d2design

Case Study: New Life Church

joel@d2design.com (Joel Townley) — Wed, 24 Apr 2024 15:44:17 GMT

The Challenge

New Life Church is a multi-site church in Arkansas. The Fort Smith campus wanted to increase awareness of their upcoming Easter Services and invite as many new people as possible.

d2 Solution

We use precise location targeting (where people live and shop) to create a custom audience that matches the demographics that are most likely to attend New Life Church. Our method is more precise with much less waste than traditional digital advertising. In this way, we ensure that our custom audience is within driving distance of the church

Demographics Targeting

We created custom audience that was laser targeted on only people who were most likely to visit: Neighbors who recently moved in + moms & dads who were 50 and younger within a tight radius around the church location. This group consisted of 2,611 homes.

Creating the Ad

Brandon and Jess recorded a simple 30 second personal video invitation giving people a feel for who they are and inviting them to join them on Sunday morning. Video advertising gets higher engagement and response than typical image based ads.

Note:

The pastor is doing the invitation, not another staff member.
Brandon & Jess are both welcoming and inviting.
The words are transcribed in the video if the user does not play sound.
The lighting in the video is bright.
The video does not exceed 30 seconds.

Results

New Life Church saw increased attendance over their 2023 Easter service. Out of the 2,611 individuals that we advertised to, 166 clicked to get more information from the church's Easter landing page on their website. That gave the church a response rate of 6.4% which is a phenomenal result!

Not only that, but because our custom audience was so targeted, the church was able to limited their ad spend (and total budget) to an amount much less than typical.

At d2design, we can help your church invite your neighbors just like New Life Church did.

For more details, chat with us below or schedule a call !

New! Targeted Digital Advertising for Churches

joel@d2design.com (Joel Townley) — Wed, 25 Oct 2023 15:41:41 GMT

Reach new movers or specific age groups with a turn-key digital ad campaign

Affordable
Video and/or Image Ads
Quick set up. Your campaign can be running in a few days!

Our targeting is more precise with much less waste than traditional digital advertising. We only target people by their location (where they live and shop). This way, we know they are within driving distance of your church

Targeting Options

Life stage: Recently moved, moms & dads, elderly

People groups: Veterans & Military, Children Shoppers, Affluent Shoppers, Young Professionals, Hispanics

Age: Baby Boomers, Millennials, Gen X, Gen Z

Video Ads done for you!

Use existing welcome videos from the pastor
Use existing drone footage or looping video from your website
Quick set up. Your campaign can be running in a few days!

We completed this video ad for Mission City church in San Antonio. We utilized all existing footage. The church never had to lift a finger!

Ads will appear on a wide variety of websites that incorporate programmatic ads within their content. These sites can be news or sports sites, blogs or ecommerce. Additionally, mobile ads can appear within apps.

For more details, chat with us below or schedule a call !

ConnectFirst FAQ

joel@d2design.com (Joel Townley) — Tue, 22 Aug 2023 17:31:03 GMT

What results can I expect from ConnectFirst?

Results depend on your location, the quality of your card and how relevant the message. Most importantly, results depend on how ConnectFirst is integrated into your church's broader local outreach strategy. ConnectFirst is a valuable tool that mission minded churches successfully use to increase their local presence. However, people must use tools to produce results. We recommend developing a local outreach strategy for utilizing the lists and following up on the mailed invitation. For more about this, schedule a call with our team about creating a followup strategy.

How do you identify new movers?

Addresses are added to your new mover list when public information sources indicate that there is a new resident in the home. These include over 100 different sources that include public records, real property data, transactional data, and more.

How accurate is the data?

All data (marketing, survey, etc.) has an expected error rate. Our goal is to minimize this as much as humanly possible. Our data has been tested to be 93.5% accurate. This means that, on average, we expect 6-7 postcards out of every 100 to reach a home that does not qualify as a new resident. Given the benefit of introducing yourself to new movers, we think this tradeoff is very much in the church’s favor.

When do the invitations mail?

Invitations mail out no later than the Friday of the 2nd full week of every month.

How long after a move do the invitations arrive in homes?

On average, it is 4-8 weeks between d2 receiving an indication that there is a new mover in your church’s target area and a ConnectFirst card appearing in their mailbox.

What does my church receive with my subscription?

Your church will receive a new list of names and addresses every month. This data shows who cards were sent to but it is also intended to fuel a broader community outreach strategy. Other churches have used volunteer teams to pray over these names, leave gifts at the front door, and follow up with other marketing pieces like newsletters, handwritten notes, and welcome letters from the pastor. The postcard is intended as a starting point. The churches that see the most success continue outreach to these lists through additional efforts.
Your church will receive a single sample postcard in the mail every month. This is the same postcard invitation that your community is receiving.

How are the invitations mailed?

ConnectFirst invitations are mailed under the “marketing mail” post office classification. This allows your church to receive the maximum postage discounts. The USPS does not guarantee delivery time frames for this mail classification. However, research shows that 90% of the time marketing mail is delivered in 2-8 business days. They are mailed from Birmingham, AL. If your church is on the west coast, expect delivery times to be on the later end of that time frame.

If my church is a nonprofit, do we receive a discount?

Yes. You only have to provide your non profit authorization number which is provided by the USPS. This number is NOT a non profit ID, or permit number. Your NPA number is obtained for free from your post office and allows your church to receive discounts of up to 15% off ConnectFirst.

How to Use Your ConnectFirst List

joel@d2design.com (Joel Townley) — Tue, 22 Aug 2023 16:42:39 GMT

Q: Should a volunteer team visit the homes of the new movers every month to welcome them?

Generally, we do not recommend visiting homes and knocking on doors. In many communities in 2023, this is no longer safe. However, with that said, there are still communities where this could be effective. The bottom line is that YOU know your community. If this is a viable strategy where you live, then keep in mind these tips:
1. DO NOT mention that they are new or “welcome” them to your community. Mentioning details that you already know about them that they did not tell you themselves IS NOT a good conversation starter. 2. Instead, say something like this: “Hello, I am from ___ church which is only about a mile from here. I wanted to simply introduce myself as one of your neighbors. If you are interested in trying a local church, we would love to see you there. If not, that’s ok too, but either way, we care about our neighbors and we are praying for you. If you ever have a specific need, please let me know how I can help you."

Q: If we do not knock on doors, how do we use the lists that you provide?

Here are 5 simple ideas. Copy these or use them as a starting point to brainstorm...

Have volunteers visit the homes and leave a personal invitation and a small gift (maybe a $5 starbucks card or something similar)
Mail followup pieces like a church newsletter or basic info about ministries at the church.
Leave door hangers that invite them to an upcoming community event.
Mail or hand deliver to their mailbox a handwritten note with a way for them to reach you.
Mail a personal welcome letter from the pastor that tells a little about who he/she is and how they can be reached.

Understanding Data used for Marketing

joel@d2design.com (Joel Townley) — Fri, 17 Apr 2020 01:39:51 GMT

Un derstanding Data

Churches use data to run online advertising campaigns, understand who visited your church last Sunday, measure changes in yearly giving and many many other very important goals. Data helps us understand the current situation and create meaningful plans.

To start, let's define the types of data churches typically have (whether you realize it or not):

First party data is the data that you produce yourself.

Example—members lists, attendance lists, weekly childcare check-ins, giving reports, etc.

Second party data is obtained from ministry partners who share their first party data with you.

Example—lists of people who contribute to local faith-based charities.

Third party data is purchased from an outside vendor.

Example—new mover list, demographics list, etc.

ConnectFirst utilizes first party and third party data. Our third party data aggregates addresses when there is an indication of a new resident in the home, while our first party data comes from your own church website traffic.

Data Accuracy

All data (even first party) has an error rate. For example—how accurate is your church member list? It likely depends on how often you update it and how many members are at your church to begin with. Large churches have notoriously out of date member roles.

For marketing and communications purposes, typically, first party data is the most relevant and most accurate, but accuracy can vary church to church. Third party data is typically collected from the most diverse sources which provides insights into audiences you couldn't otherwise access but it can increase the error rate.

No matter the source, all data degrades over time and sometimes quite quickly. Even the best data needs to be utilized as quickly as possible after it is collected.

ConnectFirst's third party new mover data has been measured to be 93.5% accurate. This means that we expect 6 to 7 postcards out of every 100 to not reach a new resident.

We have put many processes in place to make our data as accurate as possible. But, if we know that some of our marketing effort will miss the target, does that mean that it is not worthwhile? Not at all. Would you rather 93.5% of your budget welcome and invite new neighbors or not welcome any at all? The opportunity out weighs the waste by a large margin.

This is a question to ask in all marketing efforts. People are often surprised to know that traditional digital advertising has an accuracy rate of only 60%. A shocking 40% of your budget is wasted on bots.