“Marketing” isn’t a dirty word when it comes to your church. The goal is to have your community understand your mission, purpose, and overall philosophy to increase engagement.
As a church leader, include a marketing plan with a video component. Here are three ways to use video to engage your parish community to boost engagement, retention, and overall understanding of your church.
- Video to Encourage to Serve
Videos that are shared across social media typically invoke a strong enough emotional response. to have the viewer interact with the content (like, comment, share). Sunday sermons are full of stories that create an emotional connection. At the end of your series, complete it with a video that hits the heart strings of your community, complete with a call to action to volunteer or spread the word. Give your parish the tools to share about your church, through video.
- Record your Services
Being in community media for 18 years, a big portion of what we played on our channels and website was religious content. Many people aren’t able to attend their service if it’s cold (like Minnesota cold right now, hello? -27 degrees?), or ill. Make your services available on your website, YouTube, or through your local community media center to increase your reach. Here is a full sermon example: YouTube Sermon Can you magnify your sermons to over 2 million views?
- Promo, baby!
Many church organizations have camps, classes, or fun events to encourage camaraderie. Create a short video to highlight how awesome summer camp is for the tweens. Send the video link out with your spring newsletter and via social media to encourage signs ups. Here is an example of a Tampa-based church that brought their A-game in their Church Promo Video
- Testimonials
When I found my church, it was via word of mouth. Amplify that word of mouth by video recording your members with their stories about what brought them to the church. Hearing direct accounts from your members can encourage new members, but also strengthen your church core. Here is a powerful testimony example.
- Digital Sermons
Over 80% of all internet content will be video by 2020. Be part of that space by recording a one-minute mini-sermon for your community. It will give perspective members an understanding of your style as a church leader, but also an idea of the content being preached.
Wearing many hats is part of any church leadership position. Let CTV North Suburbs help with the content generation. Contact us at info@ctvnorthsuburbs.org if you are interested in content creation related to promoting your church. Also join us for Points of Light, a free studio show where local church leaders can speak to our nine cities LIVE about their church and its’ mission. For more details about the event, check out our Facebook page.
