What is the Best Way to Spend Our Church Advertising Dollars?

I got a great question from Pastor Greg with the soon to be launched Living Water Church in Pueblo:

We are starting a new church this fall. I am wondering what is the best way to spend our advertising dollars. I want to drive people to our website. Any suggestions?

I love this question! There are no shortage of ways to part with your marketing budget whether you are a new church or a new business.  People will promise you everything under the sun, so you have to be very wise about your ad spend.

Well, here are my recommendations for you, Greg:

1. Sandwich Boards

Without a doubt, the very first thing I would invest in are sandwich boards.  A well placed army of church signboards will bring you thousands of eyeballs every weekend. I just published a post with a more detailed plan how to do church sandwich boards.

So how does this get people to your website?  We live in a world of mobile search.  Splash your name out there and the church shoppers will type in your name on their phone to learn more about you.

2. Google Adwords

This is the only other paid recommendation I'll give you.  If you set up Google Adwords properly, it's hard to find a more targeted way to advertise.  Your ads will appear on Google anytime somebody in a geography that you specify (only show my ad to people in City A, City B, and City C) types in a matching search term ("church in City A").

This is a big enough topic that it got it's own blog post.  Learn how to do Google AdWords for church marketing.

3. Craigslist Event Ads

This is the quickest way to cheat your way to the page one search results. By listing your church service as a weekly event on Craigslist, odds are good you'll sneak right in to the local Google search results.  

Learn how to do a Craigslist Event ad.

4. Blogging

The long term strategy you need to apply is blogging.  Building out pages and pages of content that continuously remind Google that you are a "Church in Pueblo" are a necessity.

The most natural way that we've found to do that is by writing a blog re-cap of our sermon every week.  It takes some time to build SEO momentum, but eventually your church has loads of pages that make it crystal clear to Google what you do, where you are, and that your website is active and alive!

Here is a plan to recycle your weekly sermon for SEO power.

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So there you have it, Greg. These are my top four suggestions on where to focus your time and efforts.  I hope you guys rock it down in Pueblo!  

Feel free to reply to this post with any questions or just use the form on the right side of this page.

Sandwich Boards for Church Marketing

Without a doubt, as a church plant the very first thing I would invest in are sandwich boards.  I am a huge fan and advocate of online marketing, but there simply isn't any way to beat the impact of thousands of cars driving by your sign on Sunday morning.  When I was in "church shopping" mode, I would get really excited when I saw a new signboard out for a church because it gave me hope that this new church might be the one!

What to Print on the Sign

The messaging on the sandwich board should be kept really simple:

• Name of your church (In big letters that can be read at 40 mph!)
• Directional arrow
• Church website

That's all. No slogans, no pictures.  Just keep it very simple.

What makes these signs so powerful is the number of Google searches that are happening on cell phones now.  This marketing tact is the perfect blend of old school and new school to grow your church.

How Many Signs Should We Buy?

I would recommend purchasing 5-10 signboards for church marketing.  These signs are not just to help lost people, you need to keep your marketing focus! You want to map out the busiest intersections that are near your church and place your signs where the most cars are going to pass them by.  

Before purchasing our signboards, I actually went out and drew a map of all of the places we were going to place them.  It was important to know how many we needed and which way the arrows should point.

We make sure that with our sign placements they never block a sidewalk or impede on a business.

When Should They Be Up?

I do not recommend leaving these signs up for very long.  Our strategy is to put them up before our first service and take them down after our last service.  It isn't 24/7 coverage, but this way we don't wear out our welcome in the community.

Placing signs is a shared responsibility because doing this can be pretty time consuming. For example, I have a single sign that sits near a very busy intersection about 3/4 of a mile from the church. I just keep that sign in my trunk and own the responsibility.

How to Market a House Church

I was recently contacted by Jeff Zak in Nelson, BC with some questions on how to market a house church that he is going to plant in 2014.

In this article, I am going to write out some marketing ideas that are specific to Jeff's upcoming  H.O.P.E. International Church, but wanted to share these ideas in the form of a public blog for any other church planting pastors that might be in a similar situation.

How to Market a House Church

The first question to pop in my head when Jeff contacted me was: "What in the heck is a house church?" I've been going to a variety of churches all my life and didn't really even know this option existed. It seemed like more of a movement one might find in countries where Christianity isn't allowed.  Hopefully, my ignorance on this style of worship will serve as a good reminder that the idea of a house church might be completely foreign (and a bit scary!) to many people.

There are two key elements that come to my mind when developing a marketing plan this house church:

• Geography - Nelson, British Columbia is a small town of 10,000 people and is geographically isolated.  That means Jeff is going to have a much easier time ranking in the search engines then someone who lives in a major metropolitan area like Seattle or Vancouver, but also means he has a very small pool of people to draw from.
• Awareness - One of Jeff's biggest challenges is going to be to find ways to answer the "what the heck is a house church?" question so people feel comfortable with the setting, teachings, and people.

To get  H.O.P.E. International Church off the church, I am recommending a fairly lightweight marketing plan that involves:

• Blogging
• Social Media

Blogging

I believe that the marketing plan you lay out should always fall in line with your strengths and avoid your weaknesses. It should be a natural extension of who you are in order to sound authentic.

In my email interactions with Jeff, the first thing I noticed is that he would answer my questions with long, eloquent, and well thought out emails.  He obviously has a gift for expressing himself through writing so blogging is the number one area I would advise that he spend his marketing time.

Blogging as a house church pastor is really quite simple.  Any time somebody asks you a meaty question about your church, you should take the time to write it out in a blog post.  As an example, my first questions to Jeff were:

1. Is this biblically based?
2. This isn't some strange cult, is it?
3. Would I feel comfortable in a situation like this or are the people complete oddballs?

Jeff came back with wonderfully worded answers to my questions.  Translated into a blogging context, if Jeff also took the time to write those answers in the form of several blog posts on his website he would have an ongoing resource that can be:

1. Shared with others who ask those same questions in the future
2. Viewed by people visiting his website who aren't going to ask him directly
3. Digested by the search engines so his church ranks in the Google search results over time.  
4. Used as a resource by other house church planting pastors around the world

The time investment really isn't that much greater than what it takes to write an email and each thought can reach a far broader audience.

As for the technical mechanics, just about every website out there has an easy blog plug-in that you can use. Create this resource directly on your website to help build up SEO value.  For example, the website address would look like http://YourChurchWebsite.com/blog/WhatIsAHouseChurch.

Social Media

The second core marketing ingredient I would recommend in a situation like Jeff's is social media. Specifically:

• Facebook as a person - Yes
• Facebook church page - No
• Facebook group - No
• Twitter - Maybe (only if he enjoys Twitter)
• Pinterest - No
• LinkedIn - No
• Google+ - No
• YouTube - No

Jeff is planting a small church in a small community, so the smartest thing he can do is to use his personal profile on Facebook to really let people know who he is and to connect personally with as many people in the community as possible.  Building those initial relationships will give him the ability to mention his house church in person when the time is right.

From a "what to share" perspective, I would really focus on the personal stuff.  

• Pictures of the family doing fun things
• His hobbies
• Checking in at local events
• Pictures of his house church friends at a backyard BBQ
• Service projects he is involved in

Even more important than talking about himself is a focused effort to "friend" every person he meets in Nelson and engage on the things they post on Facebook. Leave a comment, "Like" what they say, etc. Facebook is a place where Jeff can show that he is a likable and normal guy.

On the flip side, if Jeff were to use his personal Facebook account for these kind of posts people are going to tune him out:

• Sharing political and religious articles, memes, statements, etc
• Promoting his blog posts
• Promoting his church ("Join us at 9am tomorrow morning..."

People aren't on Facebook to learn about your personal view points. They are there for some lightweight entertainment and to build personal connections with people.

Summary

The key to a good house church marketing plan is to get answers to people's questions prepared and shared. There is a passion and energy driving you towards taking the step of planting a house church that needs to find it's way out of your head and on to the internet!

Easter Marketing Plan for your Church

Easter is right around the around corner! In this article, I am going to teach you an inexpensive online marketing plan focused on the Easter holiday to get you in front of church shoppers.

03/29/14 Progress Report!!!
Check out this screenshot I just took to see how things are working so far on the Easter Marketing Plan described in this blog post.  Our tiny church has the top SIX organic (free) results on the page!

Google Search: "Easter Church Woodinville"

Don't be overwhelmed!! This plan is a buffet, you can pick what you want if some of these items aren't quite in reach for you yet.  This is the Easter marketing plan we are going to use at our small church so I promise that everything I write in here is completely doable.

Should I Advertise My Church with Google AdWords?

Did you know that people are out there looking for a church on Google? They aren’t waiting to be invited by a neighbor or to receive a catchy postcard in the mail… they WANT and NEED a church now and are asking Google what their options are.

For church planting pastors, one of the fastest ways to get in front of people who are looking for a Christian Church is by using Google AdWords. Also known as pay-per-click advertising and search engine marketing (SEM), this strategy allows you to pay for placement above or next to the organic search results on Google. 

As an example, if I were to head to Google and type in "Dentist" I would see all of these local dentists competing for my business.  The same principle can be used towards church marketing.

It Makes Sense to Buy Google Ads for Church Marketing 

Here are four reasons why I would encourage every church plant to use pay-per-click advertising on Google as part of their marketing strategy.

1. It Immediately Gets You to Page 1 on Google - If you are a new church (or business for that matter), Google might not recognize your website for quite some time.  Getting your website ranked is a long-term process that can be built through strategies like a weekly sermon blog. You need results now, so it is smarter to buy your way in to the search results.
2. Reach Church Shoppers at the Perfect Time - Your message reaches people who are actively looking for a church this weekend! You can't ask for better targeting than that.
3. Cost Effective Advertising - If you follow the campaign recommendations provided below, this can be done at a pretty reasonable price. Set budget limits and you won't need to worry about this.
4. Easy Ramp Up for Christmas, Easter, and Other Events - You can quickly change your ad copy and increase your spend when needed.

How Much Will Google Ads Cost my Church? 

Google will charge you every time somebody clicks on one of your ads (pay-per-click). You don't pay every time somebody sees your ad (CPM), which is a very good thing.

The ads are served up on a bidding system. The more you pay, the more likely you are to show up near the top. Our church is in the Seattle suburbs and pays an average of $1.50 - $2.50 per click. There aren't too many churches paying Google for ads in our area, so this is relatively inexpensive. Your price will depend on the competition in your area.

We are currently seeing about 20-50 clicks per month to our website.  As a church plant with only a couple hundred regular attendees, those are very exciting numbers for us!

 

Building Your Church Ad on Google AdWords

Your ads on Google simply consist of a headline and two lines of text. You don't need a graphic designer or outside experts to make a big impact on Google.

Here are some design tips that we've learned:

• For the title, use the name of your church. It will build up your brand name even if they don't click the ad right now. 
• Include the city/state where your church is located.
• Include the word "church" in the body. 
• Advanced Tip: Experiment with "Ad Extensions" to include links to your website, address, phone number or reviews to really make your ad stand out.

Don't over think these ads. If they are looking for a church in Woodinville, and they see an ad for a church in Woodinville, there is a really good shot they will give you a peak.

Where Does Your Ad Take Them?

While the ad copy isn't wildly important, the website that they land on is! You can find a church plant website checklist if you are just getting started with your website. Send these visitors straight to your home page, but make sure you have key information that church shoppers are looking for so they can decide if your church meets their basic needs before visiting.

Google AdWords Campaign Settings

Pay attention! This is the section that will keep you from blowing your entire annual monthly marketing budget on a silly mistake. To make my point, here is a screenshot I took this morning showing two churches that are over 3,000 miles away with ads appearing near Seattle.




While Google AdWords is very easy to set up, it is also easy to screw up. Here are my recommendations for your campaign settings to keep your church budget safe!

Location
Add locations by zip code. Only include zip codes of people who would realistically drive to your church every week.

Google will only serve your ads to people whose computer or phone are located in those zip codes. This is your safety valve to make sure your ads don't appear to people 1,000 miles away.

Keywords
People are going to look for the word "church". That is your number one keyword to utilize.

If you want to get fancier, you can apply a "phrase match" on the keywords listed below to target your search even further. Often, these longer search terms will cost you less money.

church in, christian church, christian churches, church directory, christian, churches near me, churches near, find church, family church, best church, churches near me, the new church, find churches, new churches, church near me, new church, christians church, evangelical churches, list of churches, finding a church, church search, church locator, list of christian churches

I also found that by adding some "negative match" keywords, we were able to lower the amount of ads delivered to people who aren't very likely to visit our small evangelical church.

catholic, lds, mormon

Budget Settings
Set a maximum daily budget to keep your spend under control. I would recommend $10-$15 per day, knowing that is unlikely that a small church plant won't hit the daily maximum very often.

When you set up your campaign, Google will also ask you which bid strategy you want to use. I prefer to select manual CPC bidding, which means I tell Google how much I am willing to pay for each click on each keyword.

More Campaign Settings
There are tons of other options in AdWords that you can learn with experience, but the three areas mentioned above (location, keywords, budget) are all you need to worry about out of the gates.

Keep in mind that Google is a multi-kajillion dollar company filled with really smart people who are paid to get your advertising dollars. When you see suggestions, tips, and other news from Google encouraging you to try new things with your ads, proceed with extreme caution!

Tracking Your Results

When you first start up your account, you should be logging in a few times each week to check your stats and make tweaks to your account.

If you're not getting many clicks:

• Check your bids. They are probably too low. You have to pay to play on Google.
• Read your ad copy. Would a church shopper want to click it?

If you're getting too many clicks:

• Check your locations. You might be paying for a nationwide ad campaign.
• Check your keywords to make sure they aren't too broad. If you live in Falls Church, VA, that "church" keyword is going to rack up a huge bill and need to be modified.

Summary

Would you pay $2 to get a church shopper to check out your website?  So would we!

Google AdWords for pay-per-click advertising is a great move for church plant marketing. Just make sure you have a volunteer or staffer who takes the time to understand the Google AdWords system, checks in regularly on your ad campaigns, and doesn't fall prey to Google's upsell tactics!

You are welcome to leave any questions you have on PPC advertising on this post. This topic is far too heavy for a single blog post so please let me know if there are specific areas you are struggling with.

Powerful Content Marketing Using Your Weekly Sermon

Think about how much time you spend every week researching, organizing, and writing your sermon. Most full-grown adults haven't written a term paper since college, but as a church planting pastor you are on the hook to write one every single week!

So, what happens to that amazing resource and all of your hard work come Monday morning?  In this article, I am going to explain how to convert your sermon into an online marketing powerhouse that will drive people to your church website for years to come.

Why the Sermon is Your Best Content Marketing Tool

Converting your sermon into a blog post, video, and podcast is going to require about 2 hours of work every week.  Here is why that 2 hours is time well spent.

• SEO Value - Consistently adding good, meaty, and relevant content to your website is a great indicator to the search engines that your church is healthy and should be served up in the search results.
• Members - Your church members know that every week they can find the recording and discussion notes consistently on your website.
• Church Shoppers - When somebody is looking for a church, you want to know if the sermons are any good. (Learn more about what church shoppers need from your website)
• Seekers - There are people all around the world with questions about faith and living a life with Jesus. Why limit your sermon locally?
• Social Channels - You are able to deliver excellent content and build clout through your Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and YouTube channels. 

Convert Your Sermon Into Ongoing Marketing Content

This section is all about how to convert your sermon into great content that will help to market your church plant. Every week your goal is to have three new pieces of content from your sermon:

1. A Blog Post on your church website
2. A Video Sermon loaded to your church YouTube channel
3. An Audio Sermon Podcast loaded to your on your Podcast Channel

The principles in this section are based on what we are doing at Imprint Church in Woodinville WA. Our team consists of our pastor, the writer (that's me), and the Videographer.

Marketing Your Sermon Content

Posting your blog to your website and your video to YouTube is not the end of the process! To really build up momentum around your content, you need to seed it in several additional places.

I would recommend setting up a weekly routine that includes ALL of the following activities.

Facebook
Share a link to the blog post on your Church Facebook Page on the Monday after the sermon. The goal is to get your members to like, comment on, or share this content so their friends can see it.

Twitter
Schedule 2-3 tweets for the week that include one of the highlights from the sermon, a link back to the blog post, and a #hashtag with the name of your city or area. The goal here is to connect with local church shoppers.

Google+
Share the blog post on Google+ from either a page set up for your church or from your personal account. Include a #hashtag with your city name. The goal is to send Google SEO signals so they rank your site higher.

Church Website Links

Make sure people who attend your church can find the content on your website. At Imprint Church, we have a Sermon Series Page that links to to the blog posts for all of our past sermons.  We also utilize a Recent Posts feed available from WordPress in the sidebar on every page.

How to Write Your Sermon Blog Post

Before Church

Our process starts about 2 hours before church on Sunday morning. The pastor sends me his sermon as a Word Doc to read before getting to church. This helps me to start thinking about good ideas for titles and themes in the blog I will write later that day. I print the sermon out, read it, highlight important points, and drop it in a 3-ring binder to bring to church.

During Church

During the sermon, I sit down with my highlighter, pen, cell phone, and sermon notes and start marking the notes up as follows:

• Timings - My cell phone with a stop watch is running throughout the sermon. I mark the mm:ss as he begins every paragraph in the sermon.
• Highlighting - I'm listening for specific ideas that the pastor really emphasizes or that I think people will connect with later.
• Notes - I write reminders for later on content that would make for a great blog title, blog content, tweet, Facebook share, etc.  My goal is to not have to read the entire sermon again later on.

Coordinating With Our Videographer

Our volunteer videographer has the job of

1. Recording the sermon on camera
2. Editing the video
3. Producing it as a video file and an audio file
4. Uploading the files to our YouTube channel and to our Podcast site. 

Immediately after church, I walk back to our video guy with a note saying when to start and stop the recording. We remove any announcements from the beginning and any church-specific talk from the end. Only the sermon is included in the final product.

Later in the day, after having written the sermon blog post, I send our video guy a title and description for YouTube and a separate title and description for the audio Podcast. The YouTube title always end with "Imprint Church in Woodinville".  I want Google to see that phrase Church in Woodinville over and over again in everything I publish.

Structure of the Sermon Blog Post

Let's walk through the elements to include in your sermon blog post.  Here is a template of what your weekly blog post can look like:

Title
Make your title catchy. That way, when you post this blog to social media people are enticed to click on it. For example, instead of using "Sermon on Jonah", try a title like "Running from God".

Subtitle
Write 1-2 sentences on why this content is going to be interesting for your reader.  This is your hook. Make the subtitle visibly stand out by applying the subheader style or an H1 style.

Summary
Provide 2-3 paragraphs on the key theme of the sermon.  Give the whole message away right here! Don't  force them to watch the recording if they don't have time.

Key Points
Using bullets, share the highlights and key phrases from the sermon. Include the approximate time in the recording where they can learn more about that specific point. (mm:ss)

Sermon Recording
Provide a link to the podcast if they want to download the audio. Embed the YouTube video directly on this page.

Discussion Questions
If you provide questions for your community groups type them in here. In our church, these are written in advance by the pastor.

Prayer Ideas
Give people 2-3 ideas on how they can pray this week based on what they learned in this message. These prayer ideas are also written by the pastor.

SEO on Sermon Blog Posts

When writing your blog post, don't forget the basics of Search Engine Optimization.  This is important if you want your content to start ranking on Google and building up the value of your website. SEO on these pages is fairly simple... just sprinkle in local geographic terms like your city, neighboring towns, and regional nicknames (eg Seattle Eastside).  Google will know that you are a church over time, but it is vital that they understand WHERE you are located.

I recommend including two geographic references per blog post and always using them in an appropriate context. Here are some examples

• "This week at Imprint Church in Woodinville we learned about..."
• "Here are the discussion questions for our church community groups that meet up around Bothell, Redmond, and Woodinville..."

 

How Do I Know If This is Working?

There are two free tools that I like to use to track the analytics on our marketing... YouTube and Google Analytics. Sometimes, you just need to see these numbers to affirm that the time you spend on your marketing is worthwhile!

YouTube Analytics
The metrics on YouTube can be quite interesting. As you consistently add videos week after week, the momentum build up pretty fast.  The image below is a 30-day report for Imprint Church.

This is after 15 months as a church plant. We are pretty consistent about posting a sermon trailer video and the recorded sermon every week, so there are about 110 videos on our channel driving these numbers.

Google Analytics
The other impact you'll see with a content marketing plan like this is increased traffic on your website.  Most of the people visiting your website will  never set foot in your church, but one of the factors Google uses to evaluate your church website for SEO is the amount of traffic you receive. This is an indicator that people find your content interesting and engaging.

Here is another 30-day report for Imprint Church that shows the what kind of traffic we are seeing on our website. 

Summary

This was a pretty long post, you get a gold star if you're actually still reading this! Here are the key take-aways.

1. Don't throw away that sermon on Monday morning, you spend far too much time writing it.
2. Convert the sermon into a long term resource that members of your church, church shoppers, and people with questions about their faith can discover and use.
3. Leverage that sermon content as a powerful marketing tool to build your church plant.

If you found this post helpful, please share it with one other church planting pastor.  I am happy to answer any questions you have in the comments section below.

Craigslist Event Ads to Rank Your Church Plant on Google

Creating a weekly event for your small church service on Craigslist is a way that we've discovered to "cheat" traditional website SEO and rank in the search engines.

This is one of those crazy marketing tricks that seems a little bit too good to be true. Here is a screenshot just so you believe me.

On the morning I took this screenshot, our ad was appearing on page 3 of Google, but there have been quite a few times that I've seen these roll up on page one.  One other fun note for us church planting types... notice that directly above our ad are a huge local Catholic church and one of the mega churches nearby.  Creating an event on Craigslist basically gives you a free pass when it comes to SEO!

It is impossible to tell how long this quirk will last.  If there are any marketing nerds out there, I suspect that it has to do with the new schema.org markup Google is relying on and how well Craigslist structures the data that you send to their site.

Will This Get People to my Church Plant?

Here is what I learned as a church shopper.  Sunday morning comes and you feel lost because you still haven't found a church to call home. You've visited quite a few churches.  So you head to Google to see if there any other local churches you might have missed. What you desperately want to find is that "diamond in the rough" that you missed on the first pass.  This is where I believe your church plant comes in.

Hear me on this... from a pure website analytics standpoint, you won't generate many direct clicks to your website from a Craigslist ad. However, the people that do find your ad on Google are the ones who really need a church to call home. 

Church plant marketing boils down to this... if a person in your area is looking for a church, they 1) have to be able to find you through a Google search and 2) need to be able to learn enough about your church to know that you are safe to visit.

How to Build Your Craigslist Event Ad

These ads are wildly simple to build, but the really exciting part is that once taken the 10 minutes to build the ad, you can simply "repost" it week after week in under one minute.

1. Log into Craigslist at https://accounts.craigslist.org/ (create an account using your church email address if you don't have one)
2. Create a new posting. If you are logged in, look for a box that says "new posting in:" near the upper right corner
3. Under "What Type of Posting?", select Event
4. Under "Categories", choose Events
5. Choose the proper location

Now let's talk about the details of the ad itself.  The Google search you are trying to win is "church in CITYNAME". I'm going to use "church in Woodinville" in this example.

• Event Start/End Date - Obvious
• Contact Info - I never include an email address for people to reply to, I suspect it will just create a bunch of spam. A link to our church is on the ad.
• Title - Church in Woodinville
• Location - Woodinville, WA
• Zip Code - Obvious
• Body
• The first sentence is what will show up as the description in the Google search result. Don't forget your city/state here.  Here is what we use: "Imprint Church is a non-denominational Christian church in Woodinville that was planted in the fall of 2012."
• The remaining content should tell them what to expect if they come and visit you. These are a lot of the same talking points I laid out What to Include on a Church Plant Website.
• ok for others to contact you about other services, products or commercial interests

Photos in Your Church Event Ad

Once you build the basic ad, you are going to be asked to add photos. DO IT!  I want you to include pictures of:

• People worshiping in your church (this is the primary photo)
• A kid happily enjoying Sunday School (with the parent's permission)
• Adults hanging out and talking

As a tip, upload photos that are all the same size and oriented horizontally.  If you add wide landscape photos and tall vertial photos, it makes your ad look wonky.

Publish the Craigslist Ad

Once you've moved through those two basic setup steps, you can publish the ad.  For newer accounts, Craigslist tends to make you respond to an email confirmation before they will actually put the ad online. Make sure you don't miss that small step.

And Now the Easy Part... Reposting

This is the thing that I love about Craigslist... reposting your ad is free, fast, and easy.  Just log into your account and click "repost" next to your expired ad.  All you need to do is change the date each week and recycle this ad over and over again.  Who said marketing can't be easy?

I would recommend making this an activity that is performed every Monday by a volunteer in your church. 

Summarizing this Post

Craigslist events are free to create and seem to be beating out traditional website SEO right now.  All you need to do is build the initial ad and set a reminder to repost it once a week.

Nobody is going to be on Craigslist looking for a church service. This is all about appearing in the search engine results.

Make sure you verify that this trick works in your local area by searching on Google a day after you post the ad to make sure it still shows up.