This particular list is simple a starting point, as I intend to continue to push forward with ways in which every ministry can thrive and become what they envision themselves being.

On to the List…

1. Start tracking your sales

This is probably going to be the easiest of all the things to do this year, but it is also the most essential to your particular ministry. Sales tracking is important to ministry management because, when done correctly, it can provide a snapshot of the ministry at any given point. Tracking can be as simple as writing on a sheet of the paper the following:

1. Date
2. Location
3. Name of Product (in the case of multiple products)
4. Number of Products sold.
5. Price of Products
6. Net Profit

Now, the key to keeping good records is to take the data as it is collected and input it into a spreadsheet that can keep track of various sets of information. The Type of information collected will determine the scope of the research you can do in the future.

2. Build an Identification System

One of the great things about your music ministry is individuality. I’ve personally gone to concerts where two groups can sing the same song but sound totally different. Individuality is what makes your ministry what it is, and there is nothing more impor-tant to the cause of being seen as an individual than to have an identity system.

For the local group, an identity system is essential as its components are basically the first things that people will see when looking at your brand. A standard identity system consists of a coordinated letterhead, envelope and business card. In expanding upon this idea, you could go ahead and develop a logo to really bring home the nature of your brand.

3. Develop an Internet Presence

Now, there was a time not too long ago when having a web presence meant just having a website. These days, with the emergence of social networking sites, it is not that necessary to have a top-level domain site of your own [i.e. nacama.com], in-stead, there are a number of options available so that you can have a genuine presence on the internet. Sites like myspace© and facebook™ are perfectly alright when used properly, but, with a little more research, you can find plenty of niche sites that offer ample space to host photos and other things. The Key is to put together an internet strategy for your group beforehand and don’t be quick to just post a profile on every site you see. A simple plan to follow to get started is this:

• E-Mail Address – This can be as simple as yourgroupname@host.com, or for a little money, management@yourgroupname.com. The second can be achieved by purchasing a domain name and utilizing free services like google apps to host your dedicated mail. The Best thing about having your own domain name is that every member of the group can have their own personal email address pointing to your-groupname.com. Gmail.com is probably the best for groups to use. They’re free and offer basically limitless space to save your email.
• Personal Website – Blogs are really big these days, and actually, for groups, this is probably the best way to go. You can keep fans informed by posting photos from concerts as well as info on future concert dates, and ticket information. With a little help, you can also setup a shop to sell your products online directly from your site.

  Perhaps the best thing about a blog is that most are free to host and simple to maintain. Sites like wordpress.com and blogspot.com offer free websites and for a little extra, you can have the blog point to yourgroupname.com. For those who are a little more advanced, there’s wordpress.org and joomla that offer DIY solutions for groups that want to produce their own site. Whatever you choose, look at what best fits in to your overall strategy.

• Photo Sharing – These days, it’s not good enough to just be heard, people want to see the action also. You can host all of your photos online for fans too see and comment on at various site. Flickr is a site that offers the ability to group photos and connect with other users. They offer a free service that allows you to post up to 200 photos, or a premium service for $24.99 annually that allows for unlimited uploads and also the posting of short videos. Other sites for sharing photos include:

  SmugMug – fee-based photo sharing site [smugmug.com]

  Flickr – Offers free and Premium photo sharing solutions [flickr.com]

  Snapfish – offers free image hosting and sharing [snapfish.com]

• Video Hosting – Pretty much everyone knows of Youtube™, the site that allows for posting and sharing videos, but there are many others out there that are infinitely better.

  Youtube – Offers video hosting and broadcasting. Strong emphasis on video channels. [youtube.com]

  Vimeo – Offers hosting of HD quality videos. [vimeo.com]

4. Start A Fan Club

This Is the Year to start a fan club for all your fans. Now, it’s fairly easy to dismiss the idea of having a fan club if you only think in terms of young pop star fan societies. But, the reality is that a ‘fan’ club is an intriguing marketing opportunity that will allow you to engage fans on a more intimate basis. Another thing to consider is that this doesn’t have to be a paid fan club, no, you’re simply trying to stay connected and relevant in the mind of those who follow you.

One good place to get started is at the community portal site, ning.com. At ning.com, you can start your very own social network, allowing members of your particular network to have their very own profile page that ties directly into your network. The good thing is that this will allow you to disseminate information across a more broad cross-section of followers.

Now, you’re probably asking how this is different from just having a website. Well, while a website is a great promotional tool, they tend to be static in nature, that is to say, they don’t tend to be updated as often as maybe even a conventional blog would. This creates a problem in that sites that don’t generate content as often are generally unable to continue to draw fans back in after the initial visit. A social net-working site, on the other hand, has the built-in feature of allowing interactivity through the creation of fans individual profiles. So, while your content may not change for a few days or weeks, or even months, the fans investment into the network will continue to bring them back to the site. Add to this the ability to host the network at a top-level domain, say, club-mygroup.com, or some other neat name, and you have the continuous stream of people who, every time they visit your site, pay to you the name recognition that you’ve built. That’s equity!

5. Start Planning A Tour

Note: Since the publication of the Music Ministry Guide back in March, I’ve decided to rename this “Start Planning a Tour”, instead of Plan a Tour. The Start planning change is reflective upon the fact that it is tough work attempting to travel the road, much more difficult than I gave credit to initially. As Such, I plan to devote an entire article to tour planning as well as introduce some tools that will hopefully assist in the execution of the tour. Ok, as you were…

The Last thing you should be doing this year is planning to go on tour. Touring is a time honored tradition that dates back to, well… I have no idea, and yet still, touring is something that every group should aspire to do at some point.

Now, planning a tour involves a number of factors, not the least of which is building a budget for your excursion. A lot of your planning will deal with the aspects that you can control;

• Housing Expense
• Food Expense
• Travel Expenses – Including Gas and vehicle rental if necessary.
• Outlay for Promotional Materials – Written in the previous section was the idea of producing your own promotional materials.

Well then, I hope this was informative and that someone was enlightened by these simple nuggets of info. I am currently planning to expand on each one of these areas in a future post, providing links to even more resources and ideas for your ministry.

Agree? Disagree? Let me know; leave a comment.

Good Times

Now, the concept of congregational strategic marketing involves defining the resources that are available to you and building a strong set of practices around those resources that will greatly enhance the perceived profile of your congregation.

There are a few necessities that every congregation should have in building this strategy;

1. Identity system – For the local congregation, an identity system is essential as its components are basically the first things that people will see when looking at your brand. A standard identity system consists of a coordinated letterhead, envelope and business card. In expanding upon this idea, a visitors card, usher name tags, and weekly bulletin shell can all fall in the category of identity system.
2. Brand Logo – In addition to the identity system, the congregation may decide to build for themselves a logo – nothing elaborate, simply a stylized spelling of the congregations name or otherwise.

3. Website – A web address is essential to todays congregation as many people look for congregations on the web. Consider looking into building a web presence, and notice the word presence, for the congregation. There are many open-source website platforms that are free to use and hosting is very reasonable for congregations.

   WordPress, Joomla, Google sites, Blogger – all are good platforms to get started with, and best of all, all are free to use.

4. Dedicated E-Mail system – There was once a time when getting your own hosted e-mail was cost prohibitive for most people. The same can not be said in 2008. With services like dreamhost for hosting, and Google Apps, every congregation can have their own top level domain e-mail address. Which means… No more congregation email going through a Yahoo address. The systems that are in place now are so advanced that they allow you to set up many users instantly. Simply put, all of the leaders at your congregation can have their own e-mail address at your congregations domain.
5. Use the Bulletin as a source of ministering – There is no reason that a bulletin can’t be used as a tool for ministering to lost souls. If designed right, a Sunday morning bulletin can house all of the announcements, as well as a message from the minister and even steps to becoming a member. If there is a monthly bulletin it’s even better.

Identity System

In today’s environment, any great marketing system has to first address the overall identity of the congregation, and what better way than to have an identity system as the cornerstone. Now, an Identity system, at its core, is simply a stationary set that provides identification for your congregation. In most instances an identity system consists of a coordinated letterhead and envelope set and a business card. In more substantial cases, there are various labels and note cards and other collateral pieces that are used. The key, however, is the seemless transition from one piece of stationary to the next. This is achieved through 2 specific factors; The Logo and the color scheme.

The Logo – The logo, while important, is as simple to create as utilizing a stylized font in spelling out your congregations name. The key is consistency in usage, the fact that every time people see your name at your congregation it is always neatly displayed with the same characteristics, be it the same color and font, or any other way that generally sets your logo apart. At the Magnolia Park Church of Christ, there is both a primary logo and a secondary one. The Primary logo consists of a stylized spelling of “The Park”, the congregations name, with the title Magnolia Park Church of Christ directly underneath. This is done with the specific purpose of people associating the both the nickname and the congregation name. The nickname presents a friendly feel and is, in a sense, welcoming when seen and disarming, but at the heart is always the congregations name as to always remind people that The Park is a church. The Primary Logo is used mainly in-house for the members on all publications and there are plans to utilize it more on information that goes out to visitors and others.

The secondary logo is a much simpler logo that is just a styled capitalized M & P that appears on everything from the church bulletin to announcements and visitors cards.

The Color Scheme – It’s important to have a set of colors you work with when designing congregation materials. For one, with a defined color scheme, you’ll be able to always achieve a level of familiarity with those that receive your materials. Also, as an added bonus, you’ll not have to spend a lot of time with colors that may not work well. One of the prime points of creating a color scheme is great color usage. Think about it; on your bulletin board, which bulletins stand out? And which announcements wash out with their bland black and whites. Even if you’re pressed for money, a pre-designed letterhead with spot color will achieve both recognition and consistency in presentation.

Keep this in mind – The more time and effort that is spent on creating a smooth and consistent image for your congregation in print, the more likely it is that people will respond positively when your name is presented to them.

Good Times

For the Christian Acappella Music Awards, the most important aspect of the operation is the marketing of the program. For a show that moves around for every show, the reality is that we have to run as tight a marketing operation as possible to see that the show will be a success from an attendance standpoint. From there, everything else would flow smoothly as long as the numbers were there.

Pricing the Weekend

One of the biggest elements of the marketing process for CAMA is the pricing strategy for all events and subsequent revenue sources [i.e. souvenir booklets, vendor space]. Now, before we can look at the pricing of the 2010 Christian Acappella Music Awards, there are a couple of things that are important to understand in the management of events. First, you never want to have a price set so as to need to reduce it later on after setting it in response to a lack of sales. It is important that we price the show so that we can live with the result from the time tickets go on sale in Mid-August to show night in Late-November.

We ended on a price point of $67.50 for the entire weekend which basically breaks down into the following:

1. The 2010 Christian Acappella Music Awards // $35.50
2. CAMA Friday Night Live // $9.00
3. CAMA Saturday Matinee, presented by Trinity One Studio // $7.00
4. The CAMA Pre-Show // $6.00
5. CAMA Friday Matinee Concert // $5.00
6. CAMA Thursday Kickoff Concert // 5.00

In terms of ticket prices, our plan is always to run campaigns throughout the year that will allow people to purchase tickets at reduced rates right up to the release of the nominees in Late-August, when our ticket price will officially stand at $67.50. In addition to the reduced ticket prices throughout the first half of the year, we also run group sales for both performing artists and attending parties of 10 or more people.

Campaign Management

For 2010, we wanted to try to better understand where sales were coming from. In 2008, we were able to move tickets based on our various ad campaigns that dictated the price of tickets at any given time. For 2010, we wanted to further build upon that strategy by utilizing our ability to marketing to certain segments and distributing discount codes that would allow the customer a reduced rate, while also allowing us to see exactly where our ticket purchases were coming from.

1. Campaign 01 // February – Our kickoff campaign. We asked people to input the code “february” at checkout to receive a discount of 40% on their tickets to the 2010 Christian Acappella Music Awards. This campaign lasted from February 5-28.
2. Campaign 02 // Spring – Our March campaign. After the
3. Campaign 03 // Previous Purchasers – Utilizing our database of past year ticket purchasers, we produced an e-mail campaign that would allow them to purchase their tickets at a flat rate of $40.00 for the month of March.
4. Campaign 04 // Ladies Retreat – The code of “ladies” brought a 35% discount at checkout. We printed 500 postcards with this promotional code for the 2010 Ladies Retreat
5. Campaign 05 // Rogersville Homecoming – The code of “rogersville” brought a 35% discount at checkout. We printed 500 postcards with this promotional code for the 2010 Southside Church of Christ Homecoming in Rogersville
6. Campaign 06 // Summer – Our Summer campaign that we are currently running through the month of August. A discount of 30% on tickets purchased with the code “summer” through the online store. This is the most far-reaching of the all the campaigns as we have advertised this particular code in all of the souvenir booklets for events taking place during the months of June-August.

Early-Year Marketing

Marketing is a huge part of any program, but especially so with a program that moves around to different locations, while only occurring every two years. I have been privileged over the past few years to handle much of the marketing of the event and much of it has involved finding ways to develop a report with people, while striking the correct chord that will allow us to accomplish our set sales goals.

In January, we created a campaign to kickoff our marketing efforts in Los Angeles for an Acappella music workshop. We created postcards, as well as a promotional poster for the occasion. The Los Angeles afforded us a unique opportunity to begin marketing the program to a new audience in a new location. I had done some marketing work in Los Angeles in 2004 at the National Singles Lectureship, but the scope was rather small, and we hadn’t geared the campaign towards them. The promotional materials weren’t printed specifically with LA in mind, but rather as a beginning point in our overall marketing program. At the same time we produced the printed collateral, our early-year website was created and an online store was opened for ticket sales.

Part 1a – Our Internet Marketing Strategy

// Website – nacama.com

A rather large part of our marketing strategy is our internet strategy, consisting of our website, our online store, as well as a small social networking strategy to coincide with the website. The website is a static site that houses the archived information of past recipients, audio and video from select shows, as well as information concerning the 2010 weekend.

Campaign Management // Redux

In March we began planning for both the Ladies Retreat and the Homecoming in Rogersville, Alabama. We produced postcards, as well as supplied the promotional video that was played at all events.

There is a whole lot more to be said about CAMA Marketing, so i’ll probably produce another article, but in the mean time, I hope this provided at least a little insight into the marketing practices of the National Academy of Christian Acappella Music Artists