The Ultimate List of Church Marketing Strategies To Help Grow Your Church

Church Marketing Can Help You Raise Funds

Many churches advertise only rarely, if at all, so their coffers start to look a bit bare after a while. Unfortunately, you can’t run a church on faith and prayers alone!

Social media and other types of church advertising, such as hosting exciting events, can help generate funds for your congregation. You can use that money to invest in new equipment, extra seating, and cool programs for your church community.

Church Marketing Can Draw Volunteers

Hosting community events at your church can be fun, but you can’t run upcoming events effectively without volunteers. Sending out targeted church marketing materials is a good way to spread the word about your community event and ask for volunteers to lend a helping hand with church outreach.

Understand Your Target Audience

Before putting any church marketing strategy into action, it pays to understand the audience you want to target. That’s one of the first steps to success when it comes to business management, and it also applies to your church marketing plan.

If you’re unsure who your audience is, look at your congregation members. Are they young families, elderly, or a good mix of both? Direct mail can work well with older folks, while digital marketing, such as social media, generally appeals to a younger crowd.

Create a Budget With Your Marketing Committee

Without a solid church marketing strategy, you could blow your entire church advertising budget before you’ve barely gotten started. Talk to your marketing team and decide how much you want to spend on Google ads, Facebook ads, church advertisements, and online listings.

Build a Supportive Church Marketing Team for Your Church Growth Strategy

Church advertising can be a breeze if you assemble a team with the right strengths. For instance, one team member might be a whiz at managing budgets, while another is a pro in graphic design. Yet another person might know exactly what it takes to boost your church’s social media presence and send your site soaring in the search results.

To gather your team, stroll around your church and ask for volunteers. If your church has a youth program for teenagers or a group for college-aged students, that could be an excellent place to start.

Develop a Stellar Church Website To Boost Your Marketing Efforts

If you want potential new church members to find your church information in the search results, you can’t go without a beautiful and functional website.

 Your church website needs:

Ensure that your church website has a clean look and is easy to navigate. Visitors shouldn’t have to stumble around your site wondering where to find what they want. If visitors get lost while looking for your contact page, they will likely give up and head to a competing church instead.

Be sure to practice good search engine optimization (SEO) for your site. Use relevant keywords, such as “non-denominational church in [city],” and sprinkle them evenly throughout your content.

It’s also important to ensure that your site loads well on mobile search engines by using responsive design practices. This means your website will automatically adjust to the screen size no matter which type of device someone uses.

Other tips for your site include:

• Use alt tags for your images
• Optimize the titles of your pages and blog posts
• Build backlinks from other authority websites to your own
  

If you’re unsure how to do any of this, a church advertising agency, such as Faithworks Marketing, can help.

Make a Google Business Profile for Your Church Online

If you haven’t made a Google Business Profile for your church yet, do it now! With a Google Business Profile, you can list must-know information about your church, share photos, and add attributes to attract more guests. When someone searches for your church, all of that info will show up in the results. Best of all, it’s free.

Stay Active on Social Media Platforms

You can’t afford to ignore social media, such as your Facebook page, if you want to get serious about church advertising. Facebook, Instagram, and X (formerly Twitter) are all great places to market your church.

You can create shareable social media posts discussing upcoming events, favorite Bible verses, and anything else guests might find interesting. Photos and videos are also popular, as are quizzes and polls. For instance, you could poll subscribers and ask them their preferred topic for your next sermon.

Don’t forget to link back to your church’s website from your pages, too. This is a good way to boost your position in the search results.

If you’re unfamiliar with this type of media and don’t have the time to learn, you may want to consider reaching out to a church marketing company like Faithworks Marketing.

Score Free Advertising for Churches With the Google Ad Grant

Has your church avoided advertising because you think it costs a ton of cash? Think again! As a nonprofit, you can access the Google Ad Grant, which provides up to $10,000 per month to spend on Google Ads.

The Google Ad Grant can be hugely beneficial to churches that don’t have the funds for advertising. However, you’ll need some experience managing Google Ads to succeed with this strategy. You’ll need to set up tracking to know how well your ads do, perform A/B testing to see which ads work best, and tailor your messages to your target market.

If that sounds like too much of a handful, you can hire a church marketing agency to manage your ads.

Try Paid Digital Church Advertising

If your church can afford it, you might consider investing in other types of paid advertising. Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube all have advertising options, for example. You can opt for a pay-per-click advertising setup in which you only pay when someone clicks on your ads.

These platforms also allow you to choose keywords and set how much you’re willing to bid for them. That means you can control your budget, so you’ll never be hit by an unexpected bill for your ads.

Set Up Email Marketing

Email marketing is one of the most cost-effective ways to spread the word about your church. If you already have a sizeable mailing list, this type of marketing allows you to keep in touch with members and stay top of mind. For instance, members may appreciate emails reminding them of events and services.

If your list is on the smaller side, you can grow it by offering freebies in exchange for email addresses. E-books, special reports, and exclusive offers make for appealing lead magnets.

If you don’t have an offer of your own to use as a lead magnet, consider partnering with local businesses. With this strategy, for example, you could offer 20% off at a popular restaurant when someone signs up for your newsletter. While you’re at it, ask partner businesses if they’ll let you hang up flyers for your church to score free advertising.

Consider Traditional Advertising

Many churches have given up on old advertising standbys such as TV, radio commercials, and direct mailers. That could mean a golden opportunity for you!

This is especially true if you target people aged 65 and up, many of whom read mail and listen to the radio more than younger generations.

One downside of this type of advertising is the cost. For a commercial, you could pay anywhere from a couple hundred to a few thousand dollars, depending on the platform and time slot you choose.

Create a Text-to-Give Campaign

Nowadays, it can be tough to find anyone who walks around with cash in their pocket. If your church isn’t using online donation options, you could be leaving serious money on the table.

A text-to-give campaign is exactly what it sounds like. It allows members to donate with the tap of a button right from their phones. They’ll enjoy the convenience, and your church will certainly appreciate the extra funds.

To find success with this religious advertising method, you’ll need to use a trustworthy platform, so members know their financial details are secure. Donorbox is a popular pick, and better yet, churches and other nonprofits can qualify for a discount on every transaction.

Host Awesome Community Events

Who doesn’t love wandering around a festival? Delicious treats, music, dancing, and games—these events have it all!

By hosting such an event, your church is sure to become the talk of the town. You’ll even attract people who normally wouldn’t darken the door of a chapel. It’s a great opportunity to share more about your church and what it believes in.

Hosting a festival can be a smart way to raise money, too. You can charge a small amount for admission or branded merchandise, with all proceeds going toward members in need at your church. Guests will be pleased to know that their donations will support a good cause.

Other ideas for events include:

• A fall fair with pumpkin carving, face painting, hay rides, and treats for the kids
• A potluck event with prizes for the best recipes
• A summer sports camp for kids with a family night celebration at the end of the week
• A parents' night out with movies and games to keep the little ones busy
• A community yard sale where members bring unwanted goods to sell