Marketing

My wife noticed it right away.  There it sat.  Right near the front door of a church we visited.  A bright yellow brochure with the big heading “Just Try It” positioned above…the trademarked Nike logo.  Like a scene from a church-communications action film where a bomb was armed to blow, we looked at each other wide-eyed, mouths open as we shook our heads in slow motion—all the while silently yelling, “Noooooo!”

Okay, it wasn’t that dramatic.  Our reaction was probably more of just subdued...

As a post holiday haze floats around the office, I was talking with a friend about his experience at his church this Christmas. While his review of the events was positive (saying the services were a great mix of songs, scripture, tradition and dance) there was one thing he said really stood out.

“If I knew it was going to be this good, I would have invited more people.  It’s just hard to know from year to year what my church will do.”

Word of mouth and personal invites are the greatest...

Certain events can become a catalyst for change for churches.  At Life Baptist Church in Las Vegas, it was a move to a new building.  It was a chance for the church of nearly 300 people to start with a clean branding slate to better present their message.  It was time to clean up the inconsistent messaging and branding they had in the past.

“I can't overhype the importance of branding. Don't be afraid of it,” says Creative Arts Guy Matt Phillips “The truth is that you are already sending a...

Big brown shipping giant UPS has an adverting campaign right now about logistics.  It’s basically saying the UPS Store is like your own personal assistant to take care of things like printing and shipping.  I shouldn’t have been surprised to open up a Christian magazine this week to see this ad targeting churches, but I was.

On first glance, the ad doesn’t seem all that different from any other ad.  But as I read further, the first sentence made me a little uncomfortable.  It reads:

Graphic designer Paul Nielsen wrote a really interesting piece about church graphic design.  Nielsen says churches often find themselves in one of two camps.  They either aren’t thinking about design at all or they’re way overthinking it.

I always say everything a church does communicates something, so why not intentionally think about it.  And that’s really the philosophy Nielsen follows when looking at churches who don’t put much thought into their signs, brochures, worship folders, etc. ...

We're giving video blogging another try.  Here's a little follow-up to a post from a year and a half ago when Starbucks was in bad shape and looking for a comeback strategy.  Then I was critical of their decisions and said churches shouldn't use them as an example.  Now I've changed my mind a little bit.

(Sorry for the moments of shaky video.  Hopefully I'll get better at this as we do it more often.)

With Christmas behind us, planning for Easter is already underway for many churches.  And it’s happening for good reason.  We know that Easter is one of those times during the year when people who aren’t normal churchgoers are more open to walking into church.  Because of that, I think there’s a temptation for churches to over-promise what their Easter experience will be like for people.  We so badly want people to come through the doors that our promotion for Easter festivities can become...

As the new year closes in, I’ve been thinking about what you could (and should) do in 2011 to help your church focus on a clear vision and communicate more effectively.  Here are my top five thoughts:

Stop investing in the yellow pages.  I know churches that spend thousands of dollars on yellow page ads, but refuse to invest in a good website.  The yellow pages (printed on paper) are dead.  Some phone companies aren’t even printing them anymore.  It’s good to be listed, but you don’t need an ad...

I’m intrigued by QR codes.  More and more you see this new breed of barcode-esque puzzle showing up in magazines and on signs in stores.  If you don’t know how they work, here’s a quick explanation:  There are apps for smart phones that let you take a picture of a QR code, which in turn direct you to a website, video or something online.  It’s basically the equivalent of using a URL link.

The one you see in this post is one I created for Church Juice.  I used a web program called Kaywa to...

For many churches, the Christmas season is already in full motion.  Sermon series are started.  Decorations are up.  Traditional carols are in the air.  Nothing has been stolen from the nativity set yet.  Ahhhh…life is good.

And for some churches, the push is on to get attenders to invite guests to church this Christmas.  That means putting poinsettias or fancy glossy cards in their hands as a tool to use to tart up conversations with their friends, co-workers or even strangers about coming to...