The Problem You Don't Know You're Having with Lead Generation

So Ainsley and I won an all-expenses paid trip to London, England three years ago. All because Kodak wanted my name and address.

Think about that. A company was willing to give us a trip to freaking London, the Chronicles of Narnia movie premiere and after party, with spending money and a 4-star hotel stay... in exchange for our contact info! (Okay, ours and probably thousands of others.)

But it was the price they were willing to pay to generate leads.

I'm not saying churches need to build mailing lists. Bleach. But I am wondering how far we're willing to go to meet new people! Our problem is that we don't know enough of them.

Comments

[daniel d]

This could lead to a great discussion on the HOW. Easy for Kodak to entice people with the prospect of free stuff + you know what to expect when you fill out their form. You'll get emails or mailings of new product info, coupons, etc. at the very least. But the trade-off is worth it to some with the prospect of winning a trip of that magnitude.

Churches on the others hand have a hard enough time just getting new visitors to let them know they are even there much less the church stepping into meeting new people who aren't physically at the church during scheduled services.

But maybe that is partly because people tend to be suspect to "the church." Too afraid to let themselves be known at services for fear of someone showing up at their door. Or perhaps it's their own guilt. Or perhaps church people have too hard a time trying to meet and reach new people without it being over obvious of some sort of agenda. "I want to meet you to get you to come to church more than I want to meet you because I want to get to know you and serve you."

Sad thought that it's hard to connect when our prize is so much better than a trip to England.

I hope others chime in on this and maybe share a few ways they are engaging community in an authentic way.

[Ben Arment]

some good thoughts Daniel...

[Atiba de Souza]

We, VisionRunners.org, are hosting a free movie, FreeMovieSunday.com, for our community next week and we asked people to register, none of these people know us. Not only have 95 % of the people given their mailing and Email address almost 70% gave their phone numbers. We did tell them that by registering they have a chance to win a prize. We started advertising on Monday and have 150 RSVPs.

I think if we as the church don't present our selves as suspicious and take away people's fears they will open up. We are upfront that we are not asking for money, just want to do something nice for them.

Don't get me wrong...we have gotten some people who are suspicious but not many, at least not many who have bothered to express it.