Pastors are taking a cue from the business world and turning to telephone marketing to get their messages out to members of their flocks and to their communities at large.
And, like many in the secular business world, they are finding it a successful medium.
Several companies are offering sophisticated telephone marketing services to churches that allow pastors and members of church leadership teams to "broadcast" messages quickly and cost efficiently. The personalized messages are typically delivered to answering machines and voice mailboxes, making them less obtrusive than most "telemarketing" calls, a fact that appeals to church leaders who are cautious about the businesslike impression may be sending out.
In the cases where messages are targeted to live recipients, the person receiving the call is quickly given a chance to hang up or to opt in to a brief, recorded survey. In those cases, the goal of the survey is to find people who are interested in visiting a church and who are receptive to a personal invitation.
Costs of the services available to churches vary depending on the type of message and the objective of the message.
For instance, calls placed to church members using a church database typically cost between 21 and 25 cents per delivered message, although one company promises to deliver such messages for 5 to 7.5 cents per call.
Calls to the targeted community at large, using a purchased list of numbers and guaranteeing a minimum number of "qualified leads" intended to spur church growth, cost considerably more. One service charges a $200 setup fee and guarantees leads -- people who have identified themselves as interested in church membership -- at a cost of about $50 to $75 each.
The Broadcast Team of Ormond Beach, Fla., is a 13-year-old direct marketing and advertising company. The company's Real Call is a patented service that allows it to deliver a message at the precise moment an answering machine goes into record mode, without dead air that frequently accompanies computer-generated dialing.
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What's Important Broadcast messaging allows churches to reach large groups of people with minimal effort at a cost less than direct mail marketing. |
Jon Domeij, who heads the company's church growth and Christian ministries division, said that feature helps ensure a church's message will not be arbitrarily deleted.
"There is no dead air time or truncated or cut off type of a message," Domeij said. "It's delivered in its entirety and it doesn't sound digital. It doesn't sound like ‘Hal' from 2001. It sounds like somebody picked up the phone and called you to leave you a personal message.
"We're really proud of the patent we have because a lot of people when they go to listen to their messages are like me. I've got my finger on the delete button," he said. "If there is any dead air time, I'm not going to hear it. If I have to wait three or four or however many seconds for a message to come, I'm just going to get rid of it. That doesn't happen with Real Call. That's what the patent is all about."
An Effective Medium
Companies like The Broadcast Team and Sheepmail.com target zip codes in the vicinity of a church, pulling the available phone numbers for calling into a database -- excluding phone numbers that are on "no-call" lists -- and then begins calling with a pastor's personal message.
"It's nice because when you get a pastor leaving a message on a voice machine, you get to feel a little bit about his personality and the personality of the church. He gets to share that and it's very effective," he said.
Sue Macchiarella, business director at Covenant United Methodist Church in Port Orange, Fla., agrees.
"It has been very effective, I think, and its actually reconnected people with the church that might have dropped off going to our church that happened to be part of the call," she said.
With a membership of about 350, Covenant is a prime example that a church does not have to be big to be proactive and to make use of specialized, target marketing. Macchiarella said a service like Real Call helps churches, regardless of size, stay abreast of the times.
"Sometimes I think we lag behind the business world in using technology to reach out," she said. "You hate to think of the church as a business.
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"That's very cost effective, as opposed to direct mail where you are going to pay thousands of dollars no matter what happens." The Rev. Win Green, Everglades Community Church |
The Rev. Win Green, pastor of Everglades Community Church in Pembrook Pines, Fla., used broadcast messaging to identify unchurched people in his community who would be receptive to an invitation to visit. He said he was provided 15 leads by the service he used and that four of those people joined the church.
Though the leads cost his church more than $1,100, Green said it was well worth the money spent.
"Quite frankly, what appealed to me was they guaranteed us a certain number of names for a certain price. That's very cost effective, as opposed to direct mail where you are going to pay thousands of dollars no matter what happens," he said. "It's a very good return. It's a lot better than direct mail, for us. I hasten to add there are some people with real skill at direct mail marketing. They're clever, they do great work and if you are good at it, it is most effective, but most of us are not good at it."
Keeping In Touch
When they are not reaching out to the community, many churches are using the services as a means to keep in touch with a their congregation.
John White of Sheepmail.com, says a common use of his company's VoiceBlast service is to remind church members of special services or events.
He said registered users call a toll-free number to record a message and then log on the Internet-based service, where they choose a database of phone numbers they want to broadcast the message to. White said interactive features of the site guide users through a few simple steps. Once completed, the message is sent to the selected database.
"You don't have to be trained or be a techie to use our services," said White. "And you don't have to be at the church or ministry location to access the systems and send messages. All you need is a phone and a personal computer."
He said the system can prompt those receiving the call to press a number to indicate whether they will attend the service or special function so the originator can then get a better idea of how many people to plan for.
"This thing will send you a report telling you who is coming and who is not. It's pretty sophisticated stuff," he said.
Phil Alexander of Calling Post, a company that provides a similar service, said advances in technology have made it easy for churches to reach out and touch members. Because of that, he said, demand is high for his service.
"It's amazing. Every day I look in there to see where the orders are coming from. People are signing up and it's from all over the United States," he said.
