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Launching a Preview Service

Sean Cronin — Sat, 06 Feb 2021 10:00:00 +0000

Home > Blog > Launching a Preview Service

Launching a Preview Service

By New Churches Team

It’s time for your first preview service. But who should you invite and how should you advertise? What should your preview services look like? Here are some tips for how to handle these three areas of your preview services.

Advertising

While you can begin to advertise with your first preview service, do not spend all of your advertising budget right away. Use a small amount to advertise the first service, then more with each additional service. By the time you get to your fourth service, be prepared to go all out for advertising. In between the preview weeks, reach out to your community with block parties and other events to funnel them into your service.

Invitations

For your first initial preview service, consider keeping it to just your launch team. They will give you a lot of grace as you work through some of the bumps that come along with that initial run through. For the next service, encourage them to invite friends and family. Continue asking these people to attend every preview service you have. This repetitive invitation and opportunity to be a part of something new often leads to a good response.

Service

Prepare your sermons ahead of time. The weeks of preview services you want to be mobilizing your launch team, holding block parties, and raising awareness of your church. You don’t want to spend your time hyper-focused on your sermons. Knock that out early.
Do as much of your normal service as possible. Do not invite outside people to lead worship. Acknowledge that it is a preview service at the beginning and at the end, but in the middle keep it to what your worship service will traditionally look like.

Adapted from the New Churches Q&A Podcast Episode 441: Preparing for Preview Services. Click here to listen to more to church planting, multisite, and multiplication tips.

Source: Launching a Preview Service

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Cost-Effective Advertising Strategies for Churches

Sean Cronin — Sun, 29 Sep 2019 09:00:05 +0000

Home > Blog > Cost-Effective Advertising Strategies for Churches

Cost-Effective Advertising Strategies for Churches

By New Churches Team

Launching a church plant is expensive, but there are always ways to cut costs. One way to do that is with advertising. There are several low-cost or no-cost ways to advertise your church to your community. Here are three examples to consider.

1. Personal Ask

The number one way to invite people to your church is with the personal ask. Word of mouth is the best form of advertising, and it is the most cost-effective. Encourage your congregation and staff to talk to others in the community about the church. They can invite non-believers to see what church is really about in a safe way. They can talk to other parents about the phenomenal kids programming you offer. They can encourage friends who need support to come and join a small group. The key is knowing people personally and helping them connect to the church in a personal way.

2. Get Creative

Creativity is the mother of innovation. Unlimited resources do not make you more creative. Having to consider how to expand your reach on little funds will make you more creative in how you spend the money you do have. If you are in a city with lots of metro stops, pass out cards to every single person that walks by. If you pass out 10,000 cards, and 100 people show up to visit your church, that is a success! If you are in a more rural area, look at the traffic patterns. Find a congested area and have someone stand on the corner with a sign advertising your church. There are many low cost ways to reach a lot of people in a small amount of time no matter where you are located.

3. Smart Social Media

You can make a big impact on social media inexpensively. Spend time researching videos and articles on making Facebook and other social media channels effective. Look for someone in your church that has some social media knowledge, and ask them to come alongside you and help you in this area. A few ads or pixels can go a long way (and if you don’t know anything about those two things, research them). Use social media as a supplement to the personal ask.

There are many other ways to advertise in your community. Get creative and meet your community where they are.

Adapted from the New Churches Q&A Podcast Episode 390: What Are Some Cost-Effective Advertising Practices?Click hereto listen to more to church planting, multisite, and multiplication tips.

Source: Cost-Effective Advertising Strategies for Churches

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Church Facebook Ads Work Well When They Answer THIS Question

Patrick Bradley — Mon, 28 May 2018 09:00:04 +0000

by Brandon A. Cox: I see it all the time. I’ve done it myself. And it’s incredibly ineffective.

It looks like this…

Hi, this is Pastor So-and-so. I’m the Pastor of the First Fantastic Church. We meet on Sundays at 10:00 and we’d love to have you. Come check us out, worship with us, and see what we’re all about!

Seems friendly enough, right?

A few years ago, after I wrote Rewired, I started getting a lot of questions about how to run Facebook ads to invite people to visit weekend services. I urged church leaders to put their money on social media advertising ten-to-one over print any day of the week.

Over time, I started getting somewhat negative feedback about the results.

We spent $X and got no return at all…

After examining some of the marketing efforts of various churches, I’ve become convinced they shouldn’t spend anything on advertising because they likely won’t see results and they’ll give up entirely.

So before you spend another dime on any kind of advertising, let’s talk about something incredibly important… messaging.

Here’s the problem with the script mentioned above…

It assumes people want to attend a church. And do you know who wants to attend a church?

Three groups of people…

Christians who aren’t happy at their current church. And trust me, in 97% of cases, you shouldn’t be trying to get them involved in yours.
Christians who just moved to town and don’t have a new church yet. But that’s a tiny percentage of the people you’re trying to reach.
Christians who go to church and like their church and aren’t interested in checking yours out.

So here’s my big advice about messaging… Start communicating to people who don’t yet know that they want to go to church.

Tailor your message toward people who aren’t believers or who don’t attend church at all right now.

In other words, your first job is to help people who don’t go to church understand why they might want to attend any church, especially yours.

So instead of, Hey! Come check out our church!, try this instead…

Ever wonder what life is really supposed to be all about? God has spoken about that, and we’re a community of people exploring what God has said about his purposes for us. Come explore with us.

Or…

Ever struggle to keep the flame alive in your marriage? God has given us some great wisdom about how to have a healthy marriage and we’re talking about that this weekend. Join us as we figure out how to have healthier marriages together.

Here’s another…

Ever feel depressed and you aren’t sure why? Jesus taught something pretty radical. He said that the pathway to happiness is through brokenness. What?? We’re talking about that this Sunday – come explore with us.

Whether you’re scripting a three- or four-minute promotional video or a two- or three-sentence text promo piece, you can put this template to work for you.

It doesn’t have anything to do with your preaching approach or your worship style. It’s effective because it starts with them and not with you.

Here’s the template…

Ask a question that taps into a deep need people are experiencing.
Raise curiosity by mentioning how God has addressed that question.
Invite people to come for answers.
Reassure people that they won’t be outsiders – we’re all exploring this together.

In other words, start with WHY anyone should even want to go through all the work of getting up on their day off, getting the family all dressed and ready, walking into a strange building full of strange people, and listening to a half hour long sermon.

Remember, people come for content and then stay for relationships.

So in your messaging, share content that hints that there is even more helpful content available.

Your advertising dollars are going to be far more effective!

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Source: Church Facebook Ads Work Well When They Answer THIS Question

The post Church Facebook Ads Work Well When They Answer THIS Question appeared first on Passion for Planting.