Systems And Structures That Promote Business and Church Growth
When you are on the path of business and or church growth, you'll not only need to find the right strategy for your business or your church; you will also need to find the best structures and systems that promote growth. There are two main categories of business growth: organic growth and paid growth.
Organic growth is the byproduct of managing the growth of your social media presence through direct involvement. This generally includes sending out messages, interacting with other posts, responding to queries, and doing market research to position your platform in the best possible way. Organic growth is different from paid growth because it requires direct involvement that is not coming from a paid services or products. In most instances, organic growth is a manual process.
Paid growth, on the other hand, is self-defining. This strategy requires payment for growth strategies such as advertisements, sponsorship, affiliate marketing, and influencer marketing. If you have to pay for a product or service to execute your strategy (beyond paying your social media team), then you're most likely using a paid growth approach. An effective growth plan will incorporate both methods.
Rules of Engagement and Growth
1.Restructure your leadership team
Everything rises and falls on leadership. After you've redefined your mission and vision, you then need to honestly assess your team members to ensure that everyone is in a role compatible with their strengths. Growth requires good management of resources, both human and otherwise. Restructuring your leadership team is the first step to getting there.
2. Be visible on social media
One of the keys to growth in a digital age is effective social media use. Social media has successfully helped in the growth and development of many companies and churches worldwide, and it can do the same for you. If no one is currently on your team equipped to create an effective social media strategy, hire someone. You can book a consultation with an expert, hire a salaried member of staff (or, in the case of churches, appoint a new head of social media from your congregation), or hire a freelancer with the necessary skills to get the job done. Social media has notably changed the way groups operate. People are engaging online in methods that weren't feasible a few years ago. To stay competitive, developing a strategic social media plan is critical to reaching your audience.
3. Define your audience
Defining who your target audience is will help decide the precise route your social approach must take. With the numerous social media platforms available today, each one has its strengths and targeted demographic. YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram are commonly perceived as the most popular systems, with heavy daily traffic. Understanding each platform's culture and "residents" will give you an advantage when planning your strategy for each. The more targeted and relevant your content is to each demographic, the easier it will be for you to reach and engage with them.
YouTube
The video-sharing platform is one of the most used social media platforms among Americans. Nearly three-quarters of American adults use YouTube regularly. Beyond the U.S., YouTube is available in over 70 languages in almost 100 countries, so its target market is hugely diverse. With YouTube, you can reach the masses and target specific agencies inside its massive reach. Because YouTube's content varies so widely, it has the unique ability to appeal to a vast audience. Within the platform, there are some niches and sub-niches that attract all sorts of people. There is something for everyone, and the search bar makes content easier to find. So, remember, when uploading your video, you'll want to include keywords and other tags, so the right people find your content.
Another platform that has a diverse group of users is Facebook. With over 2.8 billion users, Facebook is an excellent platform to spread your message and build active and engaged communities. The largest demographic of users on Facebook is between 25 and 35 years old, with the average daily usage being about 34 minutes per day. Facebook has features that have the specific intention of growing online communities. Public and private group options, Q&A, polls, and live streaming video are all made possible on the platform, so users can engage with you as well as each other in a space that feels comfortable to them.
Instagram is the fourth most used platform after Facebook, YouTube, and WhatsApp. This social platform focuses primarily on photos and videos and is most popular with users between 18 and 29. This particular demographic accounts for about 71% of Instagram users. Logically, if you're trying to reach this specific demographic, then including Instagram in your strategy would be a wiser option than using only Facebook.
Your business or church can make use of reels, hashtags, and active engagement with your target audience to build awareness and drive growth. Users engage with content that adds value to them somehow, whether by entertaining them, educating them, inspiring and motivating them, or nurturing a neglected side of themselves. Whatever your product or service is as a business owner or how "new" your church is to the social media space, you can find ways to connect that will contribute to your overall growth.
4. Engage with your community
While nurturing your teams, membership, and existing customer base is essential, growth requires increasing your numbers. Engagement is the best way to build relationships and increase numbers. People connect with people, and if they like you or feel appreciated by you, they will begin to trust you, strengthening your relationship.
Whether you choose to use Zoom, a text messaging software, email campaign software, social media, or phone calls, staying in touch with your customers and congregation, now more than ever, is another important way to promote growth. There are many virtual channels to facilitate whichever outreach you choose. You must have designated agents or members to follow up with your customers or congregation because you'll want to follow every conversation to the end.
Staying in touch and continuing the conversation sets you apart from everyone else because you are genuinely interested in people. Paid advertising is great, but a satisfied customer or potential customer who had a good experience with you will contribute to unpaid advertising called word-of-mouth.
With the rise in popularity of internet influencers, strategic collaborations and opportunities for affiliate partnerships are also great ideas. For churches, community outreach programs, public events, open potlucks in your location, and a "bring-a-friend-to-church" initiative are great ways to engage with your community. Like the influencers of online marketing, your church needs to teach your members how to be disciples and share the word with others in their eyes. Your members can reach people that you never have.
5. Get people involved faster
When people visit your church, they're asking themselves, "Is there a place for me here?" The faster you can assure them there is, the more likely they are to return. You can do this by communicating volunteer and ministry opportunities at strategic points of your service. A greeting team is necessary and can do more than meet and greet people at the door. You can consider including a follow-up section to your greetings, where after collecting contact information at the door, you have someone follow up with your visitors during the week.
6. Automation
Automation is a time-saving process that can help you to stay on track with your posting schedule. Automation enables you to be consistent in your social media posting and email communication while taking the hassle out. There are multiple platforms dedicated to helping companies and businesses show up consistently in their relevant online space. Some of the most popular automation platforms and software include:
Hootsuite
Tailwind
Later
Planoly
SproutSocial
Facebook Creator Studios
Mailchimp
Active Campaign
These systems all offer users the option of preparing content or emails in advance (and in bulk) and scheduling them to be published or sent later. This way, you no longer have to spend time thinking of captions and hashtags to include in your post every day. You can "set it and forget it" until the next scheduling cycle.
7. Give away an irresistible freebie
Lead magnet: A lead magnet is a free value-adding item you offer to encourage your visitors to share their email addresses with you. Your lead magnet should directly link to the product, service, or message you deliver. This way, you can be sure that they are interested in what you have to offer. By submitting their email addresses, users consent to you sending them emails later, which is an excellent way to expand your audience (as long as you stay away from spamming).
You can read more about lead magnets in one of my previous blog posts.
8. Paid Advertisements
With paid advertising, business owners and churches pay the owner of the advertising area to use their space to reach more viewers. Online advertising areas include web pages, videos, mobile apps, and so much more. The possibilities are endless online. The two most popular ad spaces are social media and Google.
Social media ads
Social media ads are one of the fastest and best approaches to connect with your audience. Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, and all the other major platforms leverage their space to businesses interested in reaching their audience. If you've ever seen an ad pop up on your timeline, this is precisely why. Social media ads are something that businesses and churches can use to their advantage. By niching down and adequately defining your target audience, you will have a higher conversion rate than widening the search with no real strategy. Social media users tend to develop patterns of behavior online that indicate whether or not they would be interested in a particular ad. Defining your target audience is an excellent shortcut to getting your content before the right eyes.
Google ads
Google ads is an advertising service offered by Google, where advertisers bid to display quick commercials, service offerings, product listings, or videos to web customers. These ads are usually included in the first set of results on the search engine when your advertisement consists of an applicable keyword(s). This way, Google positions you in the best spot for visibility.
9. Hire a Team
The deeper you go into the endless possibilities offered by online options, the sooner you may begin to realize that it is not a one-person show. Whether due to insufficient time, or insufficient experience or knowledge, your growth strategy may be too overwhelming to handle all on your own. That's okay! Consider creating a team of people (employees, subcontractors, or volunteers) who can help you.
For churches, consider appointing a pastor or an elder to be used exclusively for digital discipleship and oversee all online activities. From figuring out integrations to engaging with and caring for the online community, this role will have a wide range of responsibilities that the lead pastor will not have the capacity to do efficiently, on top of managing their in-person activities.
Even as the pandemic ends, you'll want to consider maintaining the online element of your service. However, for this plan to be sustainable in the long term, you must have someone reliable managing the online space.
CONCLUSION
Everything that you do in your growth journey matters. The lives you touch, the conversations you have, the people you serve, they all matter. For you to grow, you must first position yourself for growth. Carefully review and consider all of your options and adopt the most valuable strategies. This combined strategy is guaranteed to grow your business and church.