Churches, ministries and often small Christian businesses don’t have huge marketing budgets to get their messages across to congregations. Even though they don’t have large marketing budgets, they still need to spend money if they wish to market themselves and grow their congregations or customers. They also need to market to raise funds for church repairs, ministries or business expenses. Often, they don’t know where to turn to market themselves on a low budget. These are four ideas they can try to market themselves without having to pay a marketer. However, using professional Christian marketing might be the most cost effective way to promote your church or business.

Social Media 

Using Facebook, Instagram and Google are free. You most likely won’t get new customers, but you might get new members to your church. However, you will get brand awareness. People will see your regular posts and follow you. They will connect you and your ministry or you and your business products or services. They will discover who you are and want to be part of what you do. For a small amount more, you could advertise on social media sites. These advertisements will further increase your brand awareness and following. You also could use social media to spread your message more consistently.

Postcards 

Postcards, prayer cards, bookmarks, and other printed materials do not cost much and do a lot to get your message across to the public. They are great for handing to parishioners at events or at community outreach locations. They are something that people can take away and absorb the content later when it is convenient for them. You also can ask people to distribute the postcards for you at their place of business or community locations. If you are a business, you could ask your clients or neighbors to distribute the postcards for you.

Church Bulletins 

Advertising on the back of church bulletins is not too costly and reach your target market, which are Christians. Ministers often put their message inside a bulletin, but they could also put their message on the back. The company that sells advertising for church bulletins usually will put the same ad on several churches’ bulletins, which means if you advertised on the back in addition to the inside, your message would reach more than your congregation or church. It would give businesses more brand awareness by being in more than one location.

Websites

Keeping your website optimized for search engines is important in this digital world. You could check your website yourself or have a volunteer do it. Besides being optimized, you also want to add new content regularly. For example, you could have a blog where you give information your congregation or customers want to know. You also could provide the information they need to know. If you put a link on your social media every time you update your blog, you get double the advertising. You also could ask others to advertise on your website. This would provide you an income to market other ways. And, you might think about advertising on compatible websites, such as other churches who have similar values as yours or companies that make good referral partners to you.

If these ideas are overwhelming, you could hire someone to do these for you. Call (727.265.1349) Christian Marketing Experts for a free consultation.