Hello again! I pray you’ve enjoyed the first two blogs from this series on the Church Engagement Model. In the Church Engagement Model Part 1, we discussed the importance of meaningful and valuable member engagement to move members from Consumers (What’s in it for me?) to Contributors (How can I serve to multiply the Kingdom?). We introduced the Church Engagement Model and the five jobs every church does. We also pointed out how having an intentional measurable plan in place proves to be more successful. In Part 2 Church Engagement Model—Best Attract Strategies, we explored the first job of the Church Engagement Model—ATTRACT. We identified two key initiatives for ATTRACT: Positive Brand Awareness and SEO Metrics measured for current members.
In this blog, we are going to dive deeper into the GET Model. The motivation for GET sparks with “I want to try it out.” A simple definition of GET is creating recordable first-time interactions with people by gathering their information into your database. If you host a major event with a thousand new participants but fail to record who showed up, the event is not succeeding at the job of GET. Instead, it is still functioning in the realm of ATTRACT, provided people have a great experience. Let’s assume you have a person who has heard that your Harvest Fest is a great and safe experience, and they decide to attend this year. By getting them there, you have succeeded at ATTRACT. Now, let’s move them to GET. To do this, you need to convince them that it is in their best interest to make a move and give you their information (name, email address, and phone number). A great way to do this would be to hold a raffle, by which you GET people’s names and email addresses. Another great way is to offer pre-sale tickets online. Even if the event is free, you could offer an RSVP option online and GET their information. Even gathering names and email addresses at the gate can work. Whatever method, the goal is to GET their information into your database.
But being successful at GET isn't just isolated to special events. Here are a few strategies to cultivate GET and new people to your database:
New Worshipers—Make sure you have a way for people to record their worship attendance (paper or electronic).
New Givers—Encourage electronic giving. Generally, it is not possible to do this without providing their information.
Child Check-In—Some churches are hesitant to do this, but it is a critical security measure and one of the most effective ways to quickly identify new families.
Major Events—One way to efficiently collect the data for event participants is to have them register online, even if you intended it to be free. Many churches include Christmas and Easter in the major events and set up ticketing specifically for this reason. This can also help worshipers know if there are particular services that are full so they can adjust their planned worship time.
Care Ministries— Examples include: Financial Peace University, Marriage Workshops, Parenting Classes, Grief Share, Date Night events with child care, etc. You can set up an online registration process or have the participants check-in to collect their data.
To learn more about how to communicate to your target audience in a way that encourages action, we recommend the book Rethink Communication by Phil Bowdle. As you develop communication, here are some key questions:
How does the person win?
How does the ministry win?
What are the barriers that need to be overcome in order for a person to take action? (Childcare, time of day, emotional safety, clear messaging…)
As a recap, to be successful at GET, you want to track and measure by
creating recordable first-time interactions with guests.
Special Events
New worshipers
New Givers
Child check-in
Major Events (such as Christmas, New Year and Easter)
Cares Ministries
motivating guests to feel it is in their best interest to share their information.
Make it easy for them to register.
Meet their “winning” motivation.
In closing, we move people from ATTRACT to GET when we have motivated them to share their information. We then enter this information into our database. From there, we can send out specific communication to meet their individual felt needs. When possible, it’s also important to record where their data came from. For example, if you gathered a person’s data during a community event such as a Child Care Date Night, which likely is geared towards couples with younger children, you wouldn’t want to send this person communications on retirement care. We will dive deeper into what that looks like in the RETAIN blog next week. Be sure to post any comments or questions in the comment section below. See you next week for RETAIN!