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They don't teach this stuff in seminary

Few church leaders exit seminary well-prepared to guide their ministry's marketing efforts. And today, technology is changing marketing options so quickly that even old pros with marketing degrees are challenged to keep up.

We created Church Marketing University to give you vital, up-to-date information and guidance you can use to reach out more effectively, whatever the size of your church.

Links to our lessons, tutorials and time-saving worksheets are delivered weekly in your inbox. Course content is stored on secure pages on this website, so you can access information any time you need it.

Need it, but no time for it?

We hear you. And while this course is jam-packed with useful information and helpful homework assignments, we want you to know this: Even if you do nothing but read through the lessons, you will be far ahead of the game in just a short while. You will have the information you need to make informed decisions so you can make the most of your ministry's resources.

Our mission is to save you time and money as we give you just what you need to improve your marketing skill, effectiveness and confidence as a ministry leader.

Our content is written specifically for non-tekkies in ministry. Lessons are short and to-the-point, delivering answers to the kinds of questions that come up in ministry every day.

We have worked with dozens of churches in the US and Canada, so we know what kinds of issues you're facing, and we're committed to providing the info you need to make the best possible decisions, given time and resources at hand.

In just a few minutes a week, you can review the lesson, take from it only what you need, delve more deeply into it if you wish, or know that if you have to skip it you'll have easy access to it later, 24/7.

Church Marketing University Content

Every month we tackle a different topic in just enough depth to make this study easy and useful. By the end of your one-year course, you'll have a much better understanding of the tools your ministry needs and how to use them effectively to draw new people to Sunday services, mid-week meetings and weekend concerts and workshops.

No matter when you join us, you'll gain access to all previous and current lessons, and you will enjoy access for a full 12 months.

Here are just a few of the topics covered and questions answered in CMU lessons:

Church Marketing

We have a marketing team, but we are not growing. What do we need to do differently? We have very little money. How can we make the most of it? Who should be on our marketing team? How much should we spend on marketing? How do we decide where to spend our marketing dollars? Can we use marketing principles without giving up who we are? We are not going to change just to make ourselves "marketable."  We believe prayer and consciousness are enough... but we are not growing. What can we do that aligns with our beliefs AND makes a difference in the outcome? How do we create a marketing plan?

Church Email

How can email bring new people to my church? Our email doesn't look professional. What can we do to improve it? Why do links in email matter? How can I know if people are reading or even receiving our church email? How can we protect our email list from server meltdown or other loss? What is the CAN SPAM Act, and what does it have to do with church email?  What should I use to send church email? Which web-based email providers are best, and what do they cost? Are we breaking the law by sending our church email through Yahoo or Google? How do we move our email list? What is a hyperlink, and how do I create one?

Branding

What is branding, and why does it matter? We're excited about our international headquarters' branding initiative and committed to getting on board. How do we get started? How do we implement it?  How do we figure out what it will cost to change our church name? Or to re-brand ourselves? We spent an enormous amount of time, effort and money involving our congregation in the development of our mission, vision, core values, logo and marketing, all of which defines and "brands" us. As a result, our congregation has fully bought into who we say we are, and our church is very well known in our community. We're just not sure about a new branding initiative put forth by our congregation's national marketing team. We want to honor who we are and also support our national leaders. Is there a way to do both?

Event Marketing

We're not getting good turnouts for guest speakers, workshops or concerts. What can we do differently? How far in advance should we promote special programs and classes? What percentage of income should the church keep from special programs by guest presenters and musicians? What percentage of income should the church keep from product sales at workshops and retreats? How do we find out what kinds of programs our congregation/community will support? A lot of churches are showing movies and charging admission. Is that legal? Do you have worksheets and forms we can customize and use to save time? (Yes!)

Social Networks

Is Facebook really going to help us grow?  What is Meetup, and why should I care? I don't have time for this; is it okay to delegate it? How do I protect my privacy on social networks? Isn't Facebook kind of dangerous? How can social networks help me find and manage volunteers? How can social networks help us improve attendance at classes and workshops? What kind of results are other churches getting through Facebook? What about MySpace? Is it important to be there, too?

Websites

How many domains do we need, and why? We're not sure where our domain is registered. Is that a problem? How can we add video to our website? What kinds of costs are associated with a website? We get bills from several different places and are not sure which ones we need to pay. Is there an easy and cheap way to get our Sunday services on our website?  We have a volunteer who wants to maintain our website. How can we determine whether she's capable?  Our webmaster disappeared, and we've lost control of our website. What do we do now? We have a lot of content on our website -- so much that it's hard for people to find what they're looking for. How can we fix it?  If we copy an image from Google and put it on our website, are we breaking the law? We'd like to add online donations by credit card to our website, but we don't know if people will use it. What do you think?

People Power

Only 20 percent of our members tithe or volunteer, while the remaining 80 percent serve only as Sunday-morning pew-warmers. How can we change this? We have members willing to provide testimonials. How should we develop them, and where should we publish them? Our people start off involved but then drop away. Is there a remedy for this phenomenon?  How can we get our congregants to care more about each other?  Our volunteers are stretched to the max, and many of them are "underemployed." How can we fix this?  Do you have a template for volunteer leadership training? (Yes!)

Public Relations

We've traditionally sent press releases on paper to our local newspaper, but we rarely get anything out of it. Should we continue this practice or do something different?  Can public relations really affect our church's growth rate? If we're going to do PR on the web, where should we start?  How are the rules different for internet PR?  We've never even considered a "PR Crisis Plan." Do we really need one? Why?  Do you have examples of good church PR plans? Is what we're already doing "newsworthy"? We had an unfortunate development in our church that hit the local news. How can we recover from the negative publicity?

Blogging

We've been thinking about starting a blog; where and how do we begin? Is there a way to set up a blog so it supports the search ranking of our church's website? Should I set up a free blog? Or is it worth it to pay for a blogging platform?  What is a blogging "platform," anyway?  How often should I write something for my blog?  How can I get people to read my blog? Can you point me to some great church blogs, so I can get some ideas for mine?

Buzz

How can we create a word-of-mouth campaign that has a real impact on church growth? Why do people trust word-of-mouth more than other sources of information? Do you have examples of successful word-of-mouth marketing by other churches? (Yes.) What is the one foundational principle for successful word-of-mouth marketing?  How can we create buzz online about our church, and what result can we expect?  Which websites should we use when we want to spread the word about something happening in our church?

Growing Church

How can we create a better experience for our visitors? We invite visitors to stand during our service. Why is that such a bad idea? We have a lot of visitors who never come back. How can we change that? Our small groups aren't working. How can we fix them? Over time, we lose as many people as we gain. Is there a way to close our revolving door?  How can we convert our newest members into long-term, involved tithers?

Expert Extras

CMU lessons incorporate news and opinion from across the web. We check in with Barna, The Alban Institute, Christianity Today and other important church-related organizations and pass to you information that can help you make smart, informed decisions.

We also provide links to related web content and information about free webcasts and tutorials offered by marketing experts from all over.

Recommended Resource List
Finally, you'll have expert guidance in your search for cheap-but-good resources for everything your church needs and everything you need to know.