You want visitors to come to church? Invite your friends. Overwhelmingly, word of mouh invites were the most effective marketing method for bringing new people to church with 65%. That’s nothing new, but it helps to hear it again. It also helps to make sure you’re encouraging invitations.
The second interesting tidbit from this week’s survey is that 12% had no idea what marketing method works best. Now it could be that we’ve got a lot of folks who simply aren’t in a position to know. But if that’s 12% of church staff members who don’t know what works, that’s a sorry sign. You can’t improve if you don’t know what works.
Beyond that we’re dealing with leftover change. 8% for special events (and yes, I accidentally put special events in twice, thank you), 5% for the web site, 3% for something else, 2% each for postcard/direct mail, newspaper/phone book ad and creative promotion, and 1% for location.
It doesn’t mean we should ignore any of these other methods. Special events may provide an opportunity for a personal invite. A web site may confirm that the church isn’t a bunch of Kool-Aid sipping freaks. Marketing efforts usually work together. Just remember what works the best.
Now that we know what’s bringing people to church, how many are actually coming each week? This week’s survy asks how many first-time visitors come to your church each week.
Kirt Manuel
September 26, 2005
Interestingly, I think we might have a lot of first-time visitors each week, but we have no way of knowing they’re here unless they intentionally identify themselves in some way. We go out of our way NOT to single them out in any way, short of letting them know there’s no expectation that they give during the offering. I guess we do let them know we have a free gift for them at the Connection Center, so I could count those.