My Facebook Marketing Strategy to turn Scrollers into Believers
Church growth matters to Jesus and he’s expecting us to be fruitful. There is a way to produce fruit during this online worship season. It took us 7 weeks to figure this out and I’m happy to share with you what we have learned and implemented so far.
The goals of the plan:
Turn scrollers into viewers
Turn viewers into engagers
Turn engagers into likers
The likers into attendees
Turn Scrollers into Viewers
The aim here is to capture those who happen to scroll by our service while on Facebook. Facebook calls this 3 second or 20 second views. Last week we had 9,803 scroll by. The way we attempt to capture them is to have a compelling/alluring graphic and post that will invite them in. Early on we were just showing the sermon logo and a generic post about the service which may be cool to me but not effective in inviting others to join it. We’ve pivoted in that to a invitational approach (keep an eye out for those changes this Sunday).
Turn Viewers into Engagers
Engagement is the single greatest thing that will keep someone tuned in. We do this by encouraging people what to write in the chat, encouraging them to share and asking everyone at various points in the service to hit like or one of the other Facebook provided emojis. This is the greatest specific thing you can have your views do. This is crucial for the next step.
Turn Engagers into Likers
After the service is over Facebook has this great feature that enables us to invite anyone who engaged by using the Facebook emojis to join our church Facebook page. We invite every single one of them and in the past two months have added a ton of new people to our church Facebook page. This isn’t the same as becoming a member of the church or a Christian but in a internetty sort of way it’s a significant connection to our church and a step towards Jesus. They now are in our communication streams and in an online relationship with us. This is crucial for the next step.
Turn Likers into Attendees
Once they like our page I send them a personal friend invitation and I send them, through Facebook messenger, a personalized short video (which I am working on automating) from me with the following info:
Welcoming them into our church community
Introducing myself to them
Inviting them to continue to attend our online services
Inviting them to attend the church we we are back together
Church Advocates
The final thing we plan to do when we come back from social distancing is to have videos made from some of our church families inviting our new friend to visit a service in person. We will send these through Facebook messenger as well. In these videos our families will simply share why they come to Westside and why you should come too.
Thanks for reading. Check back in a week or two and I’ll update it with any new findings.
