Digital marketing is just marketing done online. Same store. Different street.
I use a map in every Marketing 101 and ministry marketing workshop because people remember pictures better than jargon:
Real life Online
Store Website / home base
Sign out front Being findable (Google Business Profile, local listings)
Farmers market booth Social media
Your lake Newsletter / email list
I am Jube Dankworth, founder of Net Media Consultants—PR and digital marketing since 2001. Whether you lead a local church, an adjunct ministry, a podcast, or a small business, this map keeps you from doing everything and finishing nothing.
Store = website / home base
The website is the store. Walk in and a guest should know: who you are, who you help, and what to do next.
Include:
About / story — mission, a real photo of you or the team, trust
One clear next step — one button, not five
A freebie or signup so you can keep talking
Links only to platforms you actually use
Bootstrap version: you do not need an expensive site on day one. A simple site, a Facebook Page treated as home base, or a Linktree-style hub can start. One place that is yours. That is an owned property.
This week tip: Tidy one home base for one hour. Mission sentence at the top. Done is better than perfect.
Sign out front = being findable
Most businesses spend real money on the sign. Ministries often skip it.
How do people find you today? Maps. “Near me.” Voice search. Church bulletin. Community calendar. The old Yellow Pages logic still works: people look locally first.
Action steps that cost almost nothing:
Claim Google Business Profile if you have an address or meet at a church
Get listed where locals already look
Encourage honest reviews and testimonies
Use church announcement slides, bulletins, Nextdoor, and community calendars
This week tip: Spend one hour claiming or cleaning the listing. It is free.
Findability is not vanity. It is hospitality for the person already searching.
Farmers market = social media
Your store may sit on a quiet street. The farmers market is where strangers hear the story. You talk, share, build relationships—and you collect sign-ups for the lake.
Three kinds of groups to notice:
1. Similar work — comrades, hard questions, peer learning
2. Groups made of the people you serve — your avatar lives here
3. Local groups — church, community, town
Focus on one or two platforms where those people already are. Consistency beats virality. Phone video plus captions is enough. Attraction marketing: story + useful + invitation. Same sentence every time.
A practical cadence for a solo founder: three posts a week on one platform—story, helpful resource, invitation. Ask for shares before you ask for money.
Offline still works and costs almost nothing: a one-page flyer (sentence, three points, QR or link, next step), presence at someone else’s event before you invent your own, personal invitations, community papers, Christian radio PSAs, church slides.
Lake = newsletter
Social is fishing in someone else’s lake. You find people there—then you bring them to your lake.
When they sign up, they become a relationship you can steward. Permission to write them week after week or month after month. No single deleted account can erase the whole conversation.
Trade-show rule I still use: I would rather leave with an email than a one-time sale. Ministry version: leave with a name you can pray for and write.
Give first—prayer guide, 5-day email, one-page resource, short teaching—then invite the list. Free Mailchimp or Brevo is enough. Email #1 = the story + the gift. One newsletter a month is a fine start.
Keep the store alive: blog → front page → newsletter
How do you keep the home base fresh so search—and the new ways people ask AI tools—still find you?
1. Write about a problem you help people with
2. Put it on the front of the site
3. Repurpose it in the newsletter
One 300-word piece a month is enough to keep the lights on. You do not need a newsroom.
Time and cost without the overwhelm
At launch you will DIY. Marketing 101 rule of thumb for a full small-business effort can run around ten hours a week if you do it yourself. For a solo ministry founder, cut it to what you can keep:
One home base. One list. One platform. One story.
Start free: Google Business Profile, Canva free plan, free email tool, the phone in your pocket. The cheapest multiplier is still borrowed trust—one church mention, one table at an existing event, one good introduction.
Put the map on your wall
Store ready? Mission + one button + signup
Sign claimed? GBP or local listings cleaned
Booth open? One platform, three posts a week
Lake stocked? Free gift + email #1 sent
If you want a potential-client consult to walk this map for your ministry or business anywhere in the U.S., call Net Media Consultants at 713-851-0743 or visit netmediaconsultants.com.
Start where you are. Open the store. Hang the sign. Show up at the market. Fish toward your own lake.
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