Lifestage Strategy Focus on the Family · FY27 Strategy Owner · Gwen Ueding

FY27 enterprise strategy

Build one connected ministry journey around the family.

Audience signals help us understand where people are. Prioritized products create known relationships. Personalized pathways help Focus serve the next real need.

Grow qualified audiences Learn from behavior Deepen ministry impact
The strategy in one sentence

Awareness creates trust. Tier 1 products create known constituents. Life-stage journeys turn that relationship into timely ministry.

UnknownKnownDeepening
01Constituent-first planning
02Standardized measurement
03Signal-based personalization
04Connected ministry progression

01 · The model

Move from campaigns to coordinated progression.

The life-stage model starts with the constituent’s current reality, then aligns marketing, products and ministry expertise around the next need we can confidently serve.

Today · Fragmented

Product-based marketing

Marriage initiativesParenting initiativesFaith + Culture initiativesAudio initiativesEnterprise products

Products and channels compete for attention, and relationship movement is hard to see.

Future · Connected

Audience life-stage marketing

Audience
signals FoundationsMaturityLegacyCrisis

Signals guide people into prioritized acquisition and the most relevant ministry path.

02 · Life-stage waypoints

Serve the stage. Anticipate the transition.

These waypoints create a shared organizing model. They do not flatten people into a demographic label; behavior and direct input increase confidence over time.

01

Marriage prep · Young married · Married, no kids

Family Foundations

Help couples establish the relational and spiritual foundation for the family they are building.

Audience needs

  • Marriage readiness and expectations
  • Healthy relationship habits
  • Faith and family rhythms
  • Preparation for future transitions

Confidence signals

  • Marriage assessment responses
  • Relationship-content engagement
  • Wedding or young-marriage behavior
  • Repeated topic interest
Recommended movement

Route into marriage acquisition, personalized cultivation and the right next-step ministry experience.

03 · The connected journey

Each step has a job. Each handoff has a measure.

Awareness, acquisition and deepening operate as one progressive system. The goal is movement with increasing understanding, not a string of disconnected conversions.

01

Earn attention

Attention

Compelling family content reaches new bullseye audiences.

Qualified reach
02

Connect to life

Relevance

Content aligns to a real life stage, need or family moment.

Engaged audience growth
03

Build confidence

Exploration

People explore Focus resources, voices and value more deeply.

Qualified audience growth
04

Understand intent

Audience Development

Behavioral signals establish stage, affinity and readiness.

Signal coverage + quality
05

Become known

Tier 1 Acquisition

A prioritized product creates the known relationship and richer signals.

Known constituents + CPA
06

Serve the next need

Ministry Deepening

Personalized KMI journeys build relationship and ministry impact.

Progression + depth
The critical handoff

Tier 1 products connect audience growth to ministry depth.

They convert a qualified audience member into a known constituent, capture stronger signals and begin an intentional KMI journey.

04 · Audience intelligence

Personalize with confidence, not assumptions.

Signals should become more useful as the relationship grows. Start with observed behavior, invite direct input and use every interaction to improve the next decision.

01

Observed signal

Content views, watch depth, searches, clicks and repeat visits.

02

Inferred signal

Topic affinity, probable life stage and transition readiness.

03

Declared signal

Assessment, survey, quiz, profile and resource responses.

04

Confirmed signal

Known household data, product participation and longitudinal behavior.

Life stage transitionsDiagram of how people move between life stages: Singles, Young Adults, Pre-Marriage and Early Marriage, then Early Parenting, Growing Family, Teen Family and Adult Family, with a divorce band that peaks during Early Parenting and Adult Family, and a New to Focus entry band underneath. Green arrows are a low bar of entry, orange a medium bar, and red a high bar.DivorcePeakDivorcePeakNew to FocusSinglesYoung AdultsPre-MarriageEarly MarriageEarly ParentingGrowing FamilyTeen FamilyAdult FamilyLIFE STAGETRANSITIONS*New name = low bar of entry*Often “ this doesn’t apply tomy life stage” button*Need High bar of entry to goBackward*High tolerence for YoungAdult interest from “AdultFamily” life stageLOW BAR OF ENTRYEX. Two Stage TaggedArticles orRelated Name CaptureMEDIUM BAR OF ENTRYEX. Pop-up confirmation,Subscription or “high”engagement in new life stageHIGH BAR OF ENTRYEX. Web ad confirmation, form fill-out or call(triggered by engagement in “crisis” taggedcontent) (there is no assumption)
Scroll sideways to see the full diagram.

05 · Measurement

Measure the health of the audience relationship.

Campaign performance still matters. The leadership view adds the measures that reveal whether Focus is building larger, better-understood and more deeply engaged audiences.

01

Active audience

Size of an active, reachable audience within each life stage.

02

Product engagement

Participation across products, content and priority initiatives.

03

Stage progression

Movement into the next meaningful stage, need or ministry action.

04

Relationship depth

Engagement-to-giving ratio and breadth of ministry connection.

Leadership rollupAudience growth + relationship depth
Stage healthAudience size + progression + engagement
ExecutionQualified reach + CPA + content and signal performance

06 · Strategic levers

Five systems make the model real.

The life-stage strategy requires coordinated changes to how Focus earns attention, prioritizes products, structures content and communicates with known constituents.

01

Brand awareness

Make Focus top of mind when families encounter moments of need, growth, uncertainty or crisis.

02

Product prioritization

Concentrate channel capacity around Tier 1 products that acquire known constituents and create useful signals.

03

KMI alignment

Organize pathways around constituent needs while the KMIs provide the right ministry depth and expertise.

04

Article + CTA system

Assign every article a strategic role and dynamically connect its reader to the right next step.

05

Dynamic flagship newsletter

Use affinity, behavior and feedback to deliver a more relevant ministry mix over time.

07 · FY27 roadmap

Build, learn, scale, prove.

FY27 establishes the operating system. The work should create usable audience intelligence early, then scale only after the signals and handoffs demonstrate value.

Q101

Build the foundation

  • Baseline audiences by stage
  • Inventory and tag content
  • Define shared measures
  • Establish signal and analytics standards
Q202

Learn the journey

  • Introduce life-stage content
  • Build behavioral audiences
  • Test sequential journeys
  • Evaluate signal quality
Q303

Scale what works

  • Expand strongest audiences
  • Reach underserved segments
  • Strengthen acquisition handoffs
  • Launch deeper personalization
Q404

Prove and plan

  • Measure audience movement
  • Connect to acquisition performance
  • Identify highest-value paths
  • Set FY28 investment priorities

The operating principle

Understand the person. Serve the present need. Prepare for what comes next.

Adults remain the marketing audience Signals outrank assumptions Tier 1 products create the known relationship KMIs deliver the ministry depth Standard measures create the feedback loop