Ridge Stone Church in Canton, Ga., has launched Ridge Stone Backstage, a blog to share some of the lessons they’ve learned as a church plant that held their first service in August 2004. Pastor Gary Lamb (you may remember him for only freaking out a few people during his Buzz Conference panel) shares some of the marketing techniques they used prior to launch:
- Cover & two-page article in local direct-mail magazine.
- Partnered with the city to provide the entertainment (concerts/ inflatables) for a big car show.
- Invite cards.
- 10,000 door hangers.
- Huge neon yellow banners.
- Press release that was picked up by local newspapers.
- T-shirts their people wore all over town.
Lamb reports they did all of this for less than the cost of a single direct mail campaign. They had about 200 new people show up at the opening service.
Will
June 3, 2006
But the real question is what percentage of that 200 were there the next week.
Gary
June 3, 2006
Actually Will, that isn’t the real question. If we would have not had the crowd we had on our launch service we would not have had the crowd we had the second week. Church Planting coaches will tell you that you lose about 50% of your crowd from the first service to the second.
We kept about 70% for the second service.
Thanks Kevin for the plug.
churchrelevance.com
June 4, 2006
Spread the Word
It is always interesting to see what other church’s are doing to spread the word about their ministry throughout their community.
Ridge Stone Church in Canton, GA
created invite cards
distributed 10,000 door hangers
created informational stree…
matt
June 5, 2006
It seems that Gary answered the question he was trying to deny. Made-up-stats coaches will tell you that the need to provide a high percentage validates Will’s question.
And if the worship experience didn’t match your snazzy invites, door hangers and t-shirts no one would come back.
Vadim
June 7, 2006
We are at the church planting stage, and as Communication Ministry leader I find your site being very useful.
Cheers,
Vadim