This is a guest post by Tevin Bryant. Read more about how you can guest post on Christian Web Trends here.
As a church leader you can’t afford to spend boatloads of cash on marketing materials. These materials can get very expensive, especially if you’re buying premium, customized content, or hiring a marketing creation team. You need to know how to create your marketing material, and ideally, you need to know how to get it for free. Here are some of the most common pieces of marketing material you can find or create for free.
What is Marketing Material?
Marketing material is anything you use to promote your message. These materials are either in print or in digital format and can include:
- Billboards
- Email newsletters
- Commercials
- Online videos/posts
- Social media posts
- Catalogs
- Brochures
- Blog content
The umbrella that is the term marketing material is extensive, and virtually anything you can imagine that would convey your brand’s idea to your community could be considered marketing material.
While you won’t be able to find everything for free, open sources on the internet can help you make a lot yourself or even find royalty-free content to use. Here are five of the best things you’ll be able to find for free.
1. Graphics and Logos
One of the most critical outward-facing parts of your brand, your logo, is something you can conceivably get for free. Websites like this one provide you free, powerful graphic design tools that are also surprisingly easy to use. Instead of paying a graphic designer a hefty fee for creating you a logo, why not do it yourself for nothing?
2. Blog Content
Many church leaders find that building their own blog is an excellent way to make their brand image, share their knowledge or experience with their target market, and get the word out about their product. If you’re a good writer, you can generate blog content for the cost of just your time. There are even blogs dedicated to giving you possible blog topics, so you don’t even have to think too hard about it.
3. Stock Photos
Sites like Unsplash and Pexels are useful resources if you’re looking for high-quality stock images that you don’t have to pay for. These sites are sourced from folks who are just trying to share their photography with the world, and you can get images for your email newsletters, blog content, or whatever else you might need a photo for.
4. Audio Tracks
If you’re creating advertising videos for your brand, you can also find royalty-free audio tracks for background music in your ads or content. Sites like HookSounds provide unique music crafted by artists worldwide, and some of their music is downloadable without having to have a paid account. Talk about a good deal!
5. E-mail Marketing
Finally, if you use email for marketing, you could spend hours writing your marketing email, building your distro list, and sending your email out. Or, you could find a free-to-use e-mail marketing website that handles all that for you. E-mail is a proven way to convert clicks into sales, and it’s a very successful marketing technique, so you can’t afford to pass up a way to do it for free. One great site is Sender, which not only automates a lot of the e-mail process for you; it can offer customized e-mails for your customers to help your newsletter stand out, and it’s simple to use. It’ll even give you reports on your conversion rates so you can tailor your e-mail marketing program to get excellent results.
Final Thoughts
You can’t beat free, and your online marketing program is an integral part of growing your church. Put them both together, and you’ve got a powerful engine for growth, all the while spending little to no money. Creating marketing material doesn’t have to be expensive, and there are even things you can get for totally free if you know where to look.
