Is your church video strategy as easy as Netflix?
That’s a trick question, because I hope not! Why, you ask. It seems we are all consuming hours and hours of Netflix as we binge the latest True Crime or Rom-Com series. Netflix and the other streaming services make it super easy for us to consume their video content.
And there it is: Netflix, HBO Max, ESPN, etc. are all designed for us to CONSUME entertainment (and sometimes information via documentaries) content! Their mission is to attract your attention and captivate you for hours so that you will mentally see the value in the $12 per month cost and mindlessly not cancel the auto-payment from your card. The call to action for these streaming services is passive, to be entertained.
The mission of your church is so much more critical, offering a life altering and world changing message. Jesus gave us a simple set of instructions for being his people in the world; love God, love your neighbor, and go into the world and make disciples. The mission Jesus gives us is an action mission using verbs to love and go.
What does that mean for your video and online ministry? It should cause us to ask questions like, how do our videos help us live into our mission as a church? And, what call to action does this video give to a person striving to follow Jesus or just starting their journey? We have to understand how to use our videos to not only connect with people so they can consume our Gospel content, but that we are also giving them a way to respond with their own action. This action could be taking a next step in their relationship with Jesus through baptism or diving into a deeper understanding of Biblical scripture and how to apply it to their life.
I think these questions should be applied to all our video and digital content; from live-streaming worship all the way down to our Facebook posts. For some churches, particularly smaller churches, live-streaming worship may not be the best use of resources to motivate your online audience (particularly according to my friend Brady Shearer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SknhFJhNnMk ). We aren’t going to get into the live-streaming wprshi[ debate in this post, but know that there might be more effective and efficient ways to connect with your audience, even during a pandemic.
How can you customize your online worship or videos to motivate a digital audience or what do you supplement your videos with to cause people to take action. An important idea is to remember that these videos and digital content are tools for the followers of Jesus that you lead in your church to use to share the Gospel. Because Jesus didn’t tell his followers to teach church staff how to make disciples, he looked his followers (and us) directly in the eyes and said go!
So, how do we make sure our videos, streams, and digital content are effective at connecting with our audience? Here are three tips to help your video and digital content be more action oriented:
Make sure every video has a call to action.
What action do you want your audience to take as a result of viewing this video? This should be the first question you ask when planning your video and writing your script. It should form the content you are presenting. You don’t have to wait until the end to present your call to action, it should be in the beginning, restated in the middle, and repeated at the end. The rest of the video content then should form a compelling case for responding to the call to action.
Give your online audience the mechanism to respond.
A compelling call to action is only effective if you make it simple and obvious how to respond. Create a button that is next to or below the video or content, place hyperlinks in written content or in your social post comments, embed a form on the landing page where your video or content resides. And then tell your audience how to respond; where to find the button or link or form. If it is a video, then verbally tell and visually show your viewer where and how to respond. If the response button or form is on another part of the page away from the video, then tell the viewer to “scroll up” or “scroll down” to find your response mechanism.
Teach your onsite and online audiences how to use these digital tools to make disciples.
Pastors from time immemorial have implored their congregants to invite their friends, family, neighbors, and coworkers to church. A few years ago we started giving our members invitation cards for our Christmas and Easter services to pass out at work and in the neighborhood.
But the pandemic has changed our work locations and even curtailed social interaction with our neighbors. So how do we invite friends and neighbors to church in a digital world? Just like we do with every other invitation, we send emails, texts, Facebook events, etc. PRO TIP: create a landing page on your website that speaks to potential guests and make sure your people know the link to share with their friends when making an invitation. Encourage your people to share social media posts, and make sure all your digital content has social sharing buttons.
All your church members have a role to play in sharing the Gospel and your video and digital ministry can be an important tool. Make sure the people in your church know how to use your digital tools to love God, love their neighbor, and make disciples!
As you think about how tou use your videos to engage and connect with people, make sure you mission is clear and present. Our goal is to motivate actions that will help others start and/or deepen their relationship with God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit. Plan and distribute your videos so they live out your mission, not compete with the hours of streaming videos our devices deliver to us. Let us know how we can help you clarify your strategy to reach more people!