By unSeminary: Thanks for tuning in to this week’s unSeminary podcast. We’re excited to be talking with Vivienne Bechtold, the Director of Studio and Leadership Development at Crossroads Church in Ohio. Crossroads has been one of the fastest growing churches in the country for several years, but this growth hasn’t happened without being intentional about reaching those who are far from Jesus. Listen in as Vivienne shares how Crossroads has used data to make informed decisions about how to be increasingly effective at drawing more people into a relationship with Christ.

Use data for marketing. // Most churches try to collect some sort of information from the people who visit or attend. However if you don’t dig into that data, you won’t know how it can help you understand your audience better. Vivienne has spent 27 years in the marketing industry and now runs Studio, an internal agency at Crossroads that interprets data, handles research, design, marketing, social media and other digital products for the church. Their ultimate goal is to help the church more effectively reach people who are far from God. Learning to market to people using the data you collect isn’t just about numbers, but about being curious about people and the insights behind the numbers.Understand who you’re reaching. // Initially Crossroads didn’t have a team handling their data and marketing, but rather started with two people that would do focus groups and one-on-ones to gather research on what attendees were looking for. The church then built an analytics team that mined that data about who was coming, what areas they were coming from, what their demographics were, and so on. Using these insights, Crossroads started to put together a picture of who was drawn to the church and what they needed. This information led to them targeting a group of a dozen 25 to 35 year old men who didn’t go to Crossroads. Church staff went to where these people hung out, interviewed some of them, and invited them to attend two services and then offer feedback on their experiences.Implement changes. // The information Crossroads received from these new guests helped them to see the Sunday experience from the perspective of a visitor. As a result, they were aware of what people connected with and what turned them off. They made changes in training their teams how to recognize new people, right from the parking lot, so they could serve guests better. Crossroads also altered the order of their service. Rather than starting with worship, they started with something that would help connect people coming in with what was going to happen the rest of the time. Seekers often didn’t understand the value of worship and instead wanted to hear a message, so the church wanted to make sure their visitors stayed to hear the teaching.Your strongest marketing tool. // Crossroads discovered that when their people knew the topic of an upcoming message, or some sound bites that would be interesting to their friends, they were much more likely to invite others to church. When your people invite their friends or family to church, it is the most powerful marketing strategy you can use. Empower your people to share about the church and what is coming up in a sermon series by providing tools for social media or email that can be shared. Consider direct mail pieces leading up to Easter or Christmas and work with the natural dynamics of how people interact with your church.Use data to rebrand. // Churches tend to plateau after 20 years and in order to get over that, they need to reinvent themselves. Crossroads found that the seekers coming to their church today were different than ones from 25 years ago, and generally had no experience with church at all. So the church began to ask how to be relevant to these people today and reevaluated its branding. Crossroads realized their branding was very corporate and wanted it to be more unfiltered, fun and and fearless, which better represented what the church had grown into. So Crossroads rebranded in 2020 to better capture who they were as well as target that group of 25-35 year old men they are trying to keep in mind. The rebrand includes new colors and visuals, but also new vocabulary that everyday people use. Crossroads talks about themselves as “Spiritual Outfitters” that equip and guide you through this adventure that you were made for as you follow God. Consider your church’s current branding and if it’s serving to help reach the people you are targeting.Look to the future. // As we continue to collect data and process our learnings from 2020, it can inform changes we need to make for the future. One lesson is that first impressions can happen a lot of different places, including online, and when people do show up in person, they are looking to connect more quickly. Pay attention to when people want to watch sermons online. For some, Sunday mornings may now mean family time. Are your people more likely to listen to a message and participate in worship online, but come to a physical location for groups or service opportunities? The pandemic was a time of isolation so think about how can you help people engage and serve together when they attend church at your physical location.

To learn more about Crossroads Church, you can visit them at www.crossroads.net or download their app at www.crossroads.net/app. If your church is considering a rebrand, check out the book “What Great Brands Do: The Seven Brand-Building Principles that Separate the Best from the Rest” by Denise Lee Yohn.

Thank You for Tuning In!

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Thank You to This Episode’s Sponsor: Chemistry Staffing

It’s important for church leaders to pursue the right fit for the right position, which helps determine a long-term, healthy fit. It all starts with properly assessing the applicant’s resumé. Download Chemistry Staffing’s Resumé Screening Playbook and walk through a screening process that will help you discover which candidates to focus on.

Source: Leveraging Research to Drive Design & Communication Insights at Crossroads Church with Vivienne Bechtold

The post Leveraging Research to Drive Design & Communication Insights at Crossroads Church with Vivienne Bechtold appeared first on Passion for Planting.

by Patrick Bradley: It’s Saturday morning and your volunteers have showed up to execute your church plant door hanger campaign. Now what?

You’ve already invested the time to design the door hangers as part of a larger campaign. And you’ve paid to have them printed. It would be a shame if the wheels fell off for lack of planning for the delivery phase.

Here are things to do to have a killer delivery day:

Get Organized Ahead of Time

Invite Outside Teams

You really don’t want to use your own Launch Team for putting out the door hangers. Work with a supporting church to get a missions team to come and deliver them. If they’re from out of the area, the church plant door hanger campaign could be one of the things they do when they come for a long weekend.

You could also invite youth groups from area churches and/or supporting churches. Teens have lots of energy, especially when you feed them pizza afterwards.

Prepare Delivery Routes

Before you jump right into creating a map, you’ll need to estimate how many door hangers teams of 2 can put out per hour. There are so many variables involved (including weather and elevation change), but the biggest seems to be the housing density: if you’re delivering to a neighborhood of track homes on postage-stamp-sized lots, you’ll get more out per hour than if it’s a neighborhood where every lot is an acre.

A note on apartments: most apartment complexes will have a ‘no soliciting’ sign or policy. While your church isn’t a commercial enterprise and the door hangers aren’t technically soliciting, they’ll probably be seen that way. So decide ahead of time whether you’ll skip them or fight that PR battle.

Consider using 75 per hour per team of 2 as a baseline for average housing density and flat terrain.

Now you can break down your target area into manageable routes using Google’s My Maps. Set logical rally points where your volunteers can park and divide up into teams of 2 to hit an area.

Lastly, set a firm stop time and place where everyone will reconvene for celebration and debrief. And at least some kind of food or dessert.

Set Up Communication Channels

Know how to get a hold of each volunteer ahead of time and while they’re out delivering. Cell phones are usually a good option since so many of us have them. But you other options are available, like walkie-talkies, etc.

Also consider having teams that have smart phones use one of those jogging tracking apps to record their route and progress.

Here are other helpful ideas to maximize your church plant door hanger campaign.

Just before Delivery Day

Print route maps and pre-bundle the printed door hangers in stacks enough to cover each route. Have a couple of water bottles to hand out to each team, too.

Prep your intercessory pray team to be praying over the volunteers and target homes during the delivery hours.

Plan a brief vision-casting and training session to equip and inspire the volunteers on delivery day. Be prepared to over-explain a bit. Don’t assume things will be common sense, especially if you’re using teens. Give them principles for what to do about:

walking on lawns
gated communities
dogs
gated yards
someone engaging them in conversation

Stay Organized on Delivery Day

Make sure you have a command station somewhere. Everyone needs to have the phone number to text or call in for help. Make sure the command station has everyone’s contact info and copies of all the delivery routes.

Aftermath of the Church Plant Door Hanger Campaign

Be prepared for disgruntled recipients. One of my planters estimated that he got 1-3 angry phone calls per 10,000 hangers his team put out. Have a brief script written in your mind about what you’ll say and how you’ll handle those.

The good news is that the same planter had a guest come to the worship gathering 10 months later with the door hanger in hand. Your church plant door hanger campaign can have long-lasting effects in your community. So take the time to organize the campaign well!

The post How to Organize a Church Plant Door Hanger Campaign appeared first on Church Planting Tactics.

Source: How to Organize a Church Plant Door Hanger Campaign

The post How to Organize a Church Plant Door Hanger Campaign appeared first on Passion for Planting.

by Patrick Bradley: Using church plant door hangers to get the word out about a new church can be effective. If you know how to maximize them.

I’ve had multiple planters over the years use church plant door hangers. Some of those planters would tell you that they would absolutely use them again. Others would tell you they would never use them again. What made the difference?

5 Ways to Maximize Church Plant Door Hangers

Here are some lessons learned that are relatively simple to implement:

Coordinate with Your Overall Campaign

Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Your door hangers should have the same look, feel and message as all your other delivery channels, like online ads, flyers, whatever. The effect of your whole campaign is greater that any individual part.

Order Well in Advance for Best Pricing

You will pay rush fees for last-minute design jobs and last-minute print jobs. Especially if you are using an online print vendor, place your order about 3-4 before you need them in hand. Which means you need to start the design & copy writing process 2-3 weeks prior to that.

List Upcoming Events

Along with inviting them to whatever event you’re announcing, be sure to include other upcoming events, like your next 2 community service events or next 4 sermons. They may connect with one of those other events over the primary event on your door hanger.

Use an Attachment

OK, so this one isn’t so simple to implement, but has the potential to seriously increase your ROI. Staple something to the church plant door hanger like a small, sealed candy cane.

Verve in Las Vegas attached packets of PopRocks to their door hangers, playing on the urban legend that you will probably die from drinking coke while eating PopRocks (coming to church probably won’t kill you either).

Organize Your Delivery Well

Whether you’re using your own people or finding extra help, none of them want to show up on a Saturday to discover you haven’t worked out important details. You need to have already planned out a quick vision/training time, routes, communication channels, etc.

The Biggest Difference

The biggest difference in whether planters told me they’d ever use church plant door hangers again or not is the labor:

Those that paid to have them delivered or used missions teams typically had good experiences
Planters that used their Launch Team for putting out flyers usually had a bad experience – their people were too tired for much else

If you’re planning a church plant door hanger campaign, take a little extra time to maximize their effectiveness.

The post 5 Ways to Maximize Church Plant Door Hangers appeared first on Church Planting Tactics.

Source: 5 Ways to Maximize Church Plant Door Hangers

The post 5 Ways to Maximize Church Plant Door Hangers appeared first on Passion for Planting.