Digital Age (2nd ed) 2010, an easy to read and implement 320 A4 paged summarised e-book manual.

Saturday, May 15, 2010

Archdiocese of NY Impressive Website for Church Marketing

The Archdiocese of New York has a wonderful website which should inspire any church marketing personnel.

The personable visual image of Archbishop Timothy Dolan links to his well constructed and diversified personal blog. We are openly invited from the blog link on the homepage to engage through this digital communication format as "God is everywhere even on the blog!"

The website's clean, crisp presentation says 'professional' so very clearly. It has a very welcoming and inviting appeal. This easy to read and use homepage links to various pages including:


Regular podcasts from 'The Catholic Channel' are also linked from this homepage. The Archbishop's weekly 'A Conversation with the Archbishop' program includes the Archbishop answering your emails and discussing various topics, archdiocesan events and Church issues. Programs provided here are diversified and presented by various clergy, religious and lay personnel. (You will need certain software installed to receive these, though. Links are provided.)

Archbishop Timothy Dolan was installed as Archbishop of NY on April 15, 2009 after serving as Archbishop of Milwaukee since 2002.

Church marketing personnel will be inspired by this website. The site exudes professionalism. It says 'welcome - come and view.' The tabs are contemporary, topical and easily found. All linked material is more than appropriate and often necessary for all dioceses and churches.

The Archdiocese of New York exempliary website for church marketing personnel blog post was written by Bryan Foster author of Church Marketing Manual for the Digital Age (2nd ed) 2010.

Saturday, May 8, 2010

Internet and Church Marketing



The Internet and Church Marketing chapter
includes Samples and Instructions to assist the Church marketing personnel with contemporary marketing methods.

The internet provides so many church marketing opportunities that are:

• very contemporary
• popular with a significant and ever-increasing number of our church community
• ever-growing in possibilities
• often inexpensive or free
• fun!

The modern church and parish needs to be actively involved with many of these internet opportunities, otherwise they will unnecessarily fall behind the interest level and communication methods of an ever-growing number of our parishioners – with what could be serious ramifications for all concerned.

The CHALLENGE has been issued!

Headings

Website
Website Management Software Sample
RSS Feeds
SEOs
Blogs
Emails
e/i-Newsletters and e/i-Flyers
Social Networking Websites
Video Uploads
Chat Rooms
Skype

These internet and church marketing applications may be found in detailed summaried point form in the 'Church Marketing Manual for the Digital Age (2nd ed)' 2010 by Bryan Foster.

Saturday, May 1, 2010

'The Catholic Leader' Newspaper - National Leader in Religious Journalism



The Catholic Leader newspaper is a national leader in journalistic integrity and diversity. It is the nation's best selling religious newspaper. The Catholic Leader is sold both as a hardcopy, as well as having a significant online presence.

Editor Peter Bugden has been successfully editing this paper since 2007. He succeeded Marcus Kuczynski who was the editor since since 1997.

The newspaper focusses on international, national, regional and local community stories relevant to not only Catholics but all interested people, especially Christians. However, the primary focus is Catholic.

Stories range from detailed features to informative stories. Colorful photographs enhance the stories and advertisments.

A large variety of advertising topics lead readers to a substantial diversity of resources of interest, including various service offerings, upcoming events and print and electronic texts.

The Catholic Leader plays an integral part for the Archdiocese of Brisbane. It is a primary means of communication for the archdiocese.

'The Catholic Leader Newspaper - national leader in religious journalism' was written by Bryan Foster author of Church Marketing Manual for the Digital Age (2nd ed) 2010.

Thursday, April 29, 2010

Church Marketing Plan needs Successful Church Websites and Management Software

Websites - The church / parish website and website management software are becoming one of the most important needs of a church marketing plan and forms the basis of marketing the church / parish. It is often where parish information is initially found.

The website is often one of the first places that potential families and parishioners get an overall feel and basic appreciation of the potential for their involvement in parish life.


Creating a Website - Background

Investigation in this area is critical.

The church will need expertise to create and then continually update a good website.

The initial construction of the website may come from staff, IT skilled parishioners, school IT staff or from outside consultants.

The continual updating would best be done within the parish. In-servicing staff for making these updates would be money well spent.

An option, I have found very beneficial, follows.


Management Software

Another option is to have the website embedded in to management software which allows for management of the site. This takes the site beyond the static and into the realm of continual fluid development – Web 2.0.

The expense of this option is not considerable and with negotiation within the field a reasonable monthly cost would be expected. I would suggest speaking with trusted others in deciding on the businesses offering this support. (See ‘Website Management Software Sample’ in 'Internet Applications...' chapter for a specific example.)

This software allows for various detailed reports of website usage. It could include:

• the whereabouts in the world of visitors to your site
• number of webpages they visited
• the content viewed from webpages and applications they visited
• where they entered and exited the website
• who is exploring your site, through IP (Internet Protocol) addresses
• the browsers they used to link to your website
• any commercial activities you may have as part of your website, etc.

This allows for the non-IT expert to update the website regularly, from uploading photos, literature items, to adding webpages, blogs, galleries of photos and videos, etc.

There are numerous other capacities depending on the management software.

More detail on the necessities of Websites for Churches and Website Management Software to successfully marketing the church may be found in the e-book: Church Marketing Manual for the Digital Age (2nd ed) 2010 by Bryan Foster.

Saturday, April 24, 2010

Church Marketing and SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

To gain higher positioning at various search engines, church marketing personnel need various methods of SEO (Search Engine Optimization / Optimisation).

Website Viewers

Some churches and parishes aren't really interested in having their website visited from people all over the world. These worshipping communities are more interested in their local congregations. For these people SEOs are not needed.

Various communities might like their website to be easily accessible to people from various parts of their particular country but not necessarily beyond their borders. This allows for people transferring to their parish to preview what their parish has to offer. A suggestion for these communities would be to select a domain name which ends in their countries code e.g. United Kingdom .uk, for Australia .au, etc.

Other communities may be interested in having their church and their website open worldwide. SEOs would likely suit these churches.

Suggestions for SEO Improvement

Some ways I have found which I believe help with Search Engine Optimization are:

* The Domain name includes the church / parish name and suburb.
* Key Words such as the church / parish name are regularly used throughout the site, particularly in titles / headings, first sentence and last sentence on each webpage.
* Each webpage within the website would highlight something different about the parish and hence also include other key words associated both with the parish name / suburb and that webpage's emphasis.
These other Key Words may be: sacrament, parishioner, visitor, Baptism, Marriage, mass times, contact, parish priest, priests, parish kit, open day, school or welfare groups within the parish, etc.
* Each Blog's title, first and last sentences would include key words associated with that individual blog‟s message and that it eventuated from your parish.
*The more links coming to your website from other sources, particularly .gov, .edu and .org the better. Having other sites point to your website helps SEO i.e. having other sites have your Domain / URL linked live on their website.
However, it is best not to swap links with others of similar level e.g. .org. That is, if each site has the other‟s site linked from their site, this usually causes it to neutralize the impact for both sites.
Yet swapping these links may improve traffic to your site, just not higher SEO.
* Include links within your own site to various other webpages on your site.
* Another way of achieving the links from other sites may be achieved by developing various Blogs elsewhere which include the link to your website. (More on this in Blogs later.)
* Be careful not to overdo all these links and key words as search engines may penalize you for being overambitious in gaining notice for your website.
* Age of the website. Older sites have more credibility. Develop your website as soon as possible.
* Update your site regularly. A fresh, updated site is appealing to both visitors and for SEO.

These suggestions come from Church Marketing Manual for the Digital Age (2nd ed), 2010, by Bryan Foster

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

e-Book Helping to Bring People Back to Church



The Catholic Leader newspaper, the leading Church newspaper in Australia, this weekend featured the new Church Marketing e-Book by Bryan Foster in its hardcopy edition.

The Church Marketing Manual for the Digital Age (2nd ed), 2010, was released earlier this year.

Fr Dan Ryan PP and Sonya Slater, Parish Administrator, from the Surfers Paradise Parish on the Gold Coast, Australia, have bought multiple copies (10) of the e-book for their parish pastoral council.

The Catholic Leader featured Fr Dan Ryan's and Sonya Slater's thoughts on the e-book and how they plan to use it.

“I find Bryan Foster’s new e-book will help considerably with marketing our Catholic parishes in the modern world. I am especially drawn to the chapters on Parish – School relationships and the uses of the internet, in particular the parish website,” said Fr Dan Ryan, Parish Priest.

“From relationships with our schools to communicating with our parishioners through to web design and blogs, this e-book gives strategies for growth opportunities within our parish,”said Sonya Slater, Parish Administrator.

“I would highly recommend this e-book to other parishes as a tool which could be used in groups or by the Parish Priest or Parish Administrator.”

The e-book is available from either of Bryan's websites at CPM and SMA. Or by contacting Bryan through email at bryan.foster@optusnet.com.au and making other arrangements.

The Church Marketing Manual for the Digital Age (2nd ed) by Bryan Foster was this weekend featured in Australia's foremost Church newspaper, The Catholic Leader.

Saturday, February 27, 2010

Blogs Essential for Church Marketing Plan


 

Blogs are becoming a very popular form of interactive, digital communication by internet users and hence have an important part to play for church marketing personnel. 'Blog' is the commonly used abbreviation for 'Weblog'.

Content may be brief or extensive. Blogs are used to allow interaction between the website's administrator/s and the website's visitors.

Churches could benefit considerably through the effective use of Blogs. These are ideal avenues to promote your church / parish and the various messages you wish to place in the public or private domain.

These days so many people wish to be valued through their involvement and feedback - blogs are one highly regarded avenue for them to achieve this.

Blog Posts

The website's / blog's administrators write a Blog Post (comment, information, news, challenge etc.) and publish this to their website's blog page. Blog Posts may also include photos, videos, audios and other graphic presentations.

The visitor to your website's blog page would then have the option to comment on your blog post's content.

Blog Posts may be of any length and literary style depending on the target audience. However, in most cases, brevity is the norm in these days of mass communication overload. Think newspaper article lengths for most blog posts. As a general guide I work on 200-300 words per blog post.

You need to make sure that the administrator has the option to accept or reject all comments posted in response to the blog post. If the blog post is available to the public, you need to be prepared to receive all sorts of comments, including spam (mainly advertising links). Unsuitable comments would then be deleted.

Church Marketers could use blogs in two primary ways:

• Parish website Blog

• External Blog sites, which you would point (link) back to your parish website.

Church Marketing Blogs are discussed in detail in the Church Marketing Manual for the Digital Age (2nd ed) 2010 by Bryan Foster.

Due to the enormous growth and interest in blogs, the church marketing personnel need to avail themselves of this unique form of internet church marketing.

Friday, February 5, 2010

Instruction Manual for Church Marketing

A church marketing instruction manual is an essential resource for the church marketing personnel.

It is necessary to have a written guide show:

  • what you need to know and what is available
  • why it is suggested you do something - whether it is building essential relationships, using the traditional and contemporary media, or using various other marketing resources
  • how to do all this, often takes the stress and anxiety out of developing a successful marketing plan.

A successful instruction manual will include step-by-step instructions throughout. It will explain in detail the what, why and most importantly the how. It will be divided into simple to read, simple to follow and simple to implement strategies.

The e-book Church Marketing Manual for the Digital Age (2nd ed) (2010) by Bryan Foster was published this week. This instruction manual is written in an easy to read, summarized points format. No waffling here. Get straight down to what you will need to know straight away from an author with considerable experience marketing within the Church.

This e-book is a further development of the first edition Church Parish Marketing: Easy to Use Guide to Market the Church Parish Deanery (2009) by Bryan Foster. It has a 50% increase in information. A significant aspect is the 80+ pages devoted to 'Internet Applications' to church marketing. The 300+ pages in the e-book include 130+ live weblinks and 60+ pages of internet screenshots to assist with appreciating the instructions given.

This manual is based on almost 20 years of marketing within the Church by the author Bryan Foster. This experience includes senior school and church roles, such as: school principal and marketing manager, deanery and parish pastoral council chair and parents and friends association chair. Further details may be found at the CPM website.

Church marketing personnel need access to an easy to read and implement church marketing instruction manual – by Bryan Foster.