Digital Marketing Strategies Can Help You Reach More People
Ever wish you could reach more people with your message? You’ve poured hours into developing a sermon or teaching series for your congregation. You’re happy they received it well and excited about the good reports coming in… but what if I told you that you could exponentially expand your impact beyond your congregation?
What if I told you that you could potentially reach a BILLION people in countries around the world with your message? It’s possible, if you strategically repurpose your content. One of the best ways we’ve seen to extend your audience is through a Bible reading plan developed for the YouVersion Bible app.
The Cooke Media Group team recently celebrated with YouVersion at their “Beyond a Billion” event in Oklahoma City, celebrating one billion downloads of the free Bible app in 2,300 languages around the world. YouVersion founder and CEO Bobby Gruenewald shares, “The engagement of God’s word is at record levels” and YouVersion is taking a missional approach to today’s ever-evolving technology.
A Powerful Mindset for the Digital Age
It’s a mindset that we encourage our clients to take: optimizing technology to share your message in ways beyond the pulpit. At Cooke Media Group, we’ve seen firsthand how powerful it is to take a sermon, a blog, or excerpts from a book, and transform it into a devotional or Bible reading plan. As YouVersion Content Partners, almost 320,000 people have subscribed to our team’s plans alone!
Online digital content is a tremendous way to share God’s hope and life with people beyond a church or ministry’s sphere of influence. YouVersion’s platform offers various benefits for churches that can help unify their congregations around the Word of God. We highly encourage pastors to check it out, while also considering other options to reach more people with your message.
Unlock Audience Potential
You can unlock audience potential by repurposing your content to make it available in other mediums and on various platforms. There are immeasurable ways to extend the reach of your message or teaching! Some examples include transforming a sermon into a book idea, a blog into a social media post, perhaps even a song your worship team wrote into a devotional.
Take a moment and brainstorm: What new audience could your sermon series on parenting or discipleship reach by developing it for a new medium such as print or online content? What new platform could you develop the content for that would extend its impact into new demographics?
As Phil Cooke, founder and CEO of Cooke Media Group reminds us,
“The need to share our message never changes, but how we share it does.” When you strategically embrace the opportunities technology offers, your message can resonate far beyond the four walls of your church.
Next Steps: Expand Your Reach – Increase Your Impact
Here are three top ways to extend your reach:
- Check out Phil’s Maximize Your Influence: How to Make Digital Media Work for Your Church, Your Ministry, and You. Available on Amazon*, it’s a great way to start thinking of the possibilities of the digital age.
- **Register for the NRB International Christian Media Convention and make sure to attend the NRB Talks: Write, Repurpose, and Expand Your Ministry to Reach New Audiences. Taught by our development executive Laura Woodworth, this session will equip you with an actionable plan to reach more people with your message. (Find out more here. Session time: Friday, February 20th at 11:15 am.)
- Lastly… with Bible engagement on the rise, why shouldn’t you be on YouVersion? A devotional plan created for YouVersion’s Bible app is one of the most effective ways to reach beyond your sphere of influence.
Best of all, we offer a devotional writing service to transform your existing content into impactful devotionals or reading plans developed especially for YouVersion’s platform. As established YouVersion Content Partners, Cooke Media Group will submit your devotional for you, streamlining the Content Partner application process. Connect with our team and let’s talk about the opportunity!
*As an Amazon Associate, Phil earns from qualifying purchases. Thank you!
**Attending NRB 2026? Check out other sessions led by our Cooke Media Group team:
NRB Workshop: Engaging Your Audience on Christian Television
NRB Talks: TV Isn’t Dead: Leveraging Broadcast Television for Today’s Audience
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Phil Cooke, PhD., has been called “one of the most innovative communicators of our generation.” As the CEO/founder of Cooke Media Group, media producer, writer, speaker, and consultant, his client list includes major film studios and TV networks as well as major Christian organizations like Voice of the Martyrs, The Museum of the Bible, The Salvation Army, and others. He’s also coached and consulted with many of the most influential churches and nonprofit organizations in the world, helping them use media to tell their story. Access his blogs on creative leadership here.