Every church has a message to share. Defining, understanding, reaching, and engaging your audience is a critical step in sharing that message. What are the steps to developing effective outreach through understanding your audience? Here are three questions to consider when reaching your audience with your church outreach.
#1-Define (Who?)
First things always come first. Who is your church’s specific audience? Is it families and individuals in a local community? Are you seeking to connect with people working a certain type of vocation? Does your audience consist of students at a local school or university? Different churches and organizations, sharing the same message, can have very different target audiences.
Look around your community and observe who needs to hear your message. Define who your audience is and then you can move on to reaching them!
#2-Reach (Where?)
The next question that you should ask once you’ve defined who you’re seeking is where can I find them? This may be a physical place but it might also be an online location. For example, if your audience consists of lots of young people, consider using Instagram (the only social network growing in usage among young people) to connect with them. Social media is still somewhat age-segregated so keep in mind who your audience is when determining which social network to pursue them on.
#3-Engage (What?)
What type of content will engage your audience? This is the final critical question to ask yourself when developing an online outreach strategy. Once again, demographics like age play a large part of this. Your church website design should reflect your audience’s preferences. Designing and structuring your church website with your audience in mind is an essential step in the outreach process.
Optimize Your Online Outreach
Like everything your church does, online outreach should serve the broader mission of making disciples. Reaching and engaging your audience is the first step in developing relationships with people in your community. Promoting your church online through your website and social media is only the beginning! Defining, reaching, and engaging your audience can open up new opportunities for evangelism: sharing the message you’ve been entrusted with. This starts with understanding who your audience is, where you can connect with them, and what will engage them specifically.
