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.

Social Networking Websites Needed for Schools

Schools can benefit from the use of social networking sites being an integral part of their school marketing plan and its associated strategies.

It is best for this to be appropriate, and most times creative. Increasingly, this form of communication is becoming more obvious for schools. A special note is to be aware of all the privacy and legal issues!

The Challenge

We are challenged to meet our school community, and potential parents and students, where they are at, or might be, in the near future. The social networking tentacles are reaching further into the various demographics affecting our communities, often way beyond the awareness of school and systemic leaders. No longer is it just the teens and '20 something', it is now common for people in their 50s and 60s to have one or more social networking accounts.

The Misconception

The misconception is that this form of communication is just used for inane chat amongst 'dizzy lightweights'!

There is a considerably large and ever growing group of people who use this for much more than chat, even though legitimate chat does play an important part in many forms of communication.

These people are not only building and strengthening relationships amongst friends and newly formed acquaintances / friends through their engagement online with each other and often doing so simultaneously, they may also be adding depth to key aspects of their lives.

Assumptions Underlying Social Networking Websites?

There are a number of interesting assumptions an ever expanding group of people of the 21st century make, with representatives being in most age groups, :

• People like to build trusting relationships with others before doing 'business' (Schools need to be open to appreciating this belief and then adapting the way they communicate with such people.)
• The busyness of life often limits face-to-face opportunities
• The relationship does not need to be a face-to-face encounter, even though this is often preferred
• 'anonymity' allows for a less inhibited sharing of ideas and thoughts. (Easier for some people to make a comment when the contact person isn't actually in front of them. Similar for some people when using telephones or email.)
• The internet often provides the answers people are seeking (How often do you hear more and more, "Google / Yahoo / Bing / MSN it!")
• Digital communication is the easiest and quickest means of communication
• Digital communication allows for multiple conversations simultaneously
• People using these forms of communication eventually trust in the results due to their experiences of it.

Why Consider Social Networking Websites?

To reach this ever growing group of people in our communities we must meet them where they are at!

In many circumstances, this may not be your chosen form of communication. But you do have control over who sees and comments on your school / alumni social networking pages if you follow the security directions. You may limit membership to only the direct school community or past students and hence only these people will see what you say and show.

It is, however, a successful method of informing an ever growing group of your community of whatever it is you would like to inform them about.

Topics which could be included on a school social networking site:

• School and Contact Details
• News from the Principal, Parish Priest (if a religious school) and Responses from the school community
• News about and Responses
• Upcoming School Events
• School Photos telling of the recent events / successes / happenings, etc.
• Principal Recommended Websites for the school community

Social networking sites can be used effectively by schools. Once a number of challenges, misconceptions and assumptions underlying social networking sites are initially explored, each school will be able to make the decision whether to proceed with a social networking webpage.

The 'Schools Need Social Networking Websites' blog post was written by Bryan Foster, author of School Marketing Manual for the Digital Age (3rd ed), 2010 - a 369 A4 page e-book written in summarized point form containing an exceptional number of strategies and step-by-step guidance on how to market your school, with copyright remaining with SMAPL.