We’ve added a couple of new resources to the sidebar widgets.  These are ideal resources for those in pastoral leadership and private school administration who want to energize their marketing efforts and maximize their communication.

Check back Monday for the next in the series on Duct Tape Marketing:  Step 3: Packaging Your Product!

Here’s an interesting article … what are your thoughts?  It raises an issue that’s been wrestled about in churches for years.  As Marketing Twins who are all about doing GREATER THINGS, we believe in giving back.   Not sure if I’ll ever win the lottery (guess I have to play more than once a year to increase my chances!) but if I did, I certainly wouldn’t hesitate in giving back to my local church or to local charities who could benefit.  But how would I react if they rejected my donation?  How would you? 

Let’s dialouge … shall we? 

Donny Vaughn - guest blogger

The Marketing Twins at 1429 Creative

p.s.  Don’t forget that ONE WEEK FROM TODAY, we will be interviewing Dr. Rick Lytle from ACU’s College of Business.  Register to get the FREE CALL-IN INFORMATION:  www.1429creative.com/doubletake

Had a great conversation with a client about our church and the need to employ creative marketing efforts AS PART of the overall effort to reach our community and to even promote activities and ministries within the congregation (which just happens to be 4000+ members!)

I have a GOOGLE NEWS alert for “church marketing” (I love hearing other people’s thoughts on the subject) because I feel it is a part of my company’s strategy. We are believers and want to see church marketing add to the church’s effectiveness in reaching the community. We never would want to think it is the only part. But it can break down walls, educate, encourage and even make an activity or even so inviting that people are compelled to attend.

Certainly with Easter a few days away, many churches are ramping up their communication efforts. We can always do more and do it better.

Daniel at his Random Platypus blog shares some great insights.

Jay shares a story of how one church missed the boat completely. Sometimes we miss the trees for the forest.

*UPDATE* - Elephants for Easter - Church by the Glades is going to have Judy, a 9,000 pound Indian elephant, at their services this Easter Sunday to promote a message on what? Denial (clever, huh!). Thanks to CMS for this lead.

*UPDATE2* - Get Jesus into Your Wii - Come Follow Mii ! This ain’t like the church I grew up in!

- Randy

* Attribution for Photo at top of Post

I was returning from visiting a client yesterday (I really love having a mobile office!) I just about ran off the road trying to jot down the web address advertised on this billboard (I’m sure they probably hoped I would memorize it, but with so much on my plate, I don’t trust my memory … for this I do use Jott to help).I love this style of creative marketing, but you rarely see it churches. Most churches do nothing in terms of advertising. Some churches are improving their visual communication design. But few employ creative arresting marketing strategies like this. I know I’m a sucker for good marketing strategies, but I find it hard to believe that this church won’t get a million hits to their website from “normal” people (that’s calling me “abnormal”!) I spend alot of my day on the internet, researching innovative marketing strategies that will help you, reading small business marketing success stories to share here, and following up on intriguing websites like this for UnscrewMyLife.com.

As you get into this posted site, you can eventually link to their church website which gives more detail behind the people hoping to bring hope to this city. You gotta click on “ScrewyStuff” and see the hiliarious video trailers.

Great job HOPE Church in Fort Worth - great church marketing!

-Randy

I know we departed from the recent series on blogging, but I keep running into new posts out in the blogosphere that make some excellent points. Today’s is aimed at the CHURCH.

QUESTION: in your church/congregation/denomination, is the leadership engaging in any open dialogue (i.e., through a blog)? If not, the change and emerging shifts are going to pass them by. In the former culture, such challenges were discussed at leadership workshops, pastor conferences, denominational board meetings, etc…but we live in a different world today. To be a thought leader, one does not have to fly off to some hotel or conference center to sit around a table to debate the issues. The debate is happening. The discussion is taking place in social networking circles where blogs sit prominently. If you are in leadership, you need to be engaging the communication discussion. In churches, when we talk of marketing, essentially we are talking about communicating our message of hope to a world that needs to hear it. But marketing also involves the people proclaiming the message, the methods employed to do so and the environment in which such truth is proclaimed. Today’s church culture must bust out of the sanctuary walls and the leadership must be involved. Debate/discussion is like a virus - it’s spreading fast and if you want a voice, you better participate!

I read a post this morning from a group of Church of God ministers trying to influence the mission through a collective voice. The author of the post makes this observation:

Ignoring what is happening, boycotting it, or thinking that blogging is for another generation will only diminish one’s leadership ability… .We need to understand this culture’s communication means and participate, unless we continue to be dragged apart separated off into two totally different worlds.

I found particularly curious were the author’s suggestions under “Blogging Influence” and “Observations” !

Pastors, preachers, ministers and pastoral leadership, TAKE NOTE!

-Randy

Today I’ll try and offer up some good examples of preachers and pastors who blog effectively. Now “effectively” is a relative term - somewhat subjective. I’ll go back to our basic definition of marketing (based on John Jantsch - Duct Tape Marketing):

MARKETING is getting someone with a problem or need to know, like and trust you.

So in the world of church, most of pastoral leadership is trying their very hardest to communicate their message of love, hope, transformation, mission, purpose, etc….and share that message with as many people as possible. (The discussion of whether individual congregations should consider honing in that strategy for some niche markets is a topic for another post). Anyway, assuming you are trying to reach a local audience as part of your strategy, and you desperately want the non-church-goer to know-like-trust you, what better way than to blog!

In the culture we are in, where churches, pastors and priests are often characterized by the missteps of a minority, it is important to build some bridges to the relationships we desire. While you could spend your blog energy spouting off about theological and doctrinal beliefs (guess that might reach some), a blog can inspire, teach, educate, inform as if you had a DAILY PULPIT! And you could even begin to use this blogosphere as one of your primary venues for touching the heart of people. For many people in the teaching or pastoral role, your time in the pulpit does not permit an intimate level of transparency. Alot of people still want their preacher to preach about things we SHOULD do and not to be open and honest about his personal struggles. I would dare say that in the blog world, while perhaps not used as your own personal confessional, it is a place to remind people that you are human. And for those in church leadership, your Sunday morning “conversations” with members of your church (much less non-members you ultimately are trying to reach) tend to sound like this:

“Great job, pastor. See you next week. ”

“Great job, preacher, but … (insert complaint)”

“If you preach like that again, you’ll be out of a job!”

Where’s the relationship building? Following a traditional model, you get about 30 minutes of instruction once-a-week. That’s insufficient and likely the reason why churches, by and large, are not growing in the U.S. (different story around the world … by the way, where teaching is much longer and relationships are not so fragmented as in the U.S.). You need a venue to perpetuate the ideas you present on the weekend. As a pastor, you will find a great energy in the interactive environment of a blog (yes, you might get some critics, but you might find a world of support as well).

Blogging allows transparency for any small business, organization or ministry where people are perhaps skeptical of the players involved…isn’t that alot of people’s problem with the church today? So blog your heart out (I would advocate you not trying to usurp your pastoral or shepherding leadership … blog in a way that honors them and the mission of your congregation). You are not trying to lift up yourself here … you are attempting to further the mission of your church by stretching out into the homes and personal computers of members and potential “prospects.”

When my wife and I were living in Africa, not only did WE find our blog as a way to communicate with a world from which we were simply geographically cut off, but there are so many people who said our blog kept them in touch with us, praying for us and even giving to us. We were not some forgotten missionary; we were on the minds of people.

In the church world I am a part of, this guy has held a loyal following for years (and 30-100 comments is average for his DAILY posts)!

I find this pastor’s blog intriguing and engaging (the photo at the top of this post is just one of the photos he likes to use to arrest your attention!)

A few other blogs that can show you some different formats you can use: Pete Wilson, Andrew-Missionary in Brazil, CC3, Gary Lamb, LifeChurch pastors, and on and on and on . . .

IF YOU WANT TO RECOMMEND A BLOG in this category (broadly defined as “church”) please leave it in the COMMENTS section!

- Randy

OK - since yesterday’s post, I decided to start a series about the importance of YOUR BLOG in today’s marketing…whether you are doing small business marketing or in other cases, you are marketing your church, ministry, or even non-profit.

YOU NEED A BLOG.

This week, we’ll look at some effective uses of blogs. Some will be entertaining, some will be informative. I hope this inspires you to learn how to incorporate a blog into your marketing strategy.

One of my favorite church marketing blogs is one from the Center for Church Communications. Click on the logo above and you’ll see what they have to say (oh - be warned - they don’t use Center for Church Communications as the title of this blog … “shock value” is another marketing technique and a discussion for future posts. Be warned if you are a traditionalist when it comes to church stuff.)

-Randy

“Business owners, non-profit leaders, and ministries often believe they can’t afford to market their organizations,” says Dr. Tara Robinson, owner and CEO of Zugunruhe Coaching. “They think marketing is too expensive or too complicated or too time consuming. But without marketing—the actions and deeds that allow prospects to know, like, and trust you—you’re operating from blind faith alone.”

Just like myself, Tara is also an authorized Duct Tape Marketing coach. She adds:

“When you know the principles and understand the foundations of good marketing practices, you acquire the flexibility to innovate and be creatively courageous in how you market. In essence, you learn how to present your organization—it’s missions and motives, it’s intentions and approaches—in authentic and compelling ways. Using the Duct Tape Marketing system, you work with proven principles, strategies, and tactics to get the results you want.”

Is your church or ministry uncomfortable with incorporating “secular” marketing into your “spiritual” ministry? It’s a common erroneous thought that needs rethinking. The Ministry Marketing Coach Chris Forbes says,

“We make no apologies for using marketing in ministry. We believe that marketing is a management discipline—like time management or budgeting—that can help ministers be more effective communicators of the Gospel.”

One of the foundations of the Duct Tape Marketing system is that it is just that … a system. A discipline. Just like your organization probably has some form of systematic program for bookkeeping, financial accountability, payroll, benefits administration, etc…you NEED to organize your communication strategy around a system that makes sense! If you treated your accounting like so many churches and ministries approach their marketing … we can all say one 5-letter word: A-U-D-I-T !!!

At 1429, we believe that marketing means building trust and communicating with excellence in order to most effectively share your message with the people who need to hear it! Whether you are a for-profit small business or a not-for-profit ministry, you could richly benefit from marketing principles that are solid, affordable, practical and effective!

Contact myself or any other authorized Duct Tape Marketing coach and we can help you create effective marketing solutions!

-Randy