Marketing Strategy
The marketing strategy for the Denison Forum Expansion Campaign is designed to ensure that the voices, resources, and biblical perspectives we produce reach exponentially more people. Through increased advertising, strategic brand development, and disciplined execution, Denison Forum will grow to more than 300M annual content experiences by 2028.
Audience Definition
Denison Forum's core audience spans all age ranges and demographics but is primarily:
- ● US-based, faith-oriented readers seeking thoughtful Christian commentary. Current readers are predominantly in Texas, California, Virginia, Georgia, and Ohio
- ● 24-55 age range, 56% male
- ● Individuals who consume digital news daily but seek an alternative to divisive or pessimistic coverage
Brand Development Partnership: BLVR
Denison Forum is partnering with BLVR to develop a refreshed brand identity and sharpen our organizational messaging. BLVR is an award-winning, purpose-driven brand consultancy agency with 22 years of experience in helping mission-based organizations like Denison Forum translate their core beliefs into powerful brand and audience experiences, making them an ideal partner to help reposition and launch a new kind of news that inspires trust, clarity, and conviction in a divided media landscape. Through this collaboration, Denison Forum will clearly define its core belief, purpose, vision, and values which are foundational elements that will shape every interaction with the brand.
The new brand identity will be designed to deeply resonate with both current and future audiences, building greater trust and positioning Denison Forum as their most reliable source for news and biblical insight. Once the brand framework is complete, BLVR will assist with visual branding to ensure that the external presentation authentically reflects our internal mission, allowing audiences to immediately recognize Denison Forum's core belief the moment they engage with us.
Market Potential
The market for faith-informed media continues to expand as audiences seek meaning-driven journalism.
According to a 2025 report by the National Religious Broadcasters and Barna Group:
- ● More than 60% of American adults report consuming Christian media, 50% report engaging at least once per week.
- ● ⅔ of the general population view Christian media as valuable and trustworthy.
- ● GenZ is leading the way with 64% engaging with Christian news via social media (National Religious Broadcasters & Barna Group, 2025).
By combining timely, relevant commentary with digital distribution excellence, Denison Forum can position itself as a go-to source for Christian news, ultimately converting casual readers into loyal subscribers and donors.
Email Acquisition Strategy
The most proven and scalable email acquisition channel for Denison Forum has been Meta ads. Emphasis will be placed on lookalike audiences, interest targeting, and retargeting ads designed to convert social engagement into email sign-ups. Below are two examples of lead acquisition ads run across Meta platforms:
Secondarily, Google ads will be used to capture an audience searching for news stories and headlines with the intent to show them a new way of looking at news.
Key Benchmarks
Content Engagement Strategy
The main objective is to reach more people with our content and encourage them to dive deeper through the marketing funnel. This starts with getting the audience to read an article, view a social media post, and watch a podcast episode on YouTube. Once they engage we can continue to engage with them in order to acquire their email and drive them deeper into Denison Forum content, with the ultimate goal of converting the audience into donors.
Content engagement is targeted through social media advertising Google search, YouTube advertising, as seen in the budget breakdown above.
Investment in Advertising
Annual advertising spend will increase from:
$250,000 in 2025 → $750,000 in 2028
This investment fuels:
- ● Scalable audience acquisition
- ● Brand visibility
- ● Sustainable, long-term impact
This is not about growing a big audience for numbers sake. Each person we gather through digital marketing is about ministry multiplication. The more people we have reading a new kind of news, the more we can impact culture.