Sales Strategies and Promotional Resources for Christian Retailers

Here you’ll find numerous resources you can use to inform and encourage your church customers to incorporate Share the Good News of Christmas into their ministry plan this year.

Start Now—Churches work in different ways with differing levels of advance planning. But many churches make very specific plans for the fall and into the Christmas season over the summer. Certainly they are planning how they will use their budgets carefully more this year, perhaps, than ever before. So it is key that you begin your efforts to contact churches about Share the Good News of Christmas in June, July and August.

Contact Various Ministries in the Church—The invitations in the kit are completely customizable. So familiarize yourself with the ministry centers in the churches you are contacting, and don’t limit yourself to presenting this only as a general, church-wide effort. Talk to the minister of music about using the kits to invite people outside the church to the big Christmas musical event. Talk to the women’s ministry leader about women using the kits with their friends and neighbors to invite them to a special Christmas brunch where the gospel is shared clearly. Talk to the college ministry about using them on campus to invite people to a concert or lecture at the church. Approach the teachers of large Sunday School classes or the staff person in charge of small group ministries to adopt Share the Good News of Christmas as a class or small-group project to invite friends and neighbors to a special event at the church during the Christmas season or to the series of Christmas-themed sermons in the month of December.

Think Outside the Church, Too—The Share the Good News packets might be a good fit for various parachurch ministries in your community. Many of them have Christmas celebrations and events and spend $1 or more on printed invitations. Encourage them to consider using the Share the Good News of Christmas bags as invitations, printing the information about their event on the card enclosed in the bag.

Post the video on your store’s website— Post the Share the Good News video from Max Lucado in which he encourages churches to reach out to their communities this Christmas using Share the Good News of Christmas packets on your store website.

The Max Lucado video can also be shown to pastors at a pastor’s event at your store. Kick off the season by showing appreciation to your local pastors for the great work they do at a breakfast or lunch, and introduce the program personally to them there.

Send an E—mail to your Church Contacts Offering a free sample packet — Download the e-mail template on this page and use it to write a personalized message to your top, cream-of-the-crop church accounts. Tell them you will be dropping off a sample Share the Good News of Christmas packet for them at the church. Use the e-mail template to also send a message to your broader list of church contacts, offering to drop a packet by the church or inviting them to come to the store to pick up a free sample packet. In your e-mail message, be sure to include a link to the www.goodnewsofChristmas.org website where they can watch the Max Lucado video and catch a vision for how the packets can be personalized for their church.

Mail or Deliver a card to key contacts—Some of your church contacts will respond best to a personal note from you accompanied with a sample kit. Download a card and write a personal note to key church contacts. Instead of delivering it to the church, you might want to hang the bag on the front door of their house, giving them an experience that will drive home how the packets can be used.

Incorporate the logo on your website, catalog, or mailing—Download the Share the Good News of Christmas logo and use it aggressively this summer and into the fall on your website, at the bottom of your e-mails, and any other way you can think of to catch the attention of potential church customers.