This spring, over fifty churches from across three East Coast Conferences participated in the Living with Hope event. This initiative was a new venture for SermonView; to see if we could apply our in-depth marketing strategies to a multi-church event and still see a good turnout. Add in the fact that the Chesapeake and Potomac areas are a very challenging area of the nation to reach with evangelism, and we knew that this series of events would be a true test.
We worked closely with the Union and Conference leaders to develop a strategy and core artwork. We developed two covers for two different types of demographic environments. As part of the package we made sure to put all of the tracking systems in place to determine the effectiveness of the effort in driving people through church doors. Once the numbers were in we were excited to start sorting through the data. What we found was exciting and will help us all reach more people with a message of hope.
Initial Findings:
Here are a few data points we were able to extract
Churches that offered child care got better response rates: There was a clear 10% increase in attendance for churches in similar demographics that added child care to their meetings.
The subject of your covers matter: This is less about the idea that the cover image matters, as much as what the covers says. We have been testing demographics in connection with subjects. There is a strong correlation between demographic modifiers–like percentage of religious affiliates, national voting record, and average income–in determining which theme is best for your meetings. Of course, the subject needs to be in alignment with your message and we never want to bait-and-switch. However, if there is flexibility in your meeting order and topics, then we can give you great advise to reach more people.
We are excited to continue to work through over 2 million pieces of data to start to pull out trends that we can use to be more effective with our marketing budgets. We will be releasing a complete report this Winter and would love to send you a copy.