You've made the first decision -- you want to advertise your church and its activities. Budget and timing will affect the your final selection as well as the type of message you want to communicate. You might want to advertise a specific program or service your church offers through radio and direct mail, or you might just want to reinforce the current message of hope and invitation being communicated by the national campaign (customize a TV or print ad). Igniting Ministry offers a wide range of media resources along with any how-to help you may need for a successful campaign. A selection of customizable TV commercials, radio commercials, print ads, direct mail, cinema and outdoor billboard are available free from the MediaWarehouse.

Cost will definitely influence the type of media you choose for your church. As expected, TV and radio can be some of the most expensive forms of advertising. To employ these media vehicles effectively, there is typically a minimum amount of time (in terms of weeks) and commercials Igniting Ministry recommends you purchase. For TV, the recommended minimum is 125 TRPs (or Target Rating Points) per week, made up of 50% news and 50% mixed dayparts. For radio, the minimum is 100-150 TRPs per week on a mixture of radio formats (adult contemporary, country, Top 40, etc). Costs will vary depending on the size of your market, as well.
Target Rating Point - Percentage of the target audience population watching/listening to the television/radio at a specified time.

Listen to your local stations until you understand why others do so. Find out as much as you can about their program formats, coverage areas and on-air personalities, and what each has done to support causes like yours. Stations report on the good and the bad in the community; their staff's human compassion often pushes them to use their medium for good. Find out as much as you can about the stations' program format, coverage area, personalities, etc.

Direct-mail advertising is a powerful marketing tool if done correctly. No other medium allows you to target your audience so exactly. In order to achieve the full impact of a direct mail campaign, we strongly recommend that any direct mail effort be simultaneously supported by another type of outreach, such as newspaper or radio.

As with any advertising material, there is a point at which smaller ad sizes fail to deliver the needed impact of the message. Because of the photography and the amount of words in the ads, anything smaller than recommended ad sizes will not deliver the message.