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https://github.com/renddslow/flatland-digital-communications


https://github.com/renddslow/flatland-digital-communications

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README 

        
# Flatland Church Digital Communications Strategy



> Imperfect action is better than no action at all.



## Table of Contents

* [Audience](#our-audience)

	* [Non-Attenders](#non-attenders)

	* [Attenders](#attenders)

	* [Volunteers](#volunteers)

* [Channels](#channels)

	* [Web](#web)

	* [App](#app)

	* [Social Media](#social-media)

	* [Email](#email)

	* [In-Service](#in-service)

* [Projects](#projects)

	* [Top Priority](#top-priority)

	* [Processes](#processes)

	* [Tools](#tools)

	* [One Offs](#one-offs)

* Documentation

	* [Tech Stack](https://github.com/Renddslow/flatland-digital-communications/blob/master/documentation/tech-stack.md)

	* Guidelines

		* Brand Guidelines (needs development)

		* [Digital Assets](https://github.com/Renddslow/flatland-digital-communications/blob/master/documentation/guidelines/digital-assets.md)

	* Policies

		* Photos of Kids (needs development)

		* Crisis Communication Policy (needs development)

		* Communication Continuity Plan (needs development)

	* Press Kits



## Introduction

Church Communications is an ever growing, rapidly changing landscape. As a church we are seeking to move people to the center of God's Kingdom. As a department, we want to work hard to seize the 167 hours between a Sunday service to help people both in our church and the surrounding community do just that.

The following communication strategy defines our core audiences, our goals with each digital communication channel, as well as upcoming projects and links to relevant documentation.

We will regularly work to refine and update this document.



## Our Audience

At Flatland Church our biggest audience is friends and family members who are disillusioned by church and religion.

Our goal for people is to see them move closer to the center of God's kingdom, and in turn be a place that is filled with people that are filled with the Holy Spirit.

Within Digital Communications we have identified 3 core audiences that we serve with content and marketing materials. They are *Non-Attenders*, *Attenders*, *Volunteers*. Within each audience are different segments that are likely shared across one another, such as parents with children, single professionals, stay-at-home moms, etc. Our goal in marketing and communicating to each of these audiences is to move them to the next audience column. 



### Non-Attenders

A Non-Attender is someone who has never visited Flatland before, or who never went beyond Attender and has not been to Flatland in months or years.

Our primary conversion goal with a Non-Attender is to get them to attend and become a regular attender.

Primary outreach for Non-Attenders will be via Facebook and Instagram Ads, lead magnets, and email campaigns.



### Attenders

An Attender is someone who attends Flatland consistently, but is not plugged into any ministry at a volunteer level and is not giving at a tithe level.

While the bulk of this audience is cared for by the Discipleship function, we want to be working to use our resources to help Attenders become volunteers.

Our goal for this audience is to inspire them to give more of both their time and their resources to the ministry.

Primary outreach for Attenders is through in-service content, organic social media posts, blog content, and podcast content. We also want to harness email marketing to move the needle in different areas of an attender's walk (coaching, giving, classes, etc.).



### Volunteers

A Volunteer is someone who attends Flatland regularly, is involved in at least one ministry, and is giving regularly. Our primary goal for a volunteer is that they are maintaining their "volunteer" status. This means that they will receive infrequent direct outreach from digital communications as we expect they will already be receiving regular updates from their ministry team leaders.

Most outreach will be in the form of email reminders to hit the yearly goals for an attender and volunteer.



## Channels

One of the most challenging pieces of digital communication in 2017 and beyond is the ever shifting landscape of platforms and communication channels. We as a team want to be sure we are pushing the limits of emerging technology while also going deep in the platforms we are already on. 

Each channel in our product family should be used intentionally and predicatably to maintain brand identity and voice across each platform.



### Web

Web is a three-tiered platform which reaches all three of our audiences including staff. As such we want to strategically divide our efforts across web to maintain scope for each audience. 



#### Non-Attenders

Non-Attenders should consistently be routed to flatlandchurch.com as their primary interaction with us on the web channel. All lead magnets and ad landings should be flatlandchurch.com subresources, for instance all lead magnets will look like https://flatlandchurch.com/l/doubt. This creates a consistent expectation for Non-Attenders so that they are always driven toward flatlandchurch.com/visit or flatlandchurch.com/watch.



#### Attenders

Attenders should be pushed increasingly to our flatland.church family of web apps with a small handleful of call to action being Event related (flatlandchurch.com/enjoy).

Our goal here is to increase the LTV of the attender by making them account holders with more relative content being sent to them both consumable and informational. The purpose then of this segment of the platform is to better tailor their experience and understand their interests, data, and goals. The expectation being the more we have them invested in the platform, the easier it is to start convincing them to move from being an Attender to a Volunteer.



#### Volunteers

Volunteers should nearly 100% of the time be routed to our flatland.church family of web apps (or the native applications). While volunteers are likely to engage with our more consumable content, the purpose of the web platform for them is more maintenance level, such as updating giving information, tracking coaching stats, and following up with invitations (see [Projects](#tools).



### App

The app platform will primarily target an Attender, with some additional value provided to a Volunteer, especially in the `me` tab which will primarily be a native version of my.flatland.church.

The goal of the app is to encourage Attenders to become active Volunteers at Flatland Church. The key focuses are engagement, giving, and volunteering. The hope is that as they engage with the app they are inspired to participate more than consume.

A large segment of communication with Attenders will be done through the app, and as such all push notifications and updates should be made with the Attender audience in mind.



### Social Media

Social media is one of the easiest platforms to achieve mass organic reach for no cost coupled with the ability to atain a high ROI on paid posts/advertisements. 

Social media should be targeted primarily at Non-Attenders and Attenders. Equally as important as reaching the correct audience on Social Media is maintaining a consistent brand identity across the platforms.

Our goal on social is to stop the scroll.



#### Instagram

A heavy focus of our content driven digital communication should be done on Instagram. All posts should be either photos, photos with graphics, or motion graphic videos.

A few examples of people doing it great:

* [Brady Shearer of ProChurchTools](https://www.instagram.com/bradyshearer/?hl=en)

* [Elevation Youth](https://www.instagram.com/elevationyth/?hl=en)

* [Life.Church](https://www.instagram.com/life.church/?hl=en)

* [Elevation Church](https://www.instagram.com/elevationchurch/?hl=en)

* [North Point Community Church](https://www.instagram.com/northpointcommunitychurch/?hl=en)

* [Bethel](https://www.instagram.com/bethel/?hl=en)



Instagram posts should be aspirational (people enjoying life groups, baptisms, testimonies) or inspirational (worship, bible verses, salvation reports) with informational posts being classified less. The primary justification is that Instagram is a vastly more intimate experience. People engage on a personal level. The goal is that Non-Attenders especially feel that they know us better through their experience scrolling through our feed. 

Bigger announcements should be weighed before posting, and if well targeted toward Non-Attenders should be Sponsored posts.

We need to be thinking more about what we can give to our audience and less of what we can get from them.

Post types: 

* Sunday morning posts (Twice on Sunday, one before service BTS style, one during service #hype)

* Quote Posts (Two a week, picture of speaker with quote overtop, verse in the description)

* Fun Question Posts (Once a week - this should be a photo of someone in our church)

* Volunteer Spotlight (Once a week - Take a picture every single week and tell the volunteer's story)

* New Music/Staff Mixtape (Once a week - New songs we'll be singing, or staff member's playlist)

* Baptism/Testimony (Once a week when image is available)



#### Facebook

Facebook is an amazing platform to engage with large groups of people at a time. As the platform expands, there are opportunities to go deep in our use of the platform, from Facebook stories to Facebook live. 

Facebook is far more flexible in the types of posts that we should be posting, as our primary reach for Facebook posts should be Attenders who are already following us. 

However as we build out our lead magnets, we want to work to target Non-Attenders through Facebook Ads.

The church is uniquely equipped to provide advice and coaching in areas of parenting, marriage, and finances. Content that we provide should fall into one of those 3 categories.



* Facebook Live from Bart (Three times per week, post sermon, marriage monday, family friday)

* Quote posts

* Videos (sermon videos, worship, content)



#### Other Platforms

At this stage our primary focus should be building up our presence on Facebook and Instagram. We are far more likely to achieve a higher ROI if we go deep on those two instead of going wide and trying to hit every single platform.

As we build a solid strategy and schedule, we will look to expand to existing and up-and-coming platforms.



### Email

Email is the secret sauce of our communication strategy. Email manages to communicate directly with people right where they are. What we want to harness is automated email segmentation and processes to follow up with people based on interest and audience.



#### Non-Attender

One of our big goals is to reach Non-Attenders and work to convert them to a regular Attender. 

- Lead magnets bring them in

- Emails keep them

- Consitency converts them



### In-Service

In Service announcements are for attenders and should all point to flatland.church. Sharing should be flatlandchurch.com.



## Projects

As with any digital project there are about a million opportunities and projects we could be pursuing and working on. However, ultimately our primary focus should be seeing people move to the center of God's kingdom. At a more granular level, all projects should be weighed from the perspective of does it help move an audience member to the next level. Anything else should be considered a nice-to-have for the time being until we are ready to advance further.



### Top Priority

| # | Project Name | Version | Justification | Timeline 🕑  |

| --- | -------------- | --------------- | ---- | --- |

| 0 | Easter & Mother's Day Marketing | v1 | We want to market directly to people, specifically mother's and families, to encourage them to visit Flatland over Easter and Mother's Day. This is a multi-team initiative that includes static landing pages, an email campaign, and PPC marketing. | March 2017 |

| 1 | Giving & my.flatland.church | v1 | We want to decrease the amount of friction that it requires to give at Flatland. One of the best ways to do that is to bring Giving to the main flatlandchurch.com site. With that however we will need to launch a piece for people to manage their cards and recurring giving. This will be managed through my.flatland.church/giving. | November |

| 2 | Missions | v1 | We want to work to boost our global missions department and provide relevant information to people looking to get involved directly or financially with missions. | March 2018 |

| 3 | Navigation Project | v2 | The navigation of the site needs some level of overhaul the Homes of Influence initiative needing more light on the site. We also want to account for missions. All this should be done while not heavily impacting our current IA or SEO. | March 2018 |

| 4 | Email Marketing Strategy | | We want to be far more strategic in the way that we reach people via their inboxes. It is important as we increase velocity that we make this a high priority to have regular consistent content coming to people's inboxes, as well as automated sequences to move people to the next level | December 17 |



### Processes

| Title | Due | Priority |

| ----- | --- | -------- |

| Crisis Communication Plan | Jan 2018 | !! |

| Information Delivery Strategy | Jan 2018 | ! |



### Tools

| # | Project Name | Description |

| --- | --- | --- |

| 0 | Salesforce | Setting up a demo application with Salesforce to act as Flatland's ChMS. |



### One Offs

There are no one-off projects defined right now.