Ministry Video Marketing
As I wrote yesterday, the relevance of YouTube in our culture compels us as church leaders to utilize this media to promote our ministry. Video can “speak” to people in ways that audio or print cannot.
Why Video
- People are visual learners.
- Video is more personal.
- Video is more active.
Video Value
The real value in integrating video into your ministry web site from a marketing perspective is the way it can capture the character of your ministry. It can show the humanity, passion, and relevance of what your ministry does to meet the needs people have.
It is no longer acceptable in 2010 for your church web site to be a static online brochure. It needs to captivate the attention of the visitor and draw them into taking action. The desired action of course is that they will initially respond by making the inaugural visit to your church.
If you are to effectively leverage the medium of video, I would like to suggest that every church should create a short introductory/invitation video that resides on the homepage of the web site. Having a video created that highlights the mission and vision of the church in practical applied language and terms is key to catching the attention of the first-time visitor. If you can show them your mission in action and extend a heartfelt and passionate invitation to them to come check you out, I think video can facilitate that in a way that no amount of text or imagery can.
Time-lines are Critical
I would caution every ministry to carefully and strategically script the video and to keep it tight and focused. By tight, I mean 30-45 seconds. Remember, your visitor has a short attention span and will not likely be compelled to watch a 4-6 minute mini-movie. I actually went searching through YouTube for some good samples, hoping I could show you one that exuded excellence and kept it tight. Sadly, after 45 minutes of searching, most of what I found was either so poorly scripted and produced or 5-8 minute in length and as a result just lost steam from the word go.
You don’t want to do too much in this process. You want to capture the essence of your ministry and whet the appetite so people will come explore what your community offers of relevance to them and their family.
So, what do you think, would you agree with utilizing short, focused, strategic YouTube video as a marketing tool for churches? Do you have any examples of ones you have seen done that you could share?
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