Commercial Church Newspapers

The commercial church newspaper is a necessity in today's secular world. For a more balanced view of everyday issues a commercially produced church newspaper allows for the Church to present its teachings and arguments to a more and more secularized world, to a much larger audience.

The Catholic Weekly and The Catholic Leader are two highly respected commercial church newspapers which by their very nature offer another side to an often one-sided report in the secular media.

Both papers have a strong internet presence, as well as being available in print, usually through churches or though a growing number of newsagencies. Both these papers have a long standing presence within the national church.

The newspapers are interestingly presented and cover a diverse range of topics. Topics which should be of interest to a large readership. The internet option opens the door to a contemporary audience, not just by age but by IT interest levels.

The editors need to continually be aware of this younger and IT savvy option and make sure that stories are relevant to this demographic.

Bryan Foster recently had a story about his 'Church Marketing Manual for the Digital Age (2nd ed) 2010, and its impact on a local church, written in The Catholic Leader newspaper.

The place and necessity for commercial church newspapers which is growing within our ever increasing secular societies was written by Bryan Foster. (Written 18 May, 2010.)

Church Marketing Manual to Get 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 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.

Marketing Tools to get People Back to Church

The Church Marketing Manual for the Digital Age (2nd ed) 2010 by Bryan Foster is a new marketing tool to attract people back to our churches.

This e-book offers over 320 A4 pages of strategies and examples to help parish personnel attract people back to our churches.

Fr Dan Ryan, Parish Priest of the Surfers Paradise Parish, has just purchased 10 copies for his Parish Pastoral Councillors.

“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.

“The Church Marketing Manual for the Digital Age (2nd ed) e-book will be a highly valued resource within the Surfers Paradise Parish.”

Sonya Slayter, Parish Administrator of the Surfers Paradise Parish, is excited about the possibilities this e-book offers her parish.

“When I first read Bryan Foster’s e-book a month ago, I became very excited about the possibilities it offered. The e-book I believe holds the key to improving many of our parish communication mediums,” said Sonya Slayter, Parish Administrator.

“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.”

The ‘Internet Applications’ chapter uses internet images and live weblinks to support the strategies and examples discussed. This simplifies the implementation process.

The e-book is written in easy to read and implement summarised note form. Twenty years of marketing experience within the church have gone into this publication to assist our parishes with this often challenging task.

"The e-book also offers other contemporary and traditional marketing strategies that have proven to be successful over the recent years," said Bryan Foster.

“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” said Sonya Slater, Parish Administrator.

“I would like to thank Bryan for investing his time in such a valuable resource for parish life.”

This e-book can be easily downloaded from the internet at Bryan’s church marketing website or school marketing website.

(Photo - Father Dan Ryan, Surfers Paradise Parish Priest, Sonya Slayter Parish Administrator and Bryan Foster, Author, with the newly published e-book which the Surfers Paradise Parish bought 10 copies of for their Parish Pastoral Councillors.)

This new tool will assist with getting people back to our churches. (Written 13 April, 2010.)

Church Marketing Plan by Bryan Foster

The Church Marketing Plan is absolutely essential for a successful church in this digital age!

For this to occur you first need a good appreciation of:

• what a plan is
• what strategy options there are
• how to develop and implement strategies
• how to evaluate and learn from your experiences and expenses. 

It is necessary to have guidelines to 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.

Sample Church Marketing Plan

Each Church Marketing Plan should be based on 7 Key Strategies:

1. Define what you have to offer
2. Define your target group
3. Budget
4. Personnel and Talents
5. Develop Marketing Aims and Objectives
6. Marketing Strategies
7. Evaluation

Church Marketing Manual for the Digital Age (2nd ed), 2010 - Unique Resource

The over 329 A4 pages are easily downloaded from this site. The 80+ pages on Internet Applications for those marketing the church, along with over 60 internet screenshots + over 130 weblinks, help make this not only easily readable but also a pleasure to view in colour, enjoyable and motivating.

The 10+ 'Contents' pages are detailed down to the smallest subsection of each section within each chapter. There are nearly 5 pages of 'Index' words in 9 point font. See above for downloads of each of these.

Topics cover the essential areas from both the contemporary and traditional forms of marketing as these apply to churches and parishes. From the time honoured 'word of mouth' through to the internet and the vast array of its offerings, all add up to lessening the angst and the challenge which is church marketing in the digital age.

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 contains 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.

This manual is based on 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.

The 'Church Marketing Plan' blog post was written by Bryan Foster, author of Church Marketing Manual for the Digital Age (2nd ed) and School Marketing Manual for the Digital Age (3rd ed) 2011, with copyright being retained by SMAPL.