selling SMS to churches will this work???

They would. My dad's church just started using it. Except I think they are doing it themselves so the fee is probably miniscule. But I'm sure you could find churches that wouldn't know how to do it and would pay someone to.

Depending on the size of the church $150 might even be too low! Some churches have larger budgets that you think.

Yes. Pastors and the like WILL take advantage of SMS marketing for their congregation if they can understand the benefits* it provides their staff.

* Reduces the need for staff to individually call each parishioner to remind them
* No need to leave voicemails or interrupt a parishioner at home/work
* Eliminates the need for multiple handouts at sermon
* Huge Open and Read Rates
* Can be sent (and received) at the right precise moment to encourage the greatest turnout.
* Can be used to send daily/weekly affirmations and scripture quotes/references
* Can be segmented for each church group
* Increases turnout to sermons, events, group meetings

Regarding your "I should get a high response with this niche"...

Think again.

You'll definitely have interest, and will need to explain the features and benefits very clearly, in a way they can understand how it will help them reach their congregation members efficiently, systematically and increase participation. It's not an outreach marketing system for how they'll maximum SMS use.

BUT...they are often slow to make purchasing decisions. I lucked out when sending several letters (with a free offer) to churches and having one taking me up fairly quickly. They gave me several referrals. The BIG win for me was one of their youth pastors understanding the value of text messaging for his audience and his willingness to talk to other pastors at a major northwest gathering of pastors help me get a sizable number of clients.

Without him, I'm not sure this "niche" is an easy sell as you may be thinking.

I tried this and found that out of 40 churches I gave (by hand to the secretary) none wanted it at 89 a month. I found out the pastors name and put it on the letters but they all said it was too much for their budget.

I'm rethinking this to lower it to $39 a month and this covers 200 members and it is a big way to get into a large pool of business people! This is why I don't mind lowering the price. Plus 10 churches gets me 390 a month recurring...

More work, but access by referral to many people!

thanks

Selling to churches hardly ever works in my experience, I have only heard 100 too many say "we have someone in our church who already does that..." but I do have an idea of something to sell to "ministers".

Some interesting responses here.

The method does work, but it depends on how you work it. The other thing to remember is that not all marketing approaches will work for everyone who tries them for a whole bunch of reasons.

For instance, I've never been able to sell to businesses that have low transaction levels, probably because I was never able to think like they did or something. It was a blessing in disguise because it meant changing focus back then. But there are people that are confortably selling to these people in large volumes.

I don't know if it helped with my Church SMS marketing, but I'd been a musician in church for many years (a bass player) and so I wasn't a total stranger to a number of churches and I also got introduced to officials in other churches in return for doing no-cost work for some of them.

So it does and can work but it depends...I guess it's similar to cold-calling (yuck!), works for some and not for others.

Bayo

I think it is great idea. they have money the only thing is just doing proper marketing.

My experience in this market is almost exactly as John Durham describes his. I can't figure out what laird does differently than I do, but he reports much more success than I've had.

As a pastor and a professional marketer who sells SMS services, I feel like I know a little about this topic. In truth, I don't really want to give TOO much away right now, because I actually plan on releasing a WSO later this summer on marketing to churches and non-profits.

What I will say is that there is DEFINITELY money to be made in this niche! And selling to churches (rather it be services like SMS or something completely different) doesn't need to be very hard. It can be pretty easy to make it hard, but then again, we can make ANYTHING hard if we try.

I will give anyone interested in marketing to churches one of many different methods I use, and I'll give it away here only because I've already spoken about this method of prospecting in the past. And this one really works well for churches.

Local seminars!

Yep... here's Jace talking about seminars again. They work! And they work really well in this niche. Again without devaluing my future WSO too much, I admit I am a little hesitant to share, because I want to make money. I got no problem admitting that! But I'll help here a little because as a pastor, I do care about the general mission of the church. So that being said, here's a quick little how to:

First, I know that a lot of you don't like to go out "in the field" and prefer to call, and that's fine -- I'm not telling you that you have to go out. But what I will say is, that from my own testing (and as a pastor) you will see a great increase if you personally walk in and shake the pastor, secretary, whomever's hand rather than just dial the digits. The church likes to see people actively engaged in the community. So you will have much better results attempting to get a pastor and his crew to attend your seminar if you actually take the initiative to go meet with them. Again, I am not saying you have to go in person, but I am saying you'll have a much higher success rate than you will over the phone especially if the pastor of the church is an older gentleman.

Anyway... print off some flyers, brochures, or a calendar (and circle the date/s of your seminar/s on the calendar for them and point it out so they know when to come) and deliver them to the churches in the area you want to work with. (VALUABLE BONUS IDEA: If you have a home church already, and you're not in a leadership role to make the decision to host the seminar yourself, you can actually leverage it by asking your church if you could host a seminar teaching other churches how they can improve community outreach using the Web, phones, email, etc. Tell your own church that you would like to help them [let's be honest, if it is your church, you really should want to anyway], and in exchange for letting you help the town "brag on Jesus" in a free seminar you would be excited to provide all the services to your own church free as a service offering.) Tell the pastor that you want to help his church reach the saving message of Jesus Christ (or whatever mission the non-profit supports) to more people in the community, and help the local unchurched find a home. Let them know that your services strengthen the church's prayer chain, outreach, missions and ministry, and saves the church a tremendous amount of time and money to boot. Time and money that could better be utilized to further serve the community!

Invite the pastor to your free seminar (ideally hosted at a local church... right away you have instant credibility and you're there to serve and help them serve. They now see this IS your ministry, not just a business), and tell him that it would be great if he could convince the worship leader, a church elder or two, and the Sunday School Director to attend as well. Let him know that if they can't come that is fine, but they would receive incredible value and fantastic ideas on how to spread the gospel and reach more with their ministries at your seminar as well.

The reason you do do that is if you're good at showing value in your seminar, and you can illustrate how these services will truly benefit and serve their church and community, you wind up having not 1 person to go back and convince the church board that they should do this, but you get 3, 4, 5 or more excited members on the church board to go back and brag on your services for you. In my experience, it's not at all uncommon to receive a call from the church soon after asking you when you can get started.

Anyway, make sure that at your seminar every guest fills out a form (pre-sells pitch... my future WSO will have these forms pre-made... LOL) with their contact information; which church they are affiliated with; how often they have board meetings; when the next board meeting will be held; their average weekly attendance; and WHY THEY WANT TO REACH MORE PEOPLE IN THE COMMUNITY. Guess what, now later when you follow-up with them, you have their own words about why they want your services. This form is given to them as they arrive.

You have a second form that lists all of the services you offer and the prices (closing tip... churches are VERY used to being marketed to on tiered platforms and pricing... that is to say, smaller churches are used to paying less and larger churches are used to paying more. You don't have to work that into your pricing structure, but you will do yourself a favor if you keep that in mind.) for each. You tell them to check off which service/s they are most interested in and again WHY they like those services. IMHO, this form is best kept until the end. In my experience, you don't want them staring at your pricing sheet rather than listening to how your services will help them do minister to their community during your seminar presentation.

You can bring the seminar to an end by advising everyone that you will be around for a few minutes to speak to people one on one if they have other questions or are in the position and want to get started (bragging on Jesus, saving lives, helping kids, etc... whatever the larger mission of the group attending the seminar may be) right away to hang back and talk to you personally.

You might close a deal or two on the spot (i've done it a few times, but I'll be honest -- it generally doesn't happen then and there because of the approval process most churches do have) by doing so. And even if you don't you build up added trust and reciprocity by showing how eager and willing you are to answer their questions and serve as well. Besides that, you're going to have to collect everyone's forms anyway.

In closing, this stuff works guys! And that's all you're getting out of this pastor until my WSO is released. ;-)

Churches has been some of my easiest sells, I have 16 Churches under contract, and what you should understand is that a Church is a business, they must market just like any other business. The church members are their business and the ones they must market to and keep in touch with. Most Pastors I've come in contact with love the idea that they can share daily scriptures with their members, they love that can collect donations, they church survives off of donations from them member and sms is another avenue to collect church donations. And most pastors want to stay up to date with technology. You can Upsell them Mobile website, redo their websites, and while you are building their church business, other church members will want to do business with you. Their are alot of wealthy church member and alot of them have their own business. It's been perfect for me. I don't even have to advertise, word of mouth is blessing me, each and every week. To get your foot in the door, make an appointment with the head pastor of the church. They take appointment from everybody throughout the week. Just go to the Church Main Office and make an appointment with the secretary.

Im the SON of a pastor, In fact Im typing in the pastors church office this very minute...and I use to play bass at the largest church in America (Church on The Rock)...amd so I know a thing or two as well, these guys are all confirming the same truth "There's a guy in my church who we work with".

If you try it cold calling, thats all you are going to hear all day long. If you called my parents church they would tell you that someone here already donates their web skills.

Im not going to tell you these guys are wrong, Im going to tell you- Spend a day on the phone trying it...99% have a person who donates their marketing, or if you think of churches like you do the local chamber of commerce meetings then you can attend one for six months and try to get recognized by the pastor and schmooze your way in...and maybe they will refer you to others. Granted.

Yeah so he can run it past his board of directors for a month- Pastors rarely can make a decision on the spot.

Also, he will probably hand your flyer to some guy in his church who does web stuff and say "What do you think of this", and the guy will say "Dont spend your money, I will do it for free".

Churches believe that the wealth of the wicked is laid up for the just, and they mostly give contracts to their own members.

Why should you believe me?

Because it makes common sense.

There are ALWAYS exceptions to the rule, but thats the rule. Most of the people who do this started in their own church and are part of a church network.

Heck if I was Korean I bet I could sell more nail salons too. I AM a christian believer, and I lie to you not.

This is about how to market, not how to take advantage of your church membership for profit.


Ps.

You want to sell something worthwhile? That will actually spread the gospel?

Sell them a course on how the invariable 50% of the congregation who feel they are called to evangelize can book themselves up with speaking engagements, and get the word out, instead of sitting around crying waiting for God to put speaking engagemenjts in their lap.

Teach them to take it by force.

I know how, and many of you do too.

My dad is an assistants pastor and from all the year of my exposure to this market

this i can tell you

create a product for the pastor that will help him become a more famous pastor since these guys egos are pretty inflated and they secretly keep an eye on how well the other pastors congregation is doing.

they all want to be like the big boys

Frederick price

and whats that other guy from texas that he even makes his cowboy christian movies.

products that teach the pastor how he can gain more exposure and reach more people.

John Duram has hit it right on the money with his free thread

we have such a warped society in where we follow men instead of following principles

we should NEVER follow man

follow your own heart and principles

I think Jace has got it right, churches work on relationships. A cold call is not a relationship, so you would need another approach. Also, as John has stated many churches have in house marketing and/or web developers. It would then make sense that in giving a free seminar as Jace suggested you could start to develop a relationship and they could see how what you offer is different from what they already have in house. Also, to get your foot in the door you may offer your services to one church in exchange for your donation you would get a tax receipt of the value of your services.

While the church might have web developers as members that will donate their time they probably do NOT have SMS Marketers. I would make a demo and schedule the appt with the Pastor and show the biggest benefit of using text marketing for churches. DONATIONS!!!

The SMS Platform I use allows clients to send and receive mobile donations with the click of a button. When the Pastor sees how easy members can donate and realizes that they can stay in touch better as well as offering all the other features previous writers have mentioned they will "GET" it.

Don't present this as a service that has an expense of X$ per month but rather an investment in a fully managed donation system. Their custom platform will increase member donations and provide a net positive return by utilizing integrated "mobile donations" within their text marketing messages.

Could you possibly sell sms to a church? Yes, it is possible.

But is it your highest and best use of your time? Does it have the highest possible chance of being a sale? No. I don't think so.

If this would be one of your first clients, I'd stick with restaurants and other businesses who are familiar with what you're doing and immediately understand the value.

You'll need to know the size of membership (round figures if you can) of the different churches. Many smaller ones I know want so much done with mobile config and sms, but not willing to pay much for it. I am sure larger churches are beginning to budget wisely for this now.

I still work part-time in a church office that has a substantial budget. We would probably never buy this service from a stranger. But if someone set it up in their own church and then that church referred them-- maybe. Or if a church member made a recommendation.
We get lots of emails that are deleted right away and phone calls that are ignored. It really helps to have a local connection in this market. A lot of large churches now have staff members who handle marketing. They're usually more apt to take the time to talk with you then a pastor.

The demographics of a church matters, as well. The church I'm at is a mainline denomination with an older congregation. We wouldn't be as apt to use this type of service as a charismatic church with younger members.
Rose

Many churches in my area have tons of money. My wife is a music director of a large church in my area and they have a large budget and they pay her really well.

But that doesn't mean they will spend money on something that they either don't understand or don't think they need. You still have to provide them something that shows value (or at least perceived value).

A few things you could do that might get their attention

1) Show the pastor how anyone in the congregation can listen to his latest sermon (or homily) by making a phone call or texting a word to 555-1212 (the text reply contains the mp3 link)
2) Show him (or her) how he can send a text to a local phone number that will be broadcast to all of his staff (in case of emergency) or that anyone can reply and the message will also be broadcast to the whole "group".
3) Show him how one text from his cell phone can go out to all of his congregation with a spiritual reminder, church announcement or whatever.

You can also donate your services and get a tax write-off as well. Churches are full of business people so eventually you will make some terrific contacts.

If you donate an SMS service, put your web address at the end of the outgoing texts. "Powered by yoursite.com" or whatever.

Services are not usually tax deductible, though the expenses you incur are:
Are Pro Bono Services Tax Deductible - Deduct Time Value of Services

In other words, talk to a tax professional or accountant.

Rose

@jacebarnett

I agree with seminars as I do several a year in the offline world. I go door to door and yes even wrote WSO on it. I do hope my friend, that you dont give away your seminar tickets or seats for free.

If so get my wso but dont buy it from my link. Go to john durhams sig. You will pay the same price for several other WSO's along with mine, and all proceeds goes to a charity, for the same price as you would for mine alone.

If you have something worth saying in your seminars get paid for it.

@henry

You can sell to churches but it will be a numbers game, one some have calculated and decided to opt out, and others have found their nich in selling churches.

Make it worth your time and effort if you are indeed going to put forth the work of pursuit.

many churches had this service but they dnt know how to use it. I think $150 can fit most of churches budget.

Hello Warriors - I am a newbie and this is my first post. I am an independent rep for a software company that does SMS for faith based organizations (one of the verticals we are targeting) as part of a package that includes text to Jumbotron, e-mails, newsletters, event management, fundraising and all sorts of other things useful to churches ($990/year for up to 5,000 members with no limits on texts).

I am looking for ways, especially creative ways to get to the faith based organization market so thank you to the people in this thread for all their ideas. We will be trying some of these and I'll report back.

I have some questions about Warrior Forum etiquette:

1. There are some people on this thread who I would like to contact about the software I am selling - I'd like to find out if they would be interested in being a rep but I don't want to fall foul of the forum rules. How do people feel about receiving an IM with more details?
2. Would I be OK to post a link to an outline of the software or is that considered spam?
3. Can I quote people's forum posts in my own materials? We have a weekly meeting of sales reps and I would like to repeat some of the ideas put forward here.

That's it - let me know what you think and feel free to message me.