What is Church
Reputation Management
Reputation management refers to influencing or controlling an individual or group’s reputation.
In our viral hungry, twenty-four hour news cycle, any church can easily find themselves knee-deep in negative press. The goal of church reputation management is to proactively create positive press to combat the negative. The hope would be to slowly disassociate the church’s association with the negative press, while increasing the public’s perception of the church. We want to push any negative content down, below page 1 in Google’s search results, while pushing positive stories about the church up and into page 1.
A church would most likely look into reputation management after specific negative media coverage that could not only hurt their reputation, but also attendance, finances, and the overall spirit of the church. This process does not magically take away negative media. However, it does work to limit its affect by purposefully producing more positive press.
How Does Church Online Reputation Improvement Work?
There are three main steps to implement a church online reputation improvement strategy.
1. Determine the source of the problem
Before diving into any potential solutions to your problem, our experts at Missional Marketing will work to determine the source and extent of the media damage. We will research the online presence and perception of your church and lead pastor.
2. Create a plan to limit the affects of the negative media
We will then create a plan specific to your church’s needs. Plans will differ in size and scope based on how prevailing the online problem is. There are many steps our team can take to improve your church’s online reputation:
- Begin a blog. Blog posts written according to felt needs topics have the ability to earn high search results in Google. This is an important step to create new stories connected to your church and ministry. Missional Marketing can help you begin and write a blog.
- Published stories in national publications. We can gather information to write numerous positive stories that could be picked up in nationally known Christian publications. These stories will likely get first page placement in Google search results.
- Google search ads. Our team might decide it’s important to run search ads in Google that will show up whenever individuals search for your church. The goal would be to have a positive link show up before a negative story.
- Perform Website Search Engine Optimization. Working to optimize your website will help your church in numerous ways. It will increase the online visibility of the various ministries of your church and the online visibility of your church overall. This will increase the number of visitors to your church website, your Google search result placement, and hopefully new attenders trying out your church on a Sunday morning.
3. Calculate results of initial effort
It’s impossible to determine future results from an initial reputation management campaign. After completing a campaign we will work through the results to determine what worked best and what could be built on in the future. Fortunately, content creation is cumulative so future content will build on and help what’s been written in the past.
Get Started
We understand the pain of a difficult situation in your church being intensified by negative media. We know that sometimes bad things happen to good churches. But, we believe a church can change their city with the gospel of Jesus. We want to help your church get back on track to fulfill its mission in your community.
We are ready to walk with you through this difficult time and work hard to improve and restore your church’s reputation. If you’re interested in taking the NEXT STEP in considering Missional Marketing, please schedule an appointment or contact us via phone, text, or email.