Excel in these 9 strategies to improve impact and grow.

Featured image above is courtesy Debbie Brown. Used by permission. Free use Doughnut photos below are from Pexels.com.

Debbie got donuts the other day. She didn’t buy them – they were a gift. Funny how something as simple as a box of yummy goodness can get you thinking about strategies to market your fitness and lifestyle ministry.

Her friend must be the master of marketing. He knows good and well that fitness is her passion. She thought, “Seriously?” And yet, wow, what an amazing way to personally connect.

Debbie’s donuts help us see that today’s marketing is about good strategies and a commitment to classic values and outcomes. New textures and flavors are constantly evolving but the work of simply satisfying hunger never changes.

NOTE: The following 9 marketing goalf7f49a headings came from, The 9 Goals To Consider When Creating A Marketing Strategy. The remainder of the content except where noted is from Brad Bloom and Lifestyle Media Group. [For the complete COURSE KEY POINTS, NOTES AND RESOURCES tap the graphic below and enter the password. We want to help you and your ministry develop and apply each of these 9 strategies.]

CAN YOU KEEP UP WITH FAST?

Marketing is changing – Fast! Himanshu Sisodia on LinkedIn says that marketing in the last decade has evolved and adapted through:

• Digital Transformation and Multi-Channel Marketing
• Data-Driven Decision-Making and Personalization
• Influencer Marketing and User-Generated Content
• Shifting Consumer Behavior and Customer-Centricity

Over at adwhite.com they note just how fast it is changing. They proclaim that “2023 could be a transformational year for marketers”. They share that the HubSpot marketing report highlights four of the biggest changes for marketing in 2023 include AI and automation, economic concerns and marketing budgets, data privacy concerns and video continues to dominate and drive business.

It’s really quite crazy how fast marketing is evolving – trying to keep up with technology and the many vying elements of a schizophrenic culture that affects how people think, feel and behave – how they interpret reality.

MARKETING AND LEADERSHIP BY THE BOOK

Whats needed, especially for Christian entrepreneurs, churches, businesses and organizations who deliver fitness and other lifestyle ministries is to not just stay abreast of best marketing practices but to be strong in the core competencies of the Christian faith. It may sound old fashioned even naive among the many ‘pros’ relentlessly driven and hustling in business, but the Bible is packed with Godly truths that stand the test of time and forever work.

The 9 strategies below should be considered and exercised with a keen eye on knowing God. The “WWJD – What Would Jesus Do?” mentality may be early 1900’s but God is the ultimate creator, innovator and agent of change. Inevitably, no matter how fast we push and how progressive we become by applying knowledge and technology, God is always light-years ahead of all of us. To the one who will listen and obey there is both wisdom and intrinsic vision given to lead in culture and thus market fitness and lifestyle ministry in compelling, effective and totally on-point ways.

• Marketing – The activity of promoting and selling a product or service. Marketing your fitness and lifestyle ministry is the intentional work of connecting with people so that they enthusiastically buy into a Christ-focused mindset and ethos. They’re 100%.
• Fitness Ministry – A Christian ministry helping people grow strong in Christ utilizing various modalities of physical fitness training and wellness services.
• Lifestyle Ministry – A program, service and fellowship for a community of people who share an interest in or passion for a particular lifestyle activity. A lifestyle ministry helps them understand, make and then keep Christ central to that lifestyle.

Make some noise so people start saying, “I’ve heard about you.”

Do you customers and your community know who you are and what you do? Actually the first question you have to ask is do YOU know? To INCREASE BRAND AWARENESS you need to ask a lot of quesitons: As an organization what’s your mission? What are the values you want to nurture? What are the outcomes you want to achieve? What defines your culture? You need to drill down (pray and discuss) on these and more. Then define exactly what that looks like. Clearly outline, communicate and celebrate it on your website, marketing tools and all aspects of your branding and design. Then annually train staff on it.

The Bible talks about “not just being hearers of the Word but Doers”. To increase brand awareness you want everyone to hear, understand, embrace and passionately share who and what you are as a community/church. BUT – it starts with hearing. If people are going to hear what you’re about and what you do then you have be CLEAR.

Keep it pure. Faith & Fitness Magazine has identified 5 qualities for our Fitness Ministry Award recipients. One of those is CLARITY.

Your highest quality leads come from your members. Create a member-owned mentality for them.

Want to high GENERATE HIGH-QUALITY LEADS? You can get them best through your existing clients/members. You can find all kinds of article online like:

Manage the acquisition of referrals as a process. Get a system in place and follow it consistently. Measure to improve – not to prove. For both clients and staff it’s about genuine relationships not numbers.

Existing client referrals are only going to happen when you deliver a great customer experience. Be honest with yourself. Know the CX of your ministry and know what God wants it to be.

What are the stories being told? Your members and clients can be influencers.

Meeting spiritual needs is perhaps the only real way to get and keep new customers.

Perhaps one of the main reasons churches and Christian businesses do not, will not, (refuse) to ACQUIRE NEW CUSTOMERS is because they find customers with whom they are familiar and comfortable and then stop. NEWness is a big God-originated and God-driven concept. God isn’t just the author of new – new is God’s MO. Nobody does new like God.

That means that if you want your lifestyle ministry to truly acquire new customers you’ve got to be ready for new and different customers. Roll with God!

Yes, that means the work is ongoing. In Bible terms it’s called discipleship.

Explore the range of people God could call you to serve. Everyone needs Christ. Acquiring new customers requirers being observant, gaining understanding and identifying how you can meet specific needs.

Your website isn’t an extra task, it’s part of your ministry. Make it THE place where people can first find you and then want to return to experience you.

How do you INCREASE WEBSITE TRAFFIC? OK, well first you have to have a website. And for those that do, let’s be honest many churches and ministries have appallingly inadequate sites. They lack information (useless), aren’t well designed (ugly), don’t capture attention (boring), are difficult (complicated) to use and don’t help the user (don’t deliver). What to do?

Ask your members (pay them even) to give you an honest evaluation. What sites do they frequent? What features do they find helpful and find to be really cool? What would make them want to use your site more often? That’s right you need to be like every other site – wanting to get as many people coming to your site and staying on it for longer periods of time.

Figure out how to make your website useful, beautiful, engaging, easy and THE site that delivers 100% for you members and everyone else.

Deliver excellence in all you do. And in your faithfulness to God – give it all.

Let’s make this real clear: If you’re not Google you’re not the authority on search engines. If you’re not McDonald’s you’re not the authority on fast food. If you’re not Nike you’re not the authority on athletic shoes. To ESTABLISH INDUSTRY AUTHORITY we’re not talking about you being the industry authority on Zumba, Les Mills, yoga, strength training, pickleball, nutrition, senior wellness or whatever other fitness service you provide.

You want to gain a reputation with the programs and services you provide. Sure, work toward them being second to none in your community. But what defines your business – your ministry is — Jesus.

We’re talking about you becoming the industry authority on fitness ministry and lifestyle ministry.

What do people really want? Give ‘em what they want.

INCREASING CUSTOMER VALUE is taking the strengths God has given your ministry and growing it – making it better. It is giving those you serve God’s values in a valueless world. Extending grace. Not just demonstrating but thoroughly embracing humility. If you want to increase customer value blow them away with God’s values.

The value of your ministry is about helping your customers discover that they can be like Christ. Market that and you’ve delivered what no other business can.

Therefore go and make disciples, baptizing them and teaching them.

When you want to BOOST BRAND ENGAGEMENT think about these 3 things: Are your members aware of your brand, engaged with your brand or loyal to your brand?

You have achieved BRAND AWARENESS when people know what you do, what makes it distinct and can articulate that accurately to others.

Take that to the next level and you have BRAND ENGAGEMENT. When this happens people form an emotional or rational attachment with your brand.

You’ve reached the sweet spot when you achieve BRAND LOYALTY. This is when people make a long-term commitment to make repeat purchases. They’re sold!

But, as a ministry you can go further. You can steward members to be a disciple. A DISCIPLE: is one who embraces the brand so much that they become active in spreading the teachings.

Manage assets to increase yield. Build on the foundation, invest and prune.

The obvious goal of every business is to INCREASE REVENUE. Maybe it’s not quite so obvious for a church or ministry but it should be especially in this context:

BUILD ON THE FOUNDATION: What makes any job worth doing is the God we are serving. Read 1 Corinthians 3: 5-15 to better understand that God is the only one who brings growth.

INVESTMENT AND RISK: It’s good to start by asking you and your team these questions and considering your answers: What do we sell? How much is our revenue? Why do we want to increase revenue? Consider other questions like this that you should ask. Matthew 25: 14-30 MSG A terrible way to live is cautiously. You can’t increase revenue by playing it safe.

PRUNING: John 15: 1-17 NIV Cut off (stop doing) what doesn’t bear fruit. What does bear fruit, prune it (promote healthy growth).

The 3 C’s of building a strong team: Communicate, Cultivate, Commit.

Every business and ministry needs to keep in mind that their team is their first customer. So, as was stated above, focus on the needs and wants of your customers. It’s how you IMPROVE INTERNAL BRAND. It doesn’t matter if you’re an employee owned business or not, your employees and team own the relationship they have with your members, clients, customers and community. If you don’t get it right with your team you can’t have success with your customers.

FINALLY – BE EVEN MORE STRATEGIC IN A NOT SO OBVIOUS WAY

As you exercise these 9 strategies keep in mind that marketing is like fitness: the growth comes in the rest. Marketing done well is intense. You need to budget rest time for you and your team. That’s not a quarterly business retreat where you plan strategy. It is an intentional break from all aspects of the business to allow for recovery.

Be like God and let your team see what great love you can lavish on them (1 John 3:1NIV) Yep, that’s right, discover how something as simple as a box of yummy donuts can contribute to your team being sold on being the life of Christ to others.

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