How to launch a new sermon series
Invite Cards: We always have these cards ready around 3 weeks before the series. The purpose twofold. 1) So our people can hang one on their fridge as a reminder of what’s being taught each week and 2) So our people can invite their friends. One of the biggest reasons I preach in sermon series is so that we can have multiple entry points into our church each year. Our goal this year is to have 600 guests attend which should easily result in 10% growth. Sermon series is one of the top ways in which we see guests in worship.
Stories: With each sermon series you should be aware of any testimonies/stories in your church that go with the series. People love to hear personal stories.
Buy the website name: This is a great marketing tool. For example, if your sermon series is called “Family Matters” you might try to buy a website called familymatters.com or myfamilymatters.com or familymatterssermons.com. You might have to play with the name to achieve this. A website name costs less than $20 on godaddy. On the website you can include sermon logos, videos or audios, a video invite from the pastor, etc…
Brand it: A marketing package will include both a logo and a sermon bumper at a minimum. A professional designer is the way to go if you can swing it. We use design pickle ($350 per month contract), Twelve Thirty Media ($850 per series) and Sermon box media ($550 per series). I’ve also used fiverr.com in the past, which is way more economical…literally $5. Make sure your logo is various sizes for all the social media platforms.
The elevator pitch: You need to be able to describe the series in 90 seconds or less.
Tease it: Have it in the bulletin, on your social media pages and website for several weeks prior to the start. Great way to create some buzz. When sharing this way keep a degree of mystery. This creates a higher level of interest.
For crying out loud update your website: Your church members probably don’t look at your website too often but your community and potential guests do. Let them know what’s happening in your church right now. If you have a bad website that is not update routinely you should delete it right now. It’s doing more harm than good.
Facebook and Instagram ads: It’s the cheapest way to directed market to your community. And uses videos for the ads. Videos are viewed 1200% more times than graphics.
Cellphone wallpaper: I’ve only done this a few times but it was cool when we did it. We simply offered the logo to the current series as a downloadable wallpaper for your cell phone. It was to serve as a reminder to pray for the series. Every time you opened your cell phone you’d see the logo and remember to pray.
Social Media Headers: Have all the headers on your social media pages updated to the logo of the sermon series. Just make sure to have the appropriate sizes made so they look sharpest.
These are just few ideas. Please comment below if you have additional ideas to share.
Happy preaching!
