The Importance of Creating Digital Content for Evangelism and Discipleship
As a church branching out into producing digital content, how do you know where to start? Most churches realize they need to put more content online, but don’t know what to focus on first. We interviewed Patrick Miller on the Missional Marketing podcast to hear how he helped his church build a website filled with digital content, broadening its reach exponentially. Patrick is a pastor of digital relationships at Crossing Church in Missouri. He co-hosts the popular Ten-Minute Bible Talks, ranked as one of the top 5 devotional podcasts worldwide according to Chartable. Learn some key takeaways from his experience turning digital leads into new visitors and church members.
The Importance of Digital Content
Many churches post their sermons on YouTube or Facebook, and that’s the extent of their digital content plan. But this tactic won’t develop genuine relationships with people hanging out online. Since people spend hours on the internet each day, churches need to be strategic about developing digital content that speaks to an online audience.
Throughout Covid, churches across the nation lost a large percentage of regular attendees. While many pastors assume people walked away hurt and that’s why they no longer attend church, a study conducted by Crossing Church found that most de-churched people are willing to come back. Many just got out of the habit and need an invitation.
Creating engaging digital media provides an “on ramp” for people to return to church. Since the pandemic, Crossing Church attendance has grown by 40%, surpassing the number of people initially lost! If you’re eager to see similar results, here’s what you can try:
Start a Church Podcast
Starting a podcast is a great step for many churches because it’s easy to do technologically. You just need a good quality microphone to record your podcast; then upload the recording on a server that hosts podcasts. If you only have $1,500 in your budget, you can use $800 to $1,000 to buy nice equipment, around $100 on your podcast server to get your message on the right platforms, and $400 for some advertising. Producing a podcast is not as expensive or time-consuming as other mediums like videos.
Podcasts are most popular among a college-educated audience, so podcasting might not be the best outlet if your church consists predominantly of high school graduates. The biggest downside to podcasting is that it’s a one-way conversation, so it doesn’t always create a meaningful invitation for people to come and be part of your church. So you need other types of content to nurture those follow-on leads.
Focus on Email Marketing
Don’t be afraid to scrap your current church newsletter and start over. Consider developing in its place a digital newsletter, which may be more effective. Each week, highlight one piece of content that will help people grow in their walk with Jesus. Then produce blog posts that point to in-person events as a call to action. So if you have a blog post about the importance of being connected with a Christian community, then invite people to join your small groups.
Your blog and newsletter can become primary lead generators for in-person ministry. A newsletter nobody used to read could become something the whole church gets excited about. This virtual invitation will continually exist online to reach people outside your church.
Be Intentional About Tracking Data
Your church needs a system in place to follow up with leads. Be intentional about data collection from the beginning. Every name and email address collected should be tracked in a CRM system. By seeing which web pages visitor click on, your team can get an accurate idea of who the person is, what content they’re interested in, and how likely they are to attend an in-person event.
If you have margin in the budget, using smart content can be a game-changer. Through this, you can track data and cookies to determine each new visitor who has never been on your website before. If a website visitor signs up for the newsletter without ever engaging before, they would be categorized as a cold lead. Smart content would then provide more digital content for them to engage with before giving a direct call to action. Then they will be more ready to attend an in-person event. Essentially a smart content system identifies who is a cold lead versus a hot lead and categorizes online visitors to determine what to send them next.
Start Small
If your church has a small communications team or you’re the one person on your church staff who sees the value of producing digital content, you can start small. When your staff sees the results from your small projects, they will most likely warm up to larger projects that could expand your reach. Don’t copy the tactics of famous mega-churches. Instead, focus on the best way to create long-lasting, sustainable results.
To maximize your time and resources, stay away from producing exclusively Sunday-centric content. Though this can serve your church body, it may not meet the initial needs of someone outside your church. Produce content native to the platform you are using to receive web visitors.
Engage with the questions and problems they’re facing. If you’re unsure what these needs are, start by addressing specific needs within your church, like mental health or Bible literacy. Once you know the felt need, you can create a target persona and produce content that would help that person.
Start by creating a few pieces of content and asking for feedback. After you’ve made some tweaks, you can launch and post at regular intervals.
Stay Consistent
Don’t be the church that starts a podcast or blog for a month and then falls along the wayside. Once you get started, that first month or two will be the hardest. Getting a new thing off the ground and rolling takes time and effort, but it gets easier once you get into a rhythm.
Create systems that help you streamline tasks and keep them simple. Once you start a new endeavor, commit yourself to at least a year of posting consistently. You can evaluate growth more accurately after a year. In most cases, the change happens slowly over time, and that consistency allows you to meet your goals and even exceed them.
If you’re a perfectionist, remember that there’s room for failure. Your content doesn’t need to be perfect, it just needs to be consistent. Sometimes producing a short, simple blog post every week is more valuable than posting a comprehensive article once a quarter. The key to engaging with and growing an audience long-term is remaining part of their life and staying in front of them. If listening to your podcast becomes part of their weekly routine, your content will serve them well, even if it’s not perfect every time.
Don’t Be Afraid to Delegate
Many pastors feel like their job takes up 120% of their time. So it can be overwhelming when they read a post telling them to start a podcast or create more blog posts. The great part of creating digital content is that you don’t have to be the one to do it. God has given you a church body, and He’s put people in your congregation who have the skills and passion for running a podcast or creating content. The Crossing Church now runs about six podcasts, and several of them are not run by pastors or church staff. You can equip people inside your church to serve and lead digital ministries like every other ministry within your church body.
Learn More
According to research conducted by Crossing Church, we are going through the largest religious shift in American history right now. And for the first time, it’s a shift away from the church. However, de-churched people, who make up about a quarter of America’s population, are very open to coming back—they just need an invitation. That’s where the importance of digital media comes in. If you can reach people where they are and engage with them through online media, you begin to form relationships that make them feel welcome and ready to attend an in-person event.
If you want to learn more about creating digital media to generate leads, listen to our recent Missional Marketing podcast episode. In it, we provide success stories and resources to help you create a strategic plan that meets the needs of people online, so you can meet them in person. If you need help along the way, contact us to set up a call.