Church Marketing Strategy
Are you in charge of creating posts for your church’s blog and other social media channels? One way to create content and at the same time help your pastor get his message out is by repurposing the sermons he’s preached. You can create a variety of content by using a voice-to-text app and then breaking up the sermons into smaller posts or putting some sermons together to create a bigger product, for example, an e-book.
Most pastors spend an average of 10-18 hours a week in sermon preparation and some of the sermons are just too good not to share with as many people as possible.
One of the most obvious ways to repurpose a sermon is by posting videos or audio files of the message on your church website and to other social media channels. Some churches use Facebook Live, others post to YouTube.
You also can create blog posts either by pulling out the main points of the message and rewriting it or you can have the sermon transcribed, do some editing, and then use it in its original form. I use Google Docs to do my transcribing but there are many paid services available. I’ve never used them so I don’t know how they compare.
When posting to the church blog, give it a catchy title by making sure it grabs the reader’s attention and is relevant to their needs. A good headline should be about six to eight words long and give a brief idea of what the article is about. If possible, use a keyword phrase in the title.
Optimize your post for the search engines. Although this doesn’t sound very spiritual, if you want your blog post to be found, you need to optimize it. Do your research to find the appropriate keywords. In some cases, the keyword phrase may be obvious and you’ll just have to tweak it a bit. At other times there will be no obvious keywords and you’ll have to get creative. Read through the sermon and ask yourself what problem does it solve or what question does it answer.
For example, let’s say that your pastor preached a message entitled, “Don’t Put on the Brakes.” That title doesn’t make a good keyword phrase because not very many people are looking for that particular phrase. (At least not in the context that it’s used.) As you think about it, you come to the conclusion that the main idea of the sermon is about worshiping God freely, without “putting on the brakes.”
You do some research and decide that a good keyword phrase for this sermon is, “How to Worship God.” You change the title to, “How to Worship God: Don’t Put on the Brakes.” Then you put those keywords throughout the article, in a spot or two. After you’re finished, you can read through the post and make sure it doesn’t sound spammy. You may want to have your pastor read through it and approve it before you post it. This will ensure that no part of the message was misstated.
You can also pull out some of the main ideas as well as scriptures, quotes, etc., and create graphics to post on social media throughout the week. If you’re new at creating graphics, using Canva may be an option for you. Canva has ready-made templates and all you have to do is change the wording and maybe add your own image. When you’re done, save it to your computer.
You can also turn the blog post into a PDF and share it with your e-mail list and make it available online. Put your church’s website and contact information either in the footer of the PDF or on the last page. That way, when people in your community download the PDF and like what they read, they’ll be able to get more information on the church website and you may possibly see them at your church in the near future.
If your pastor has taught a series of sermons on a particular topic, the same basic process could be used to create a book (either digital or print format) that could be sold online or in the church bookstore.
Another idea is to use the sermon to create a mini course or worksheet. Using the main points, questions could be based on how the information is applicable in everyday life. This be shared online or used as part of a Bible study curriculum. So there you have it, some ideas on how to repurpose your pastor’s sermons and use them as part of your church marketing strategy.
I’m Lorene Troyer, content creator and marketer. If you’re looking for ideas for your next (low-cost) women’s ministry event or workshop, check out my Church Resources store and purchase one or more of my digital kits.