Planting Space

Getting the word out in your community is an obvious necessity for a new church plant. But do you have any idea how long it takes for some of the standard communication/marketing pieces to be produced? Since church launches are seasonal, you and a hundred other planters are all asking for services from the same marketing ministry providers at the same time. Don’t be caught having run out of time, because the designer or printer or whoever else may not have the bandwidth to accomodate a rush job when you’ve forced yourself to need it.

Here’s some simple things you can do to plan ahead:

1. determine which media or marketing techniques you could use to get the word out
2. narrow that list down to the ones that will work well in your community
3. assign costs & lead times to each item
4. give a copy of your plan to members of your launch team (ah yes, accountability)

Here are some typical lead times for standard communication channels:

• web site design - if you’re going fully custom design, you’d better count on this taking 8 weeks (more in some cases)
• direct mail postcards - if you’re smart, start this 6 weeks before your first drop date
• signage - this depends on your provider, but count on the design alone to take a good 2 weeks, then add some more time for production and as appropriate, shipping
• keyword advertising - here’s where you catch a break. You can get a Google or Yahoo! keyword campaign up and running by yourself in a matter of hours. Aren’t familiar with this one? Look for a future how-to blog post.

Hey, you probably know this, but you’ve got to have a website up and running before you start any of these other items. Every bit of communication you send out must have your web address on it, because that’s where everyone will go to check you out first. This has become a non-negotiable.

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