Building an ideal customer profile is a common business practice whose goal is to identify the type or types of people the business caters to. This involves identifying needs, wants, pain points and more. This type of study into the minds of customers helps businesses market more effectively and offer products and services that really meet the needs people have.

So, how does this relate to your church?

Quite simply, if you can learn to identify those you serve best in the community, you will better understand how to attract them to your church and meet their needs.

Step 1: Understand your current members and visitors. The best way to start is by simply getting to know the people who are already interested. In the business world, this would be your “core customer.”

Create two polls/questionnaires:

1. The first should go to your members. Ask them for basic information about themselves and their family, plus questions about what they like about the church and why they became a member.
2. The second should be on your visitor card. Ask visitors some basic information about themselves—if they visited alone or with family, how they heard about you, what ministries they are interested in, etc.

Step 2: Start with demographics. There is plenty of primary research out there regarding most towns. Check out these resources to truly get to know who is in your area:

• US Census Bureau
• Barna Cities Research
• City and/or county websites

In the event you aren’t able to find what you’re looking for, you can do some research of your own.

Step 3: Go beyond demographics. Now that you know a little more about your audience, get into the nitty-gritty characteristics and qualities of those in surrounding areas:

• Wants
• Needs
• Education
• Location
• Anything else that makes your audience unique
• 66 Other Ways to Know Them (in the business world)

Step 4: Keep a constant reminder. Post a “profile” of this visitor persona around the office. It offers a constant reminder of the type of person you’re serving, praying for, on the phone with or emailing all day long. This can boost your outreach, efficiency and productivity. If leadership truly knows the needs of the visitor, they can:

• Meet the community needs better.
• Build relationships better.
• Communicate better.

Now that you’ve identified your target visitor and are keeping them in mind each day, the next step is to actually learn how to reach them effectively and help meet their needs. Join us next time to get tips on doing just that.

Tony Morgan is the chief strategic officer and founder of TonyMorganLive.com. He’s a consultant, leadership coach and writer who helps churches get unstuck and have a bigger impact. For 14 years, Tony served on the senior leadership teams at West Ridge Church (Dallas, Ga.), NewSpring Church (Anderson, S.C.) and Granger Community Church (Granger, Ind.). With Tim Stevens, Tony has co-authored Simply Strategic Stuff, Simply Strategic Volunteers and Simply Strategic Growth—each of which offers valuable, practical solutions for different aspects of church ministry. His book Killing Cockroaches (B&H Publishing) challenges leaders to focus on the priorities in life and ministry.

For the original article, visit tonymorganlive.com. This is a sponsored post from faithHighway, one of Tony Morgan’s current site sponsors at TonyMorganLive.com.

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