June 30, 2008
Churches are tempted to spend a lot of money to get on a local radio station. I can understand why. Certain ministries have done very well by getting onto radio stations around the United States. I think of Reverend Tony Evans. He has had a great deal of influence through his radio ministry. But, like everything else, success is governed by the Pareto Law: 20% of the participants make 80% of the profits. I would refine it ever further: 20% of 20% of the participants are the ones who really succeed.
There is another thing to consider. The really successful radio ministries offer daily broadcasts. They develop a national audience. Their primary goal is not to bring local people into the congregation.
Before committing to a weekly radio broadcast, be sure that there is at least one congregation in your city that has prospered directly as a result of its radio ministry. If there isn't, then this is a very risky form of evangelism. Some large ministries have a weekly radio broadcast for shut-ins who are members of the congregation. This is a very expensive form of ministry. We live in an era of CD-ROMs. We should take advantage of the new communications technologies.
A local ministry might benefit from a local radio program. But to do this, the church evangelism committee should target its audience very specifically. It should be an audience that can be reached only through radio. This means, usually, only through AM radio. This is an audience with very little money. It is an audience that very often does not even have the money for a car.
The people who listen to AM radio tend to be older people, especially older women, who cannot get out of their homes. This may be a generalization, of course, but I can guarantee you that the audience is not people aged 15 to 35. An exception might be a program before or after a conservative radio talk show host, but that will be very expensive time to purchase.
If we are talking about AM radio stations that are exclusively Christian, the listeners will not be people with high incomes. People with high incomes do not listen to AM radio Christian stations. They may listen to FM radio, but more likely, they get their information from the World Wide Web.
Even if your target audience is the inner city, the cost of getting on radio is so high that it probably would pay to adopt direct mail rather than radio as the best form of evangelism. A church can get a nonprofit mailing certificate. This lowers the cost of mailing.
The next step is to have something worth listening to. Instead of recording 25 minute sermons for the radio, record 25 minute sermons to put on a CD-ROM in the form of MP3 files. The CD-ROM can then be advertised by mailing a postcard to the targeted ZIP code. It is inexpensive to mail a postcard. Go to the local postmaster and request a map of the local postal carrier route that corresponds to your target audience. Then all you have to do is mail the postcard to everyone in this postal carrier route. This is the least expensive way of getting your message out to the people who will be most likely to come to your church.
The postcard should be printed on goldenrod stock. I don't know why goldenrod works best, but statistically speaking, it does.
On the postcard, advertise the existence of a CD-ROM containing sermons that deal with a topic of immediate concern for the audience you are attempting to reach. These are called hot-button topics. You will get the greatest response for your marketing budget by offering information that is of immediate practical interest to the people who will read your postcard.
The messages on the CD-ROM should be presented on a face-to-face basis. They should not be sermons that were preached to an audience. They should sound as though the pastor is talking face-to-face with the listener. They should be intimate. This way, they will not be perceived as being secondhand goods. They will not be perceived as being afterthoughts to the regular Sunday morning presentation. They should be perceived as special information aimed directly at the interests of a specific listener. This will connect with a listener far better than what would be perceived as an impersonal sermon aimed at a congregation. This applies also to radio broadcasts. The listener should get the impression that the speaker is taking special steps to communicate with him or her.
I recommend selling a CD-ROM for a dollar. This way, you will get the name and address of the individual who wants to receive the CD-ROM.
Charge a dollar in order to make the recipient believe that he or she is receiving something of value. Things that are given away are perceived as being of very limited value.
In the mailing package that contains the CD-ROM, include a brochure that speaks of the benefits of attending your church. It should have a map, the times of all the services, and a photograph of the pastor and his family. This does not have to be a full-color brochure. It can be a short as one sheet of paper on two sides.
Before committing to a radio broadcast, compare the cost of mailing a postcard to every household in the particular postal carrier route you have targeted. This way, you are paying only for those people who are your targeted audience. You are paying for a much larger audience when you go on AM radio. Why pay to reach people who will not attend your church?
Find out what it will cost to do one mailing to every household in the nearest postal carrier route to your church. Then compare this cost with one radio broadcast on the local AM radio station that is most likely to be listened to by the people in this postal carrier route. Remember, you will reach only a tiny fraction of the people in that postal carrier route by means of a radio broadcast. Most people will not listen to that radio station at the time that you schedule your broadcast. Most people will not know of the existence of your broadcast. Frankly, you need to do direct mail to promote the existence of the radio broadcast. So, you should add this to the cost of broadcasting on the radio.
If you go on the radio, be sure you offer the listener an opportunity to contact the church to receive a map. Have a local phone number with voice mail for the listener to phone and request the map. Make sure the listener understands that the number is 24x7. If your broadcast is at night, you want the call. This way, the listener is prepared to provide name & address.
When you send the map, be sure you include information on the other activities of the church. Include an ad for a CD-ROM with several practical sermons on it. Sell it for $1. Include a postage-paid envelope with a long flap that re-states the offer: Yes, I want to receive my CD-ROM with eight messages on [whatever]. I enclose $1.
Have a phone number where the person can call, 24x7, to get a 2-minute benefits-filled summary of the following Sunday's sermon. Give the highlights. Mention why each point is important. The goal is to get the person in the door on Sunday. Be sure to say when the service begins and give the address of the church, twice. Direct the person to your website, which must have a map. Mention this phone number at the beginning and the end of each broadcast.
Yes, this means the pastor must write the sermon a week in advance. Life is hard.
Radio, direct mail, or both, do not break this rule: There must be an Act Now! step. Not two. Not three. One. I think the radio broadcast should ask the listener to call the phone number for a summary of Sunday's semon. Do what you can to get the person to focus on attending the church.
Whether you select radio or direct mail as your means of evangelism, be sure you track the response. You must find out how many people walk in the door on Sunday morning as a result of your promotion. You must count the cost of this form of evangelism. Don't pay for an evangelism program that does not work as well as another evangelism program. Every dollar that you spend on a program that doesn't work is a dollar you could have spent on a program that does work.
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