Church Marketing Myth No. 3
Myth #3: Marketing Alone Will Grow Your Church
Kerry Bural nailed it, he says "Ministry leaders sometimes think that marketing will overcome their downward attendance trends. While marketing may help raise awareness in the community, there is no substitute for a church body with the right heart and right purpose who is highly motivated to reach their community. Marketing merely backs up the 'real work' in your ministry—the work of engaging and relating to people."
Brandon Cox says "Jesus didn't have a brand to market. The truth is, Jesus described John the Baptist as a "funeral" and Himself as a "wedding." He was known for His encouraging joviality. Jesus had a brand and the Great Commission, while being about some very high principles, is also about publicity – it's a command to tell everyone about the essence of Jesus."
Laura Click says "I think for churches to really expand their reach, they need to employ a grassroots marketing strategy. Churches will be far more successful if they get out into the community to help others and try to reach "the lost". Churches need to be more proactive about encouraging its members to invite their friends, co-workers and neighbors."
Instead of doing the uncomfortable task of inviting peers to church, churches tend to employ a "hands off" method to attracting people to church. For instance, I see churches (including my own) spend money on newspaper ads and postcards for Christmas and Easter. I asked them why they do this and they say "because we always have done it." While this approach may attract a few people for those holiday services, it's not going to create a lasting, long-term relationship with people.
Huw Tyler's says it is a myth that marketing is just promotion. See below the 4 Ps of marketing:
Product – so important to sort ourselves out before moving on
Placement – finding the best placement in media, geography and theology
Price – funny one for churches, do with it what you will
Promotion – the thing usually considered
Lyall Mercer says one myth is everyone in our community knows our church. Most pastors will be shocked to know how many have no idea.
Curtis Simmons say's the myth is that you have to do marketing at all, get your congregation to invite others, give them things to hand out.
What do you think? Can marketing grow your church?
Should it be the primary vehicle for church growth?
Should we ignore markeitng and just educate our people into sharing their faith?
If no one in your community has heard of your church is marketing a tool that can bridge that gap?
Get commenting below and start the debate.
Related posts
Church Marketing Myth No. 1
Church Marketing Myth No. 2
Church Marketing Everything
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I think anyone who believes “Marketing Alone Will Grow Your Church” about their own church also believes that their church is great but it’s just not growing because people don’t know about it.
I think there’s something inherently wrong with that notion. If few people in the community know about your church, then it must not be having a big impact on the people who are a part of the church. If it was, they wouldn’t be able to shut up about what God was doing there, and everyone would know it.
That said, if you have a nice, safe church that doesn’t ruffle any feathers and doesn’t motivate anyone to want to invite their friends to church, marketing that church to other people who want a nice, safe church that doesn’t ruffle any feathers probably will grow the church.
Great marketing will kill a bad product in no time flat. Look at some of the dot.bombs from the past decade. I love Pets.com’s ads, but the model was wrong. I did not focus on what the consumer truly needed.
We as a church need to:
1. Focus on God’s unique calling for our church.
2. Get crystal clear on whom we are trying to SERVE.
3. Focus our marketing on that target while speaking THEIR language and not ours.
4. Ensure we deliver on the promise made in the marketing. (if you claim to be friendly, then the whole church needs to be welcoming of the homeless guy, the screaming baby, or the rambunctious teenage in the back row.)
Let’s not be Pharisee 2.0. Let’s be Christ 2.0. Same loving message, sent to all nations (digital nomads, tweens addicted to texting, etc.) through all the mediums of the world.
@Huw…the price of serving Christ is very real. My question would be…what commitments does your church ask of its members?
Some early research I have been doing in the West Ohio Conference of the United Methodist Church may indicate that those churches who set “expectations” of their members have a higher likelihood to grow.
Christ calls us to pay a high price for discipleship (let the dead bury themselves, go sell all you have and give it to the poor, etc.)
Why have we (as a church) stopped asking people to pay it?
Churches are very much run like businesses. They invest in marketing and advertising just like any other company seeking profit. These days there is tough competition for churches. It is not like in the olden days when everyone attended their own small community church and supported it accordingly.
Curtis says to get your congregation to hand things out vs. doing marketing. I think one of the problems here is the confusion between media advertising and marketing. As if not buying ad space in the media equals not marketing.
Media advertising is one element of an entire marketing campaign. Providing anything for your congregation to hand out IS marketing (the logo on the card/flyer, the ad copy, the printed collateral), and marketing includes instructing people in how and why to use it (selling your congregation on the concept) and the ‘product’ visitors receive (from the sermon series package to the way people treat them during their experience).