Media Outreach

I have had several church plant clients lately that have been behind the 8-ball on the marketing and print part of the process.  When church planters have been calling in I hear the same thing.  “I have been going 8 million other directions and then realized that we need to market this thing before we launch in 6-8 weeks.  Can we do it?”   Well it is technically possible, but the likely hood of someone being completely satisfied with their campaign is drastically reduced.  There is less time to think about the messaging, revise the comps, get everything to the mail house in time to print, place postage and mail out … especially if there are multiple other elements like a custom logo, website, billboard or theater ad that must also be produced in the same time frame.  Because everything must be unified, all of these pieces cannot be done in unison, they must be done in an order that gives all the consequent pieces a unified theme.  Usually the logo needs done first, and then the Website and then additional campaign item can be done.  The order can be messed with a bit but that will also alter you results.  All of this is to say, if you are reading this and you plan to market you church to the public please take action of some sort, TODAY.  It is never too early.  I am currently 5 months away from moving to my city to plant and my logo and pre-launch page has been up and going now for over 4 months.  I may be paranoid, but I don’t like unnecessary pressure either.

There are several helpful articles and tips available online that may help you think about this idea. Two that I recommend are: (http://www.relatedchurches.com/page/articles/) this contains some guidelines to successful postcard campaigns.  I also want to make mention that there is another article found also at (http://www.relatedchurches.com/page/articles/) that is very helpful entitled “How to save money on postage”.  Do not think about this too late!  Full priced postage will nearly double your costs.

I pray you find these helpful. Let us know your thoughts on preparing to church plant and any helpful tips you might have for others.