Is there such a thing as
too many people in your community being aware of your church...
being intrigued, curious... thinking and talking about it?
OVERLOOKED FACT: The only way to see
significant increases in growth is to create dramatic increases
in awareness.
No matter how remarkable
your ministry, it is unlikely to achieve remarkable growth without
major attention to developing and then maintaining awareness.
Read On: In the next 3-1/2
minutes, we'll summarize why this is true, and what research suggests
is the most effective way to do something about it.
"If you build it, they
will come" worked in the movie Field of Dreams. But
for a church, is an excellent ministry enough by itself to attract
steady, marked growth? It's certainly necessary for growth. You
do everything possible to be sure visitors have a welcoming, connecting
experience. You carefully design follow-through for everyone who
walks through your doors. You have an assimilation plan, with
meaningful Bible study, methods for building discipleship, attractive
opportunities for people to begin serving. These are crucial.
But take a step back. For
these facets of ministry to cultivate growth, you first need visitors.
And to get visitors, people
have to be aware of you. Not just aware when you first launched
your church, but today. And not just aware today, but again four
months from now.
Encouraging your members
to invite friends is highly effective (assuming they will). This
strategy tends, however, to evolve toward a natural obstacle:
There is a finite limit of how many friends any member knows,
who might be interested, whom he could successfully invite.
A straightforward way to
multiply the potential is IF a whole lot more unchurched people
have heard of, thought about, talked about, are curious about
your church. Then there will be a whole lot more people who could
be invited, or even drawn to visit on their own. That kind of
awareness, dramatically elevated in your community, can dramatically
increase every other growth measurement in your ministry.
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OR...
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It's
a simple truth: Prospects only visit a church they
have heard of, know about, are curious about.
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Who is your target?
GEOGRAPHIC Be specific
and realistic, but don't be too limiting. How far will your prospects
drive? Which neighborhoods are they most likely to live in?
The answers tell you exactly
where you need to engineer a dramatic increase in awareness.
DEMOGRAPHIC If you
have (or plan) a remarkable outreach to Hispanics, you will target
your awareness strategies very differently than if you have been
called to reach out to working class African American communities,
or suburban middle class neighborhoods.
REACH For most pastors,
the goal will be to generate a dramatic increase in top-of-the-mind
awareness in every household in a specific part of the
city, or every household in the defined communities your
church has been called to serve, or every household in
the neighborhoods extending out from the church in several directions.
Reality Check: In
today's society, the only way known to connect with every household
in a defined target area is by direct mail. Television, radio,
billboards, even door-to-door canvassing or telephone campaigns
cannot come close to the 98% saturation achieved by direct mail.
EFFECTIVENESS For
geographically-defined targets, direct mail has been shown to
be the most thorough way to lay a foundation for top-of-the-mind
awareness. That's a known fact.
But don't waste your resources.
Letters with brochures and inserts, enclosed in envelopes can
be effective, but also present a real challenge to get them opened
(think of all your mail that goes into the trash unopened). That
is why large, full color postcards, effectively done, have become
the medium of choice for creating awareness.
Even giant corporations like
AT&T now use carefully-designed postcard campaigns to initiate
awareness of a new service. No one tosses mail away without looking
at the outside. With postcards, the outside is the message. 98%
of all postcards get looked at. Even postcards that end up in
the trash were looked at.
MESSAGE When considering
the message, keep in mind that we are targeting top-of-the-mind
awareness for unchurched prospects. Therefore your goal is
to...
get people thinking, even talking about your church
get people thinking about visiting
To achieve that, you need
to [1] make them aware of you [2] give them a positive impression
[3] touch a need, awaken a dream, inspire hope, and [4] engender
trust AND curiosity.
The key is to be superbly
attractive in visual quality, to communicate at a glance, and
to present an image/message that touches the heart, that connects
with a need, that stirs a dream at the core of the person receiving
the message.
Developing awareness that's
positive and an image that's even remarkable, builds an incredible
platform for every other facet of growth or increase in your church.
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Take a fresh look at
your outreach strategies. For 22 years Breakthrough has helped
thousands of churches reach the Unchurched, including building
strong identity and awareness in their communities. If you would
like to dialog about your own outreach challenge and create a
remarkable awareness strategy for your church, drop me an email....tell
me about yourself, your church, your community, your vision. (We
don't charge to dialog.)
C. Michael Johnson
President
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