When people consider inviting a friend to church, the biggest questions on their mind is, "Who is giving the sermon this weekend and what are they going to talk about?"
Inviting a friend, co-worker, or neighbor to church is a big step outside of many people's comfort zone. What if that person finally sets foot in a church only to find out that this week is the "money talk" or a sermon by a guest pastor who doesn't nail the message like your normal pastor does?
As a church planting pastor, a great strategy that you can adopt to take some of that fear out of bringing new people to church is to create a 1-minute weekly video to tell people what you are teaching this Sunday.
In fact, creating a quick weekly sermon trailer can help you in a variety of ways:
- Members of your church are more confident inviting new people to church.
- If someone finds your church online and is considering a visit, they know exactly what they are going to get. (This is a very good thing)
- It is a great connection point for people who have only attended 2 or 3 services and are still in the process of evaluating your church.
- It builds great content to share across your different social networks. (Facebook, Twitter, Google+, YouTube)
- Builds authority for your church on Google, thereby increasing your odds of showing up in the search results.
What Should I Say in the Sermon Trailer Video?
First and foremost, don't say too much! These videos should be about 1-minute in length.I recommend these key talking points every week:
- Start with a question - "Have you ever wondered why...", "What would happen if....", "Has there been a time in your life..."
- What you're teaching on Sunday - "This week at ABC church in CITYNAME, we are going to look at what the bible has to say about..."
- What will they get out of it? - "My hope is that you'll walk away with a better understanding of how God can..."
- Invitation - "We invite you to join us this Sunday at ABC church as we dive into this important topic."
Filming Your Weekly Sermon Trailer Video
I recommend filming your weekly sermon trailer using your phone or the camera built into your laptop. There isn't need for exotic locations, a production crew or video editing... just have a basic script ready in your head and talk for 30-60 seconds. The only quality needed is to make that your audio comes through loud and clear (don't film yourself outside on a windy day or next to the highway and you're good to go!).
Remember who you are! A small local church plant is a wonderful thing and is an important part of what draws people to you. A video where you trip up in the middle or the camera shakes a bit or your kids run across the background is AUTHENTIC. An authentic pastor is someone church shoppers can connect with.
Your produced video should be uploaded to YouTube. There are other great services out there like Vimeo, but YouTube is owned by Google and is the second largest search engine in the world so it doesn't make much sense to post your church videos anywhere else.
Marketing Plan to Share Your Sermon Trailer Video
Now we get to the fun part! In this section I'm going to outline a weekly marketing plan that you should delegate out to a volunteer in your church. This plan will help you reach all three of your target audiences (church shoppers, current members, Google) in under 30 minutes a week.First, the crazy church marketing graphic!
Every piece of content that your church creates should have a solid marketing plan to back it up. Why spend timing producing videos or writing blogs if nobody will ever see it? Let's walk through the steps listed in this graphic.
Church YouTube Channel
As mentioned before, Google owns YouTube. When you host your video on YouTube you are leveraging that massive search network to get your content and your church discovered online.To do this right you need to understand the basics of Search Engine Optimization. The rules change all the time on SEO, but in general you just need to remember two things:
- Can a robot (Google) understand what my content is about? Does that same robot know that I am a CHURCH in CITY/STATE?
- Is my content any good? Do people watch it, like it, share it, etc.
In order for Google to understand what your content is about, you should think in terms of keywords. Both in what you say and what you write. The most important SEO keywords for a church are "church" and your geographic location. Keep SEO simple.When you load your video to YouTube, the title should not be:
Sermon Trailer on Jonah
The title of your video should be something like:
Sermon Trailer on Jonah - Imprint Church in Woodinville WA
Don't worry if it sounds clunky. When you share the video through social media you can manipulate the title so it says whatever you want. Your main job right now is to convince Google that your tiny church plant is a real place that deserves to be ranked in their search engine.
In the description of your video, the same rules about keyword apply. Be sure to include both the name of your church and your specific geographic location.
Important! If someone finds your video on YouTube, the most important thing you need to do is get them off of YouTube and on to your website! To do this, always include a link to your church near the top of your video description. If you type in the full url to your church website including http://www YouTube will automatically convert it to a link after you click save. Give people a reason to click, such as, "Find our service times at..." or "Learn more about us at..."
Church Website
It is a good idea to keep a "Sermons" page on your website with archives of past sermon recordings and a look forward to what you are teaching next. You'll probably find that as a church plant this is one of the most viewed pages on your website.The Sermons page on your website is a great place to embed that YouTube video along with a 1-2 sentence synopsis on what people will learn this Sunday. This takes some discipline and commitment to keep the page current, so only use this strategy if you have a reliable volunteer.
Don't have a website yet? Read my post on What to Include on a Church Plant Website.
Facebook Page
You can either share a link to your YouTube video or upload your video directly into Facebook... either way is fine. I prefer sending all of our traffic through YouTube because of the Google connection. Include a short introduction on what the video is about to entice them to watch it.I have an entire article on Should My Church Have a Facebook Fan Page if you need other ideas on what to share through Facebook.
Google+
I understand that Google+ isn't much in the way of a social network, but it is still owned by Google and you've got to keep building up your credibility in their eyes. Utilizing the right keywords and connecting your content through YouTube and Google+ just adds some more SEO breadcrumbs out there for your church plant.Post the YouTube video publicly to your church's Google+ Page and include the hashtag #cityname (same as above, put your real location there).
Weekly Email
Make your sermon trailer video the central focus in the weekly email you send out to your the folks on your email list. Keep giving them a reason to come back to see you and give them pointers on how they can get mentally prepared for church this Sunday.These emails are a very easy piece of content for a member of your church to pass along to a friend or co-worker, so keep an "invitation mindset" as you write these up.
I would recommend sending this weekly email out on Friday afternoons, right as people are starting to map out their weekend plans.
Summarizing the Weekly Sermon Trailer Video
To wrap all of this up, let's walk through those key points again:- Be consistent and create this video every week.
- The video should last 30-60 seconds.
- Visual quality is not important, audio quality is important
- Have a written marketing plan like the one I shared here that you follow like clockwork every week
- Post your content to a variety of channels to make sure you reach your members, church shoppers, and the search engines.
Have fun with these weekly sermon trailer videos and be sure to let your personality come out!
