Taylor Memorial UMC 4th Annual Pre-Thanksgiving Meal Campaign
On Sunday November 18, 2018, Taylor Memorial United Methodist Church, under the leadership of Pastor Anthony Jenkins Sr. hosted its 4th annual Free Pre-Thanksgiving Meal in Oakland, California. The event was a smashing success and the goal of the event was reached, with over 1,000 free meals served to those in attendance.
Often, church administrations face numerous challenges when it comes to broadcasting a message to congregation members and the general public. The good news is that by adopting a marketing strategy and using multiple platforms to get the message across, your church can increase not only post engagement, but page likes and new congregation members.
The Pre-Thanksgiving event’s goal needed to be accomplished within a limited timeframe, and the strategy involved a targeted marketing campaign that combined several different platforms to spread the message across Oakland and the surrounding area.
Read more about how you can adopt these strategies to host a similar event, in a short period of time and with a very small budget.
About the Event and Challenge
The Pre-Thanksgiving meal event is an annual event hosted by Taylor Memorial UMC every year to do its part in tackling the issue of homelessness in Oakland and the surrounding Alameda area. The challenge for this campaign was to reach a large number of people with a limited timeframe and budget, as we had only two weeks to get the message across.
To tackle the challenge, you should develop a marketing strategy that involves a little bit of research as to what platforms your audience uses most, who your target audience actually is, and the message that you’re trying to convey. For example, Taylor UMC’s strategy involved identifying relevant audience and reaching the people who would be most interested most in the event. To do this, the church used Facebook ads, Event Brite, and press releases to inform their target audience about the event.
You can choose different platforms based on the behavior of your congregation, or who you’d like to target. For example, of you’re looking to attract youth to your event, you can use Instagram, or even Snapchat. Since Taylor’s audience mostly used Facebook, it made the most impact there – and yielded fantastic results.
Structure and Strategy
- Eventbrite.com
- Press Release
Eventbrite.com
The first strategy included creating an event on EventBrite.com. You can use Eventbrite regardless of whether you have a paid or free admission, and it can be one way in which you can market your event to the public.
Eventbrite has promotional tools that churches like yours can use, and it can be used to link the event to some social media platforms, like Facebook for example. Taylor uses Eventbrite to market several different events, and you can follow a similar strategy and monitor whether the event you are marketing is reaching people through that platform.
The event saw the most interactions and reach with the targeted Facebook ad campaign that was established for the event. With a budget of $391.84, the posts reached thousands of people over a two-week period. For churches like yours, these percentages are invaluable and may help you increase your reach and congregation members.
Frankly speaking, and despite the budget constraints that plague many a church nowadays, one must consider taking the paid advertisement route because they do lead to results. The church budget does not have to be a lot, but make sure you are targeting the right people, and interact with those who ask questions on posts.
For this event, Taylor UMC marketed the ads to the relevant target audience of the church, and in a matter of hours the post started gaining traction and engagement. At the end of the campaign, the engagement levels of the page increased by 660% with 2,043 engagements. The interactions on the Facebook ad were overwhelmingly positive and comments and shares started to pour in. Facebook admins for the church responded to each and every comment or query that was made on the post, and they also invited every individual who interacted to like the Taylor Memorial UMC Facebook page. Do not underestimate the power of inviting people to like your page. Although it is a manual process, if churches serious about growing their audience on Facebook, this is the way to go. Although as a standalone action, it certainly isn’t the only way to get page likes but it is an often overlooked part of the process. At the end of this campaign, the event reached a total of 15,758 people with 20,100 impressions and 1,603 post interactions, increasing Taylor UMC’s Facebook followers by 8,100%.
Your church can benefit from percentages such as these, and even more. It all depends on how you manage your marketing campaign and how you respond to those who express interest in or interact with your page.
Press Release
Press releases are still an important part of a marketing strategy, and especially one that is aimed towards benefitting the community and helping those in need. For churches in particular, they can be helpful because they increase coverage for your events and make the general public aware of your activities. PR Bonus – 5 Free eBooks ($67 Value)
By plugging in a press release through erelease.com, details of the Pre-Thanksgiving event were blasted to several local news stations and event websites that expressed interest in the event. As a result of the press release, a number of local news channels and online event sites covered the event live while other platforms broadcasted the activities of the church through blog posts.
Results
The Pre-Thanksgiving Meal event marketed and promoted by Taylor Memorial United Methodist Church was able to serve 1,000 meals to those in attendance and helped those in need.
Imagine what your church can do if it applies a targeted marketing campaign that is focused on attracting as many relevant people as possible. It doesn’t take a lot of money or time, but the results your campaign can yield are invaluable and can be an incentive for people to be more involved in your church. Taylor UMC’s Facebook page experienced a whopping 11,762% increase in the number of people it usually reaches and its pageviews increased by 129%.
All of this was accomplished with a relatively small budget, and in a short period of time. Using a marketing strategy and with a purpose that helps the community, churches can use several different platforms to gain followers and spread their message to their target audience, increasing followers, fans, and congregation members at the same time.
