Personalize Your Ministry for Deeper Connections

The Secret to Deeper Connections

Personalization has become an essential digital marketing practice for many organizations, and digital ministry is no exception. At MII, our coaches constantly encourage ministries to “Begin With The End in Mind.” With digital ministry, personalization is not only about reaching more people but also about deepening the connection with them and guiding them into a deeper connection with follow-up teams and the local church. 

Personalization of content and messaging can help digital ministries build deeper connections with their followers by increasing engagement, creating relationships of trust, and allowing for more targeted digital ministry strategies. Personalized content can include content specifically designed for your target persona or campaigns that address your users and contacts by name and include other personal information that your team has gathered and stored in a follow-up tool or CRM. Many tools exist to automate the personalization of content. If you’re wondering how to create deeper engagement through personalization, here are three practical steps you can take to get started:

• First, segment your digital ministry followers into various groups based on your target persona.  Consider the interests, digital activity, and demographics of your persona. This will help you to better understand your digital ministry followers and create personalized content for each segment. (Learn more about creating a persona through MII University, our free training on social media marketing. https://mii-university.teachable.com/p/mii-university.
  

• Second, with a better understanding of the wants and needs of your audience segments, create content tailored to the interests of each group (mentioned above). For example, create a newsletter that shares links to articles discussing the authenticity of the Bible for a segment of users that first engaged with your ministry with questions about scripture. Your content will address an expressed need of your audience, and when matched with a strong call to action to connect for further discussion, your team will be able to more deeply engage those ready to take the next step in their faith journey.
  

• Third, personalization tools to address explorers directly. Personalization tools such as Google Optimize (free) can plug into your website and allow your team to conduct experiments, build A/B testing, and personalize your pages to gain higher quality scores. You can ensure that website messages are tailored to the right persona and are sent at the right time for maximum engagement.

Through these three practical steps, your ministry will see deeper connections with your followers, leading to more engaging conversations and resulting in more ministry conversions.

Don't Be Afraid to Question Your Digital Ministry Metrics: A Guide for Managers

Vanity metrics are numbers that look good to others, but don’t actually help you achieve your goals. Often, ministry teams working with MII on digital media strategies have reported that their boss, or a donor, is asking them to increase a number that doesn’t really matter. What should you do when your boss wants you to measure success using vanity metrics like Impressions or Likes?

Here are a few tips on managing up and leading from inside your digital ministry.

First, be sure you know which metrics are really driving the outcomes your ministry is looking for. Digital marketing success should not be measured by vanity metrics like page views or click-through rates that don’t convert into meaningful engagement with your audience. Instead, define success by using engagement metrics such as time spent on the page or Message rates. These are more meaningful and provide data about the success of your digital ministry.

Second, be proactive in managing up. If you think different metrics are necessary for measuring success in digital ministry, don’t be afraid to make suggestions. Make sure you have done the research, and present your more meaningful metrics along with a plan that will help your digital ministry move forward toward the goals your organization is trying to achieve. 

Finally, make sure you are tracking the right metrics correctly. Metrics like the number of first time contacts, and conversion rates will be lower than vanity metrics like Reach, so you’ll want to make sure that your numbers are accurate. The good news is that often a metric like Direct Messages can be counted in an inbox, and include a wealth of personal data that can lead to a better understanding about the real life-on-life impact your ministry is having with your audience. 

Confronting a request for reporting or boosting vanity metrics doesn’t have to be scary or overwhelming. By questioning the wrong metrics, being proactive, and tracking the right ones, you can successfully manage up, and show your leadership that you understand what needs to be done to truly deliver on the goals your ministry has put forward. 

As a digital ministry professional, don’t forget that success in ministry starts with you! Take charge of your digital ministry and ensure your team tracks the right metrics for success. With these tips, you can make a positive impact on your digital ministry.

Digital Ministry: Boosting Engagement & Reaching People for Jesus

In recent years, digital ministry has been on the rise. Churches and organizations have seen an increase in their reach as people flock to online content. However, while this reach is growing, engagement with church and ministry content is on the decline. This can challenge those who use digital ministry to connect people with those working to guide them toward a relationship with Jesus.

How do teams increase engagement in their digital ministry?

Firstly, it’s essential to understand that increasing engagement is not just about having more followers. It’s about deepening relationships with those who already follow you and connecting them to Jesus. Here are a few practical tips for increasing engagement:

1. Ask more profound questions. Rather than simply asking people how they’re doing, invite them to deeper conversations. Ask questions that get people thinking and allow them to open up about their faith journey with Jesus. Asking open ended questions shows your audience that you want a deeper response. Of course, asking questions is only the beginning.

2. Offer support. People are more likely to engage when they feel supported in their faith journey. Listen carefully to what people say and provide thoughtful responses that offer guidance and support. Your church or ministry should be able to share next steps and resources to help people progress in their relationship with Christ. 

3. Create content that speaks to deeper needs. Create content that reaches people at their point of need. Resources that discuss how to grow in faith or topics of deeper conversations around Jesus and His work in our lives are a good place to start. The good news is that there is no shortage of this kind of content, and many content creators are happy to partner with you to share resources. 

By utilizing conversational questions, providing support, and creating content that speaks to deeper needs, churches, and organizations can use digital ministry to increase engagement and reach deeper down the funnel. When done well, online ministry can be a powerful tool for connecting people to Jesus.

If you’re a part of a church or ministry that is currently streaming worship services and reading this article to build deeper connections with your audience, you may also be interested in this recent article by our friends at Faith Tech, https://faithtech.com/product/streaming/ Learn more about digital distribution here. 

As more and more organizations take advantage of digital ministry, it is essential to remember that the goal is always about helping people find their way back to Jesus. With this top of mind, digital ministry can be a powerful tool for sharing the Gospel message.

Don’t Settle for Vanity Metrics: How to Focus Your Efforts on Driving Connections

Many teams engaging in digital evangelism are working to funnel users from an awareness of the Gospel to connection with a believer for follow up. After becoming aware of a ministry or message, people will progress into deeper levels of engagement. As ministry teams seek to measure and improve digital ministry efforts, it is easy to become distracted by the high number of likes, followers, and visits, and lose focus on the activities actually creating opportunities for connection. These teams may even have a leader that is enamored by reaching large numbers of people and driving the team to do more. 

Don’t get fooled by vanity metrics. Instead, follow these action items to increase connection opportunities. 

1. Build Your Audience – Knowing your audience and speaking to them with valuable content is key to developing effective lower funnel activities. To build a program that delivers meaningful connection opportunities, you must first attract and engage those you seek to reach. By understanding your audience, your team can create content that engages the people you seek to reach.

2. Make it Personal – One of the best ways to ensure your lower funnel calls to action resonate with your persona is by making them as personal as possible. Incorporate user-generated content into your campaigns and create engaging conversations with customers on social media.

3. Track Performance – Finally, it’s important to track the performance of lower funnel activities to understand what works and what doesn’t. Analytics tools like Google Analytics and Data Studio can be used to create detailed profiles of segmented groups within your audience. Your team can then measure the performance of different engagement campaigns, and get an overall picture of what works best for each group.

Developing effective lower funnel activities is essential for digital ministries looking to connect with people for the cause of Christ. These four strategies can help you take your digital marketing efforts to the next level.

Does the Bible guide us on how to use digital tools and social media? FaithTech has several books published on topics ranging from the Redeeming and Corrupting Power of Technology to Modern Technology & The Human Future. For a full listing of FaithTech’s Books, check out https://faithtech.com/theology-of-tech-books/

Sharing Jesus in MENA through the MII Follow-up Center

The Wonderfully Unexpected

Through its MENA Follow-up Center MII started communicating with S. Othman. He knew about Jesus because of an accident. He was helped by an Iraqi Priest and this incident was the reason he started reading the Bible, naturally comparing it to Islam. He gradually began to leave Islam and become more attracted to Christianity, but he was not able to find anyone to guide him on his journey. The MII team worked with him step-by-step and he prayed to receive salvation and joined an online group.

MENA's Follow-Up Center - Praises for 2019

• 35 employees in the MII MENA office

• Over 38,000 unbelievers exposed to biblical truth

• Over 7,000 received a bible or christian material

• 105 professed faith in Christ from January to Aug.

• 89 met face-to-face with a Christian disciple

In 2019, MII's Arabic Team in MENA launched its own online evangelistic campaign. By June we were praising God for the results in only 6 months!

• 63,350 Total Messages

• 1,520 In-Active Follow-up

• 7,700 Exposed to Biblical Truth

• 30 Faith Professions

President's Update - Fall 2019

No matter where we are in the world, every single person has the opportunity to see the sun set at the end of their day.

Yet, the perspective of what each person sees is always different. Some may see a wash of colors lighting up a vibrant sky, while others may only catch a glimpse of light peaking out behind beckoning storm clouds. Perspective is everything.

Matthew 4:16 says, "the people living in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned."

MII is bringing the gospel of Jesus, the Light of the World, to the people in the 10-40 window. That is done through in the following ways:

• Equipping local indigenous ministry leaders to be more effective with digital media.

• Leveraging standard social media and lead generation practices for Gospel purposes.

• Reaching into previously unreachable places through social and digital media.

The delicate dance in this endeavor is that all people come to the Gospel with a different perspective. Still, we strive to make sure that all have the same opportunity to see the light of Jesus. 

To date, MII has been honored to work with ministry leaders in 43 countries in the 10-40 Window. MII is currently implementing a 3-year initiative in India that is already yielding a great harvest!

We are thankful for how God is blessing our team and ministry partners. Would you join us in asking God for His continued blessing in the year to come? Thank you!

-David Benware, Founder

Media Impact International

MII India Update

The Hyderabad MII Training earlier this year is yielding some great stories of success from those who attended. Ministry leaders from 10 organizations that attended are reporting that their teams are experiencing an increase in ministry impact after implementing strategies learned during the training event.

“It's been a fantastic ride so far! We can honestly attest to the amazing quality of insights and coaching both during and after Hyderabad. The perspectives and training by Steven, our GURU! on digital strategy, social media growth and best practices towards meeting the KPIs has made the process of streamlining strategy doable and enabled us to think and build long-term! Reaching Gen Z and Millennials with the Gospel in the digital space has been seriously leveled up!” – Ashwini George and Bonnie Andrews, Live Jam

MII and our coaches continue to build deeper relationships with ministry leaders in India. This November, for the second year running, an MII team featuring long-time coaches Nick Runyon and Holly Tate will be leading breakout sessions on Social Media engagement at India Christian Media Association’s annual event, ICMA 2019.

MII is also launching three digital evangelistic campaigns with partnerships that are being formed between local church networks and media ministries.

Praise God for all that He is doing through our ministry partners in India!

What's New in the World?

At MII, we want to bring you the best information to help you and your team have greater impact through your ministry. In the coming weeks, we'll be posting helpful articles and tips here. Check back often, or better yet, subscribe to the blog so that you're always up to date! 

Thanks, and God bless you!