Getting Your Name Out There

I bumped into a friend yesterday who has transitioned from advertising executive to surf artist. In order to grow his new business he has had to actively promote his art to gain new customers. In the early days of his new career he would create art to promote events even if it didn't pay well because it at least "got his name out there." He wouldn't do the same now though unless there was a good return on his investment - money or new clients. Marketing pro's I work with would agree that there has to be a good ROI to do marketing. For small or new churches (or churches reestablishing themselves) I would make a case for both:

- Getting your name out there
- Getting a return on investment (visitors to your church)

Getting Your Name Out There
I've been asked if I would ever promote an organization if the result was that it made it look like everyone else. If I was new and starting out, establishing an image as a successful, growing organization would be a positive step. So, yes, I would.

Harry Beckwith, author of the marketing book Selling the Invisible, tells of a Greek immigrant who started a tour business to show people his beloved land. In trying to get a publication to do a story on him, an interested editor said he had never heard of the new travel business. He wasn't convinced it was real. If they had advertised and gotten their name out there, the editor would have followed through with the story. Applied to churches - it's much easier for people to trust you if they are familiar with you. Getting your name out there can help establish your identity and lay the groundwork of trust and familiarity.

Return on Investment
If you have a familiar presence in your community, then your communications need to be effective and measurable. For established churches, use free of low cost PR to get your name out there. If you are paying to get your message out, it needs to accomplish what it sets out to do. Have the goal in mind before you start a campaign, then perform a postmortem after the event to see if you met your goals and how you would do it differently in the future.

Maximum Impact Marketing - Frequency

There's nothing worse than spending time and money sending out a postcard and not getting a response. "I'll never do that again," you mutter to yourself. Yet other churches do experience success. What do they know that you don't?

I just got back from a marketing conference that listed some helpful rules for getting the most from your marketing effort. To achieve maximum impact in:
- Print (magazines/newspaper) - run your ad at least 4 times
- Direct Mail (postcards) - send out at least 3 postcards
- Radio - (promoting a weekend event) - run at least 24 spots Wed-Sat.
- Billboard - Go for at least one month.

One other word about postcards/direct mail. Direct mail is most effective with people who are already familiar with you. So while a postcard invitation may attract new people, it will probably be more effective in attracting inactive members of your congregation, or people who have some prior connection with your church.

Pepsi, Smoking & Church Growth

(Or how to grow your church through being missional)

(From www.presbyterianglobalfellowship.org) Will Mancini, author of Church Unique, helps leaders to recognize that a relevant model of ministry is not through internal focus. Rather, it is through participation in their community and surrounding culture. Informed by missional thinking, he helps church leaders to engage the nonaffiliated in a way that is unique to their context and culture. Will says in his book, “ Your mandate must counteract the “gravity inward ” of Christian fellowship. Dietrich Bonhoeffer said that the church is only the church when it exists for others. What keeps your church focused externally? Who do you think the most important person is to the Coca Cola company? The consumer? Which one? The Coke drinker? Nope —It’s actually the Pepsi drinker. Missional leaders need to polarize this same reality for their people. It should be clear that the most important people are those outside the church. Neil Cole sums it up well when he reminds believers, “If you want to reach people for Jesus, you’re going to have to sit in the smoking section (pp122).”