Does your ministry run a store of sorts, selling products or even services? Perhaps you sell Christian-based books or host conferences.
It’s fairly common for organizations like yours to have this type of commerce branch. And, of course, you want to bring traffic to your website to encourage purchases or attract new constituents.
But how?
The answer is through content. Write excellent, helpful content that authentically supports your mission and dovetails with your paid offering. The sales will follow.
The Basic Benefits of Selling Goods or Services for Ministries
Not every ministry needs a sales arm to be successful—far from it. But if you’re reading this article, you’ve likely quelled the internal struggle between pursuing your mission and building a sustainable business and come to the conclusion that selling a product or service is right for you.
We want to empower you to take it a step further and actually realize its benefits.
When done effectively, growing your sales puts your ministry on more solid footing and makes it more robust. You can stress less about getting enough donations quarter to quarter. In turn, you can focus on what brought you into business in the first place—spreading your mission.
For Ministries, Content Is the Answer to Selling with a Conscience
There’s a right and a wrong way to merge your mission with sales. If you focus solely on sales, your mission will get lost in the marketing. And inundating site visitors with sales messaging stands to alienate them.
That’s where the right content comes in to combine spreading your mission with growing your sales. Specifically, zeroing in on content that is real, valuable, and relevant—and finding ways to incorporate products or services into that content after the fact—is the best way to maintain fidelity to your ministry’s mission. While simultaneously building the business side of your online presence. Let’s delve into exactly why content is the way to do just that.
Content Delivers Your Mission to More Readers
Content is king. A cliche saying, but true nonetheless. The right content can deliver on your ministry’s goals in two main ways:
- Good content feeds good SEO, which drives website traffic and therefore sales.
- Content has a unique ability to tell your ministry’s story, connecting with your audience and, again, driving sales.
Let’s dive deeper into each to ensure your content delivers both your mission and offerings to your audience.
Quality Content Boosts SEO and Attracts New Users
Search engines have long been sophisticated enough to detect when you’re attempting to game the system. Keyword-stuffed content, for example, doesn’t get you any SEO equity. Worse, you might actually be penalized for it. Quality content, on the other hand, can help you rank higher on search engines.
Your human readers can tell when your content is legitimately good, too. When you write useful content your constituents care about, they’ll become loyal readers. What’s more, SEO and organic traffic work in tandem. If your search engine rank goes up, readers are more likely to find your content. And if your organic traffic goes up, so does your SEO equity.
Tell Your Story Through Content and Draw in Devoted, Sales-Ready Constituents
Stories (and the content that tells those stories) are a huge part of getting people to understand your mission and feel emotionally connected to it. When they’re emotionally connected, they become missionally aligned with your ministry. With missional alignment naturally comes sales—and then more financial stability for your organization.
Perhaps most important, constituents who read your content and become believers in your mission will evangelize your mission to others. And isn’t your ultimate goal to reach as many people with your message as possible? You can’t do that without a content-first strategy.
Prove Your Ministry’s Authenticity through Content. Loyal Leads Will Follow.
The old adage that it’s easier to sell to an existing customer than to win a new one is apt here. Good content keeps readers engaged, and engaged readers are more likely to purchase goods or services from your organization. We’ve already established that.
But the importance of content to boost your ministry’s sales goes beyond pushing people up your sales funnel. Remember, your ultimate goal is to establish an ever-deepening relationship with your constituents so they embrace your mission so fully, they can’t help but spread it. You can only build those sorts of relationships by being authentic in your own commitment to your mission. And how do you convey your authenticity? You certainly can’t buy it. It has to be earned—and content can help you earn it.
With content, you can demonstrate that you’ve put deep thought into your mission. You can prove—through quality, story-focused writing—that you care about this purpose beyond gaining conversions or new donors.
When you show your passion authentically in writing, your readers will become engaged and loyal, which we already know pushes them deeper and deeper into your ministry’s mission. Once they’re invested and you’ve earned their stamp of authenticity, you have the opportunity to present new ways for your constituents to partner with your organization, i.e., through the purchase of products or services that help further your mission and enrich their lives.
You Can’t Fail When You Focus on Your Mission
At the end of the day, your online presence does not exist to sell goods or services. Yes, adding sales to your ministry has its benefits. But attempts to incorporate products or services should always be to enhance your ministry’s mission. Therefore, your products or services should never stand alone or steal the spotlight from your mission. Put another way: Your ministry’s outreach methods—including your content—must act in service of your mission, not the other way around.
Just as your mission should stand on its own regardless of your goods or services, so should your content. When you come from a place of wanting to produce content that’s actually useful to your constituents and aligned with your mission, your sales offering will naturally mesh with that messaging. Product (or service) viability comes when you have an authentic mission that’s captured in authentic content.