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Repeat Selling into Churches: The Sermon Series

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By Anthony Coppedge

The use of a “sermon series” — typically denoting a themed topical study or a book of the Bible study — has grown in popularity across the majority of evangelical and Protestant churches. The idea is to bring up topics or book studies to bring people into the church. They’ve become so popular that churches often build branding campaigns around upcoming series as an attention-getter. And it works.

This little factoid is of particular interest to manufacturers and integrators because the sermon series trend has allowed for churches to build sets and add in technology that they’ve previously not used or purchased. Many of these churches are renting the technology on a series basis (anywhere from three to six weeks is typical), but a multi-week rental can add up quickly at standard day rates, so churches are sometimes making purchases in light of the expense of a long-term rental.

Pitch the Micro Sale

Manufacturers, we know you love the big sales. The they-just-ordered-half-of-our-inventory sales. But since that’s the rarity, why not create a sales program that reflects the buying trends of this vertical market? What about micro-marketing for micro-sales?

Following the trend of sermon series, why not create mini-marketing campaigns that cater to this reality and offer a combination of lease-to-own or buy two now, get two at 30 percent off within 90 days? The idea of these micro-transactions is to help them beef up their technology a tiny bit at a time, incorporating the technology into sermon series or special events (Christmas, Easter) as they have a little bit of budget to make incremental additions.

This can, of course, apply to both equipment purchases and any consumables (lamps, bulbs, filters, extra cable, etc.). Look, they’re going to have needs all year long, but they’re typically going to get annual budgets or one-time capital campaign monies. Why wait for an annual sale when you can create a lot of micro-sales all year long?

Note: This is not about one-off sales. The purpose isn’t to get a bunch of one-time, little sales. The idea is to create multiple buying opportunities — “ya snooze, ya lose” to keep them coming back.

The Micro-Marketing Campaign

And guess what? Because they’ll actually want to hear about your offers (compared to the typical product pitch spam that doesn’t affect them most of the time), you now have a new, scalable and manageable marketing campaign strategy that’s easy to create, simple to track and a snap to measure.

Most manufacturers create new products or new product enhancements infrequently. But we all hear about them when they happen by the flurry of press releases, email blitzes and product story pitches. Instead of hyping up these isolated events (which often end up being lost in the noise from a slew of releases at/during the annual industry trade show), build up targeted campaigns based on the various user-bases.

Micro-campaigns can be micro-sized, too. Consider building out social media channels specific to your various user groups. So, for the House of Worship market, create a Twitter account that represents your products specifically to churches. It’s simple to build up the subscriber base through promoting this unique channel through your other marketing channels and networks. Over time, the ability to selectively target various micro-sales through hyper-focused channels will provide not only a unique sales channel, but also open up the otherwise hard-to-get user feedback. Social media is all about engagement, so why not engage with the actual decision-makers and purchasers?

The key is to get the right message to the right person at the right time in the right way. Right? So rethink your go-to-market strategy. I’m speaking specifically here in the rAVe HOW [House of Worship] about the church market, but this obviously works across just about every vertical. You just have to know the buying event frequency for each vertical.

One-Two Punch

Since manufacturers can provide the marketing horsepower to promote these micro-sales, it only makes sense for the integrators to get in on the game, too. Why limit the deal to only the equipment? Churches will need help with rigging, staging, ancillary equipment and expendables, so the chance to make several micro-sales are obviously part of the equation.

Beyond the micro-deals, the bigger opportunity is to build upon the momentum by giving away good freebies as gated content on the dealer website. This allows for the church to fill out basic information fields on the website (which goes into your sales database anyway) in order to get the deal/promo code. As long as you put in a simple sentence about agreeing to an opt-in email list, the integrator is now adding to an ever-growing database they can own and manage.

Better yet, build out your own firm’s social media accounts for interacting with the church market and you’re adding your voice to the conversation, too!

The Cumulative Effect

Instead of hoping for one large sale per year, it’s now possible to have multiple micro-sales that actually add up to more than what could be purchased at the beginning or end of a fiscal calendar. More importantly, the loyalty of a client increases exponentially when they standardize on certain makes and models, as does their need for support, service and parts for an increased technology infrastructure.

In a time when the economy is jacked up, the prospect of consistent small sales should be more attractive than ever — for both sides of the conversation. Know your audience and their needs and respond accordingly.

A former staff member at three mega churches and church technology consultant, Anthony Coppedge has developed a respected reputation as a leader in technical and communications circles within the church marketplace. Reach him at anthony@anthonycoppedge.com

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