Purpose of the Project
The purposes of this project are:
(1) to enable you to assess in depth the digital media marketing needs of an actual Christian
organization/busines and develop a basic plan or recommendations for addressing those needs
more effectively.
(2) to not only bring concepts and principles of digital media marketing to life but to undertake a
project that will truly benefit a Christian organization and its leaders of your choosing.
(3 to provide you with an opportunity to assess the Internet/social media “visual storytelling”
needs of the Christian organization and provide the chosen organization with specific
recommendations in this respect.
(4) to encourage you to provide biblically based justification for whatever you recommend to the
organization and thus help you crystallize your own Christian perspective of digital media
marketing and how it should be practiced
Picture yourself as an in-house or outside consultant or part of a team asked to address the
above. Because of time constraints, a full-fledged, extensive, protessional research etfort and
report that might be produced by a professional consultant is not possible. However, you should
think of the project in very professional terms when dealing with the organization and its
leaders and develop a comprehensive report for them that has a professional look and
provides meaningful advice the organization and its leaders may apply. Plan to present this
report to the organization’s leaders when it is completed.
Most of all, however, have fun with the assignment. It is a chance to learn a great deal while at
the same time greatly benefiting the Christian organization or ministry you choose
STEP 1 Select an Organization
Choose one of the following:
(1) a local church.
(2) a Christian missions or outreach organization of some type. This should be an actual
organization. Ideally, it is one that you are greatly interested in, perhaps have access to and in
which you can interact with its leaders, face-to-face and/or virtually. It should at least be one in
which you can go through a thorough fact-finding process that enables you to make specific
and meaningrul recommendations. Its size does not matter, although very large organizations
can be unwieldy for the purposes of this assignment or limit access to information and very
small organizations, particularly ones not involved much with digital media or social media and
other Internet-relatedmarketing now may not yield the best learning experience. In the case of
a very large organization, however, you might be able to focus on a particular branch of the
organization or department or ministry within it.
The organization you select should not be the same organization you will be working
with for your Google Ad Word campaign project.
STEP 2 Conduct Research or Fact Find
Although you can but are not obligated to conduct formal research that provides primary data,
find out as much as you can about the organization, its history, mission, goals, composition,
structure, forms of ministry, the various internal and external publics it typically serves or wants
to serve, the image it projects or desires to project, competitive and outside organizational
influences that may shape how it “markets, and perhaps key political, social, technological,
economic, religious and ethical “macro” trends that may influence what it is or is currently doing.
Some of this mav be learned through discussion with organization s leaders or other personnel.
However, a lot of it will be gained through your own examination of various strategic
communication plans, media/communication content, promotional materials, documents and
other materials the organization has produced All the types of information or factors listed above could have a bearing on the development of
your organization’s current or near future marketing or public relations strategies, as well as
what you might recommend to the organization in this regard. Keep the most important of
these in mind, but give special attention to the organization’s past and current marketing
efforts; that is, products/services/ministries and the way they have been developed, promoted,
distributed and priced or the perceived “costs” to those that might use them or have a stake in
them.
Research also can involve discovering what similar or other organizations have or have not
been doing relative to social media, Internet and other forms of marketing recently and how that
might apply to your selected organization’s needs.
In finding out about and assessing the church or mission or outreach organization’s marketing
efforts, identify all it has done or could do in this respect but concentrate most on its digital
media marketing efforts or how it is adapting to the current digital media environment in
this respect, as it develops, distributes, promotes and prices its products or services;
and markets the organization as a whole
For example, in what ways is it utilizing an organizational website(s), social networks, blogs,
mobile media, or any other digital media elements or applications of them for marketing
purposes and how well do this line up with trends, issues, ideas, and practices you have learned
or will learn about? What is the nature of not just the forms of communication used by the
organization but also the content associated with ow within each form? How do the forms of
media, their specific content, and the way they are being used line up with the organization’s
current characteristlcs, situation or needs and wat tney aopear to be irvina to accomplisn now
and in the near future?
In addition, determine how the organization seems to be communicating its story visually
through the Internet and social media platforms particularly, but perhaps in other ways
as well
Assess the Church or Mission/Outreach Organization’s Digital Media Marketing Needs
Based on your fact-finding effort, thoroughly assess the current and future marketing needs
of the local church or mission/outreach organization and especially those involving
social media and other Internet-related communication. Be as specific you can in your
evaluation. This should not be only a general assessment but should be an evaluation of how
the organization how well the organization is meeting current and projected marketing goals
and needs. You should be gaining insight about which of their marketing efforts you believe
should be discontinued or refined, and what initiatives might be pursued that are not already
taking place.
As part of this, evaluate what you believe the organization needs to do to better tell its story
visually through realistic, creative and meaningful use of social media platforms and
other Internet-related communication.
STEP 3 Develop Recommendations
Develop a list of realistic recommendations for the organization regarding how it can better
market its products/services/ministries through digital media. The number of recommendations
will vary depending on the organization, its resources and its needs. Be as specific and
thorough as you can. Very general, vague recommendations are seldom helpful to
organizational leaders. In addition, recommendations which the organization cannot realistically
undertake given its current situation or circumstances may not be helpful. However, you might
be able to provide some recommendations for the short-term but offer additional
recommendations for the near future, assuming the organization will grow.
Be sure to justify each of the recommendations, especially based on what you specifically
learned about the organization and its needs and considering current digital media marketing
trends and issues generally. In other words, the task is to sell what you recommend based on
the organization’s specific situation as well social media and Internet-related marketing,
advertising and public relations trends generally.
STEP 4 Create/write a Typewritten Report
Develop a typewritten report in which you present what you found and propose. The report
should be thorough but clear in writing, structure and appearance. It’s best to view this more as
a professional business report than an academic research paper, though it is important to cite
sources you may use.
The report should contain the following parts:
(a) a very brief introduction that states the purposes of your report, what you did in your
analysisof the organization and why.
(b) facts about the church or missions/outreach organization that you found and that you believe
are most pertinent to understanding its current “marketing environment” or factors that
influence or could influence any current or future marketing efforts it is involved in
(c) facts about its current marketing efforts per se, with special emphasis on its digital media
marketing efforts (especially those concerning the use of social media platforms and (d) your assessment of the organization’s specific digital media marketing needs and
explanation of why you believe each of these needs is important; including what you have
assessed are their “visual storytelling” needs.
(e) your list of specific digital media marketing recommendations you believe theorganization
should pursue, with some elaboration of how to go about EACH one and justification for
EACH (reasons why they are a good idea considering what you have found and assessed).
(f) a brief concluding section that summarizes things and “sells” what you propose overall. Again, it
is important to tailor this as specifically as possible to the particular organization’s
marketing situation and needs rather than providing just general advice.
STEP 5 Visual Storytelling Rationale
Develop a special section in which you summarize and explain how and why your
recommendations designed to help the organization tell its story visually through social media
platforms and other Internet-related communication will be an important way to address their
marketing needs. Use what you have learned from course readinas about the importance of
visual storytelling in today’s digital media marketing efforts to help develop and support your
specific contentions
STEP 6 Biblical Rationale
Once you have completed the above, develop a section of your report in which you evaluate
and justify what you have proposed from the standpoint of biblical truth. This should be a
biblically based rationale for further pursuing the marketing assessment and recommendations
you have provided in your report. Be thorough and specific in developing this. (Depending on
the organization or client, this section may or may not be suitable tor a report you present to
them. However, It should be submitted in the copy of the report you submit for the class.)
Length and Structure of the Report
The report itself should be thorough and detailed but not unwieldy. Again, structure it as a
report with clear headings rather than using an academic research paper or essay style. It can
be very concise, yet should be well thought out, specific, and logical. Endnotes (to cite sources
used in the research or to add additional information) seem to work best. You can include
graphics, images, charts, links, etc. if they help clarify or enhance what you have proposed or
help in visualizing your “story” (i.e., report) but try not to be gimmicky or just use them for the
sake of using them. However, it’s best not to expect these to “speak for themselves.” It’s your
voice as a “consultant” that needs to come through.
“Speak” to or address the organization and its leaders rather than to our class or a
general audience. Ideally, a copy of your report (when it’s in good shape) should be given to
the leaders or even accompany a face-to-face presentation to them. So, Its best to uSE
wording that addresses them and to provide a report that contains information that is pertinent
to them and the purposes of the project.
(Because our class likely will not be familiar with the organization, “cover” your report with a
brief- a page or less–description of the organization just to inform those in our class).
While the length of reports is likely to vary based on the organization selected and other
factors, 15-25 pages is a reasonable guideline for our purposes here.
Distributing Your Report
Your report should be posted as an attachment in a discussion “forum” within Blackboard that
will be set up for this purpose and so that others can read and respond to what you found and
recommended.
This should be submitted on or before November 18th in the designated Blackboard forum.
Additional Information
Although vou can undertake this project alone, you also can team up with another person taking
this course if you would like. Please let us know beforehand if that is something you would like
to pursue.
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