Ministry Marketing Mindset Session Eight (0f 8)

Slide 1: Helping your church or ministry share the good news in ways that get attention and invite response from the people you want to reach Copyright © 2004 Chris Forbes Ministry Marketing Coach, All rights reserved

Slide 2: Coaching Session Eight • Develop a follow-up process • Understand what are prospecting, filtering and assimilation. Cl o s e t • Get feedback to improve your he ministry Lo o p • Evaluate your ministry marketing Copyright © 2004 Chris Forbes Ministry Marketing Coach, All rights reserved

Slide 3: Warm Up • You have developed a ministry marketing playbook • You have clear goals and have begun to share the Good News. • You need to take the last step toward the Ministry Marketing Mindset: Close the Loop Copyright © 2004 Chris Forbes Ministry Marketing Coach, All rights reserved

Slide 5: Case Study A church planting team has a block party near where the new church plant will be located to promote the Vacation Bible School the following week. Everyone praises the Lord when 90 kids enroll in the VBS! The church carries out the VBS and hosts a family night service. Two new families join the church. All in all, a great event. Since everyone is tired from the block party and VBS, the church planting team all take the next week off. When they get back in action it is time to start planning the back to school calendar. They also know they need to follow-up on the families of the 90 kids from VBS. But they haven’t even had time to talk about the block party, let alone the VBS, who knows what else needs to be done! Copyright © 2004 Chris Forbes Ministry Marketing Coach, All rights reserved

Slide 6: Case Study The church planting team decided to do some evangelism training to prepare themselves for the follow-up. They take three weeks in their mid-week Bible study to prepare. Then, on the fourth week the entire church planting team goes out two-by-two and visits in the homes of the parents of the kids who came to VBS. But a problem arises, each team is met with resistance. None of the families seem as open to the church as they were after VBS. None of the teams were able to bring a single family of the 90 kids to visit in the church. What went wrong? Copyright © 2004 Chris Forbes Ministry Marketing Coach, All rights reserved

Slide 7: The Issues • The block party was a great way to get kids into the VBS • The parents appreciated the VBS program for the kids. • But the church didn’t do any thinking about how to meet the needs of the parents. • In addition, they were not ready to follow-up on the parents until 5-6 weeks after the VBS. Many of the parents had forgotten about the VBS and had lost the good feelings they had about the church. • The church could have used the block party and VBS to learn more about the parents in the area to try to determine their needs. • The church planters could have built-in ministry that introduced the parents to the new church. • The names and addresses of the parents could have been used to send out special letters or other materials to keep the name of the church in front of the people so they would not forget the new congregation was starting. • Perhaps the personal testimony of the two families who joined the church could have been a part of the marketing plans Copyright © 2004 Chris Forbes Ministry Marketing Coach, All rights reserved

Slide 8: Need to learn more about Closing the Loop • The backdoor of churches are often left wide open for three reasons – Lack of follow-up – There is no place for feedback – Evaluation is not a part of the regular planning process of the church • If your church can do these things you will close the backdoor of your church! Copyright © 2004 Chris Forbes Ministry Marketing Coach, All rights reserved

Slide 10: Why do all this marketing? • Need to think in terms of getting response from people • Value when people respond • Reward with personal attention when people respond • They raise their hands and show their interest • Your ministry is to build deeper relationships with them • Too many churches treat getting visitors as the end • When a person participates in your church that is the beginning • The goal is to use “filtering” to identify prospects for your ministry Copyright © 2004 Chris Forbes Ministry Marketing Coach, All rights reserved

Slide 12: Personal Emotional Attachment, Commitment, Need for Information, Loyalty 10. Ready to Teach 9. Adapting to Being a Member 8. Joining 7. Forming Relationships 6. Limited Participation 5. Willingness to Consider Joining 4. Beginning to Learn 3. Surfing Information 2. Initial Contact and Impressions 1. Initial Awareness Impersonal Copyright © 2004 Chris Forbes Ministry Marketing Coach, All rights reserved

Slide 13: Filtering Terms • Field: The entire target audience you want to reach • Prospecting: Filtering for people in the community who are responsive • Prospects: People who have been identified as responsive through your searching Copyright © 2004 Chris Forbes Ministry Marketing Coach, All rights reserved

Slide 14: Types of Prospecting • Blind Prospecting – Advertisements – Events • Selective Prospecting – Referrals – Lists – Observation Copyright © 2004 Chris Forbes Ministry Marketing Coach, All rights reserved

Slide 17: An Assimilation Plan First Visit Next Day First Week Put information Phone Call Prospect gives in database Visit contact information Send Letter Gift Ongoing Every 6 Weeks First Month Newsletter Newcomer Invitation to Birthday Friendly Newcomers Notes Outreach Fellowship Outreach Events Copyright © 2004 Chris Forbes Ministry Marketing Coach, All rights reserved

Slide 18: Why Assimilation? • Prospect needs time to decide • Prolonged contact builds rapport • Personalized touches make person feel special • Helps you take advantage of contacts you make • It is relational evangelism Copyright © 2004 Chris Forbes Ministry Marketing Coach, All rights reserved

Slide 19: Tools You’ll need • Visitor Cards • Database • Reports (Weekly, monthly, etc) • Contact content • Training for workers • Programs, projects, and events information Copyright © 2004 Chris Forbes Ministry Marketing Coach, All rights reserved

Slide 20: Document These Five Things: 1. Who they are (name, relationship, address, phone, e-mail, etc) 2. What they responded to (an ad, phone call, signage, friend, etc.) 3. What their response was (comments, requests, feedback, decisions) 4. When and how they responded (date of phone call, e-mail, etc.) 5. What our actions were (Give information, send materials, visit, etc.) or will be Copyright © 2004 Chris Forbes Ministry Marketing Coach, All rights reserved

Slide 21: Getting Visitors is the Tip of the Iceberg! 10% Visitors and New Referrals Attracting People 30% Following-up on Prospects Establishing Participation 60% Assimilating Existing Contacts Getting People Involved Copyright © 2004 Chris Forbes Ministry Marketing Coach, All rights reserved

Slide 23: Feedback • Keep learning about the people as you reach them • Confirm if your research findings are accurate • See if the media you use are working • Learn from complaints and feedback surveys Copyright © 2004 Chris Forbes Ministry Marketing Coach, All rights reserved

Slide 24: Feedback should be: • Planned for (from the beginning) • Collected • Compiled • Analyzed • Reported • Acted upon Copyright © 2004 Chris Forbes Ministry Marketing Coach, All rights reserved

Slide 26: Bull’s Eye? • When evaluating something, you must always have a standard. Not having a standard is like an archer who flings an arrow into the forest. He then finds the arrow stuck into a tree, paints a target neatly around it and shouts, “Bulls-eye!” • In ministry we often fling programs blindly at our communities and congregations. Then, when someone claims that some good happened somewhere, we shout, “Bulls-eye!” “Praise the Lord!” Copyright © 2004 Chris Forbes Ministry Marketing Coach, All rights reserved

Slide 27: Tenmarketing program helped us to accomplish Evaluation Questions 1. Has this our mission? 2. If so, specifically how? Be specific! 3. If not, why not? Be specific. 4. What expectations were set for this ministry/event/program? 5. In what ways were these expectations reached or missed? 6. What resources did we use? 7. What resources did we lack? 8. What resources did we have but didn’t use? 9. What changes should we make for the next time? 10. What things should we do again for the next time? Copyright © 2004 Chris Forbes Ministry Marketing Coach, All rights reserved

Slide 28: Practice Time • Develop a prospect follow- up plan for every Marketin event g • Look at the data Playbook you have an see what your back door looks like • Evaluate at least one event from this year. Copyright © 2004 Chris Forbes Ministry Marketing Coach, All rights reserved

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