AI for Church Marketing: Step by Step
Using artificial intelligence (AI) to help spread the word of God is on your radar. You’ve been dipping your toe into the AI water, reading articles and thinking about how you can thoughtfully combine AI with the skills and talents of your employees and volunteers. If only there were a roadmap for this intriguing yet mysterious new tool. Don’t worry we’re here to help you demystify AI for your church marketing. Implementing Artificial Intelligence for church marketing into your strategy can be broken down into four steps: Define, Gather, Research, and Implement. Read on for what each phase consists of.
What Is Artificial Intelligence?
Artificial intelligence, often called AI, refers to the ability of computer systems or machines to perform tasks that typically require human intelligence. These tasks include learning from experience, understanding language, recognizing patterns, solving problems, and making decisions. In simpler terms, AI is like teaching a computer to think, act, and learn more like a human, allowing it to perform tasks we once thought only people could do.
#1: Define Your Church Marketing AI Objectives
All the work you put into defining your church’s overall marketing strategy pays off here. With your yearly objectives in hand, set time with your leadership team to determine what your AI objectives should be. High-level objectives that may be relevant to you include using AI to:
- Automate repetitive church marketing administrative tasks
- Personalize outreach efforts
- Improve community and congregation engagement
As a faithful steward of your church’s resources, it’s important to prayerfully consider which objective would bring the most value to your congregation and ministry. By focusing on one objective at a time, you can work diligently to develop a framework that aligns with your church’s mission and vision. This approach allows for more effective use of resources, and demonstrates good stewardship to your congregation. Have you sought guidance to determine which objective would best serve your church’s marketing strategy?
#2: Gather Data AI Will Use to Achieve the Objective
As a church, it’s essential to keep in mind that the data provided for AI technologies is essential in achieving objectives. Don’t worry if you don’t have a lot of data to start from. Start from where you are and build.
Example: Your objective is to automate and streamline fielding questions your congregation and the community send to your church. Right now you may be answering those questions via an email information form, other email correspondence, and phone.
You can start by providing the Chatbot information about your sermon schedule, special events, and answers to frequently asked questions, which can help you create a valuable resource to support your ministry. Additionally, providing data about attendance breakdowns, demographic profiles, giving life cycles, and volunteer engagement hours will help it grow stronger and more impactful.
When it comes to church marketing data useful to AI, think bigger than spreadsheets – though they’re very helpful! Think about attendance breakdowns, demographic profiles, giving life cycles, and volunteer engagement hours. Data is the language AI speaks. Data is how AI learns the unique story of your church, congregation, and community. When you actively provide data, you demonstrate good stewardship and a commitment to fulfilling your mission in a future-forward way.
#3 Research the Right AI Tools for Your Unique Ministry
There are thousands of AI tools on the market, and more launching daily. Setting aside time and energy to research the tools and integrations that make sense for your objective – and your budget – is key. Research the pros, cons, pricing, and time to get up and live for a handful of AI tools that accomplish your objective. Once you’ve narrowed it down, see if the technology offers a free trial version. If you’re very new to the technology, a demo with the company is advised. Drafting a handful of examples of how you plan to use the technology and what you want it to achieve and sending them to the person who will host your demo is also a great step.
#4 Drive Implementation Success
As you start implementing Artificial Intelligence for church marketing into your strategy, be intentional about setting aside time for training. From the people who will directly be using the AI technology, to the rest of your team, you’ll want to be sure that everyone feels comfortable with what the technology is, what it does – and doesn’t do – and how your church will work together to keep church members’ information protected. You’ll also want to dedicate time to training your team on how to measure and report on the key performance indicators within the technology you’ve just gone live with.
As Missional Marketing brought AI technologies into our workflows, we set up an AI Governance Board as an internal resource. This board meets to discuss AI’s potential through three filters: Biblical Integrity, Transparency, and Human-Centricity. Filled with members from across our teams, the AI Governance Board also works to ensure all areas of our business have a voice when it comes to AI decisions.
By prioritizing training and governance, you can demonstrate proper stewardship and commitment to amplifying the Good News.
Missional Marketing: Your Go-To for AI Church Marketing Advice
Following the four steps outlined above can get you off and running as you work to bring AI for church marketing into your strategy. And the more you lean into these steps, the easier they are to repeat with the next AI technology you bring on board.
New AI tools that support church marketing efforts are launching daily – many of them can help you bring more people to Christ. Want to learn more about implementing Artificial Intelligence for church marketing into your strategy, and to spread the Gospel more effectively than ever before? Visit our website dedicated to all-faith, no fuss AI ai.missionalmarketing.com.
