It’s been a dynamic year of changes, pandemic, economic turbulence, social unrest, and a massive leap forward, for what will be seen as a digital reformation for religious institutions. Learn insights from leaders at the forefront of this transformation and their predictions for the future.

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We’re used to preaching on stage or behind a pulpit to a room full of people, but as the world is shifting to on-demand content, we’re forced to move online. Following the pandemic that closed churches for months, we will take a deep dive into what all of those viewership stats really mean and look at how to make online church relational in an anonymous space. Learn how to work with leadership to legitimize an online campus and stay human in a digital space by:

• Implementing persona marketing for churches
• Humanizing your metrics
• Identifying what makes online church real church
• Utilizing platforms for different audience’s demographics

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Building a content strategy is daunting. Where do you start? What do you focus on? How do you know you’re headed in the right direction? This session will share with you the content strategies and methods that have grown a social media presence of over eighteen million followers, and become the largest Catholic marketing sites in the world. By using modern technology with time tested truths, you will learn how to bring the best secular marketing practices to your institution by: 

• Easily generating engaging content 
• Understanding why your social media followers aren't paying attention to your posts
• Harnessing five affordable or free platforms that every organization should use
• Determining if having a large social media audience even matters in 2020

Learning which marketing platforms will give you the best reach for your money

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We’d all agree that attending religious services in person is ideal. However, with a pandemic not solved and a change in generation… isn’t attending services online better than not at all? This session will discuss generational shifts and strategies that must conform to attract the digital congregation. Take away an understanding of:

• Why online services are more than a temporary COVID strategy
• New opportunities to expand your message globally
• The importance of engaging via social media platforms
• Attracting the next generation by utilizing content to engage children
• Platforms and target audiences

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Whether it is an ongoing program or a one-day event, churches and ministries often have resources that benefit the community. From food distributions to counseling or a one-day clean-up event, we will look at how to take your events/activities and leverage media to share what you are doing with the broader community. This session will give you the tools to: 

• Recognize the needs of your community and develop a marketing strategy that speaks to them 
• Partner with businesses, community/city leaders to amplify your cause
• Develop a media strategy to share your event/ministry with the broader community
• Implement a proactive PR/marketing strategy can minimize negative or crisis PR

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Most churches have a thought-provoking and spirit-led teacher in a lead pastor. Ours was no different but after seventeen years of a faith-filled church, we found our weak point was connecting with our community online. Today’s evangelism stretches more than the local community and the physical presence of a church blends into the virtual presence as well. Is your church prepared for the digital transformation that has accelerated in the past three months? This session will review lessons learned to:

• Harvest the fruit of a digital strategy with results in six months
• Understand the strategies of successfully creating organic growth digitally
• Implement tactics for partnering with an agency
• Establish metrics to attain goals
• Harness content strategies to increase engagement rates by over 1,800%

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This year has been a trip! The worst place the church can go from here is back to where we started this journey. In this session, learn why digital is so crucial to your church and how to strategize for the days ahead by:

• Learning the three part social strategy you need for your church
• Equipping staff and volunteers with key roles both onsite and online
• Utilizing creative storytelling to share your message

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The biggest goal for all church marketers is to assist the pastor in growing the congregation. Many obstacles interfere with this goal from limited funds, lack of strategy, wrong messaging, graphic design paralysis, and lack of engagement. Most churches promote worship and pastor messages and stop there. This session will teach you how to connect with your audience emotionally to create awareness, engagement, and drive growth by:

• Promoting the identity of your church and connecting with the “consumer”
• Creating a message strategy that understands your audience
• Marketing that motivates by developing CTAs
• Understand social as a platform to create relationships

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The one thing religious organizations have at the core is the ability to bring people together. Whether it is for fellowship, learning or worship - community is at center. However, since March, our communities can't be together. The radical transformation from in-person to online could spell catastrophe. Those organizations that are able to capitalize on this moment by creating strong relational bonds across platforms will find new success. Learn how through small group encounters, direct messaging, and platform engagement, your organization can build the presence that will make your community members feel connected even when they cannot be together.

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Every institution of faith has a message. As environments within communities change, so do strategies and tactics. This session will discuss the journey of Calvary Chapel’s brand transformation and how they use social media to deliver their message.

• Utilize social media to change your church narrative and persona
• Create a message that’s beyond the messenger
• Build your social media strategy
• Identify which platforms are essential to your organization’s message and demographic
• Measure engagement and success that’s beyond impressions and likes
• Convert engagement online to physical attendance

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Many churches have ignored the opportunity of Social Media. Concentrating on the relationships within their church walls was the only priority. Few organizations were ahead of the curve and even fewer religious institutions were prepared for what we have all now experienced. The traditional days of “winning friends and influencing people” need added steps in today’s world of social media.  

Elevation Church was prepared when they were forced to shelter-in-place. Hear the communication lessons they've learned over the past ten years that prepared them, and the new lessons over the past six months that have taken their brand awareness to the next level. 

Learn how to:

• Focus content from inside your walls to outside
• Develop a more strategic approach to content with a clear path to execution and impact
• Avoid time-consuming missteps
• Institute winning best practices
• Start local and expand globally

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We’d all agree that attending religious services in person is ideal. However, with a pandemic not over… as well as a younger generation that puts less value on religious services, social media is the new fisherman's net. This session will discuss generational shifts and strategies that must conform to attract the digital congregation. Take away an understanding of: 

• Why online services are more than a temporary COVID strategy
• New opportunities to expand your message globally
• The importance of engaging via social media platforms
• Attracting the next generation by utilizing content to engage children
• Platforms and target audiences

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Are you struggling to reach as many new people online as you should be? What if you could reach ten times more new people with just a few tweaks? While this is fully possible, it will not happen using the same methods you used ten years ago. Only the churches who master “digital evangelism” will thrive in the new normal. At the end of this session, you will be able to:

• Reach a lot more new people outside your church
• Grab their attention (instead of being ignored)
• Tell a compelling story that leads them to action
• Get people connected into your church
• Scale this to reach as many new people as you'd like

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We’ve all heard what gets measured gets done. But, how do you determine what to measure so that you can move forward? Measuring isn’t as simple as understanding reach and engagement. Though a critical component, not everything you measure is valuable and not everything that is valuable is measurable. This session will give you the fundamentals and ideas to measure your initiatives to the goals you set. Learn how to:

• Decipher what is valuable to your organizational goals
• Set KPIs towards success
• Implement insightful strategies to create engaging content
• Understand the role marketing in the church
• Determine what exactly is your “product” and how you “sell” it

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Advertising and marketing have a historical connotation not received well in the faith community. However, every person who is preaching, evangelizing, or telling the story of their faith is advertising. But what about paying to tell that story? And where do you spend those dollars to have an impact? Today’s platforms allow us to connect on robust levels and attract individuals in ways never seen before. This session will help you decipher the steps to take to identify a course of action to:

• Institute a multi-channel marketing program and identify if this is the right strategy for you
• Set goals for omni-channel marketing and identify which strategy is the correct direction for you
• Identify your marketing strategies and goals to create options to grow your reach
• Harness opportunities for the trifecta of advertising (earned media, owned media and paid media)
• Maximize advertising dollars for reach and engagement with proper KPI’s

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David slayed Goliath and later became king. You too can slay the goliath of the digital world. Whether you’re a communications director, volunteer, or pastor, this session will help you understand the premise of storytelling and strategies to connect with your congregation, expand your engagement, and attract a larger flock. This session will give you the tools to:

• Tell your story with a video camera
• Harness the advantages of a documentary style story-telling
• Utilize quick steps to increase engagement and awareness
• Create ads that attract people to your local church

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