Church Marketing Sucks

Here’s a question: What do people need to know before they visit your church? Usually, they’re looking for basic information: service times, address, directions, childcare information, etc. Those are the essential questions—the information they need to know.

But here’s another question: What do people want to know about your church before visiting it? According Thom Rainer, 90% of people want to know the pastor and the preaching.

They seek information about who the pastor is, what they preaches about, and their preaching style. They then use that information to decide whether to come to your church.

It’s a Big Deal

That’s a pretty big deal, which is why you should have your sermons available on your website in some format. It allows website visitors to experience the preaching ahead of time. It can even help them with other, unasked questions like what to wear and what to expect during praise and worship. (Guess what, all? Not everybody thinks it’s normal to raise hands or clap or what have you.)

Bad News, Good News

Now there’s some good news and some bad news here. The bad news is that some people aren’t going to like your preaching. For whatever reason, that’s just what happens sometimes.

But the good news is the opposite: Some people will love your preaching! And if you want to reach those people, you’ve got to get your sermons online.

A Few Facts

If that doesn’t convince you to put your sermons online, let me hit you with a few facts.

• A percentage of people love to watch and listen to sermons online. If those people can’t find your sermons on your website, they’ll find someone else’s sermons somewhere else.
• A lot of your regular members don’t attend consistently, so they miss out on your sermons. Keep them connected with your church by publishing your sermons online.
• You put a lot of work into your sermons each week. Give that work a longer life by putting it online.

Wait, There’s More

Having your sermons online helps you accomplish all this and more. Specifically, it engages outsiders and encourages insiders. For those of you who’ve caught the vision and are ready to get your sermons live on your site, here are three ways to do it.

1. Streaming Video. Set up a video feed to livestream to your site every Sunday. This way users can watch your Sunday morning sermons as they occur.
2. Recorded Video. By recording your sermons, you can post them to your website after your Sunday services. Do it in a timely manner, by Monday or Tuesday at the latest.
3. Audio Recording. If you don’t have the means to post video, go the audio route. Record audio of your sermons weekly and post it on your site as a sort of podcast.

Bonus Tip: Create a schedule for posting your sermons and stick to it! Whether you post weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, or quarterly, you want to follow the schedule you’ve given to your people. It doesn’t matter how often you post as long as you post consistently.

Finally, remember something is better than nothing! So get at least some of your sermons online. It’ll help people connect with your church online and convince them to visit in person.

If you want to post your sermons in the simplest way with the most proven results, Clover can help! Click here to schedule a demo.