Preaching Beyond the Pulpit: A Guide to Church Marketing and Advertising

5 min read

It may seem like a strange concept at first glance: Church marketing and advertising. Isn’t that something only businesses need to worry about?

Actually, many organizations could benefit from this common business activity. One definition of marketing is the activity and process for creating, communicating, and delivering offerings that have value for customers and society. Sending your church’s message to potential new parishioners through marketing and advertising could be seen as another powerful way to spread the good word.

With millions of people tuning in to Christian music every month, digital audio marketing can reach countless new listeners. Many churches already have taken advantage of streaming channels for church advertising campaigns. And it’s never been easier to get started with audio advertising, thanks to AudioGO’s self-serve advertising platform. You can create, manage, and run audio ads on popular podcasts and streaming services like Pandora, iHeartRadio, and SiriusXM. Let’s take a look at some topics and tips to get you started.

Your Brand Matters

Your “brand” — your church’s vision and identity — should be the basis of any church advertising. Not only does your brand inspire more people to flock to your pews, it helps ensure the right audience hears your message. After all, the folks that understand your brand best are the ones most likely to return to your church every week.

That’s important, because Gallup recently reported that U.S. church weekly attendance has declined to a new low. Only about 30% of those polled said they attended church once a week or almost every week. And that’s down from 42% just 20 years ago.

That decline highlights the reason to reach out to new potential parishioners and let them know about your church, your values, and your message. Church marketing and advertising are high on the list of ways to grow your church.

Using AudioGO, you can easily create ad campaigns that help deliver your message to whomever you want. You also can reach them wherever they are, whatever they're listening to, and whenever you want. All by way of our platform's targeting features including age, gender, location, time, and genre. We'll guide you every step of the way as you develop an effective audio advertising campaign.

Your Message Matters

As a religious leader, you understand the power of words and messages. When creating church advertising strategies, make every word count. For example, the messages you craft to promote church and community events can have a profound effect on turnout. Let’s say you want to advertise a “neighborhood street cleanup” event. That might bring in a few civic-minded folks — but there’s a better way.

Try advertising the event as a block party or neighborhood meet-and-greet instead, with cleanup as a secondary focus. For a fundraising event, attract the interest of more families by focusing on how the proceeds might be used — like for building a new local playground.

Church and worship are intimate experiences. Make sure your message focuses on the listener. Tie in ideas and foundations that concentrate the emphasis on positive, more attractive elements to directly appeal to listeners. If you need some help crafting your message, use our guidelines on writing the best audio ad script and our wide range of creative services.

A Digital Presence

There’s an old saying: “When God closes a door, he opens a window.” But since the pandemic, you also could say: “When God Closes a Church Door, He Opens a Browser Window.” Though in-person attendance has dropped, more and more people use the internet to listen to church sermons, Christian music, talk shows and podcasts. Streaming services bring all this content right into the home and to people who are “on the go” — in the car, the gym, at work and in countless other places. Take advantage of that by including digital advertising in your church marketing strategies, and get the good word out to the online masses.

Ideas for Church Marketing and Advertising

Here’s some tips for creating a campaign to spread your message.

  • Build a team. Forming a small team goes a long way toward successful marketing. It’s a lot of work for only one person — and it’s unlikely one person will have all the skills needed. Put out the word that you’re looking for volunteers with skills like graphic design, web design, copywriting, photography, and marketing.
  • Budget your endeavors. Set aside funds for marketing and define who has the authority to disperse them. It’s important for your marketing team to know what resources are available. There will be costs involved, and it’s best to set a budget up front — before any other work is done. It’s disappointing for members to put in time and effort only to have someone say: “Oh, we don’t have the money for that.” Set a budget, and be willing to adjust it as needed, based on results.
  • Create a church website. It’s likely the first thing someone will see when looking for info about your church. It’s a good way to welcome people and show them what’s going on at your physical location. Event pages, sermon recordings, staff pages, blogs, contact info — these features help visitors find basic facts they need to attend a service, plus information to motivate them to get involved. Give your church website a donation page, too, with an easy way to provide support. It can feature forms for one-time gifts, recurring gifts, “in memory of” gifts and specific project donations.
  • Identify target audiences. Create a fictional persona that describes who you’d best like to share your messages with. This will help you focus and target your advertising messages on those most likely to respond to ads. For example, are you trying to reach younger listeners? They are likely to respond to different content than older audiences and will be found in different places in the digital world. That knowledge helps you focus your marketing.
  • Build your social media. A study by the Pew Research Center found that 68% of American adults say they use Facebook, 83% use YouTube, and 47% use Instagram. These, and other platforms, are great ways to share your church’s message and content. Information placed on these outlets can drive users to your church website, enlist volunteers, raise funds, and ultimately grow a congregation. Encourage your members to promote that content by sharing, reposting and inviting friends, families and contacts.

AudioGO Can Help You Grow

By creating a church marketing team with a solid marketing plan, you'll give yourself a chance to buck current trends and grow. And not just for now, but far into the future.

Whether you’re trying to raise funds, build membership, increase attendance, or just spread the good word, church advertising helps get it done. Give your local community a message of hope by creating ad campaigns that spread the word. With the incredible growth of audio streaming services, there’s no better time than now to get started.

AudioGO’s network of audio publishers lets your church be heard by over 150 million unique listeners in the US and Canada, in English and Spanish. At the same time, you can focus your messaging down to the ZIP Code. Begin your marketing campaign with as little as $250.

Join the community of successful organizations using AudioGO. It's simple, impactful, and affordable. 

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