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What is Your Pet Peeve about Church Marketing?
By chris | September 18, 2007
Recently I asked my friends on my FaceBook list, “What is your pet peeve about church marketing?” Below you see their responses. What is your pet peeve?
I have been working in ministry marketing for several years now and I have noticed that very few ministry leaders are neutral about it. Some people have ill feelings about it while others have high expectations for it. What about you? Are you for against ministry marketing?
In my opinion you can’t not use marketing in ministry. If you are starting a ministry or running an existing one, you have to use some form of communication to reach out to people. Even face-to-face (aka: Word-of-Mouth) is a form of marketing. If you choose not to actively think about your “brand,” that doesn’t mean people are not forming opinions about your church.
I have always said, “If you don’t manage your brand, someone else will.” Since you want to reach out to people and people are already forming opinions about your church, why not get active in the process and understand how to use marketing?
My friends have feelings and insights about church marketing too, read below. Rather than comment on what they say, I’ll let their opinions speak for themselves. See if you can glean an idea of two from what their comments.
Doug: “Church marketing is my pet peeve.”
Henry: “Marketing is just done haphazardly and not specifically tied to demographics.”
Marcus: “Corny and cheesy antics and design.”
Jeff: “Portraying that you are one thing, when in reality, you are nothing like what you are portraying. No wonder some don’t trust the church.”
Chris: “No integration and/or strategy . . . when the color palette of the foyer, signage, bulletin, and church newsletter are all different. When you see a good direct mail piece for a sermon series but it’s not carried over to the Web, sermon slides, etc”
Rick: “The fact that some leaders think it will solve their problems. What good does it do to change the wrapping if what’s inside stinks?”
Scott: “The presumption that church is not attractive so we have to make it more palatable.”
Greg: “The use of cliché “Christianese” phrases. People don’t always understand things like, “…your walk with Christ,” or “Have you ever asked Jesus into your heart?”
Jeff: “OK, really, my biggest peeve is the church marquee. I HATE them. Want to see the dumbest stuff ever written? Look at a church marquee. I’m so glad we don’t have one!”
Kiki: “Cheesy t-shirts”
Micah: “Church signs. That’s all I need to say. There is nothing worse.”
David: ” That having somebody’s, brother’s uncle do it is considered ‘good enough’. It is never “good enough” unless it is in excellence unto the Lord.”
Karen: “Stock photos of people! I want to see the people who really hang out there. Grab a camera….”
Stephen: “Churches that rely on it exclusively instead of realizing that Word of Mouth or Viral Marketing is even more significant. I believe both have their respective place.”
Neil: “Marketers tell us that nothing beats ‘word of mouth’. So how embarrassing is it that we also have to do professional marketing of the church? It almost says (out loud) “Hey our word-of-mouth isn’t very good… but please come anyway!”
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September 18th, 2007 at 7:08 pm
I love Neil’s comment most. I’m laughing my rear off over here.
“It almost says (out loud) “Hey our word-of-mouth isn’t very good… but please come anyway!””
October 31st, 2007 at 12:00 am
There are a lot of ways to “market” church these days… i think about this often. It is relevant to think about “spiritual marketing” when you’re talking to Americans especially. The tough part here is to maintain a God-dependent, Christ-surrendered, Spirit-led mindset.