At our house, we get 3-5 church postcards a week. Maybe my area is oversaturated, but I don't give them a second thought because they just keep coming....

3-5 church postcards a week!? I think I've only ever received two in the two years I've lived in my house (none in the two years I lived in an apartment). Maybe St. Paul ain't so saintly.

We still print postcards for direct mail, but that's not the the most effective use of postcards. Close to 75% of the people who attend are church for the first time still come through the invitation of a friend. Postcards help with personal invitations because they have all the information about the series, a map, service times, kid's ministry details, etc. We've found that postcards are a great tool for fueling the buzz.

I love that "fueling the buzz" comment. Generally when we talk to our clients about using direct mail we encourage them to have a realistic expectation. We want them to focus less on getting an immediate response and more on building image and awareness for the very reason Tony just mentioned. A decision to attend a new church is not something most people do on a whim. What we would call an impulse purchase. Rather it is a big decision for most people. And not everyone is ready to make that decision the first time you reach out to them. That is why we need to communicate the message to them over and over and over. Great marketing is always consistent and frequent.

Besides postcards, there are other creative things you can mail.

I worked with our student ministry on project last year when our High School and J-High dates and times to meet changed. The theme for that was "Change is Good." So I had the idea of sending out diapers instead of postcards.

We literally bought 750 diapers, adhered a small postcard INSIDE The diaper with the new information and a fun tagline about change is good to tie in the diaper just in case they didn't get the correlation. Then we tabbed the diapers shut using newsletter circles and sent them bulk mail (for about .16/piece!)

It was amazing how many calls we got. If you got a diaper in the mail (no packaging - JUST A DIAPER and when you open it, the message is inside) - wouldn't you want to look at it? That was a fun project. ;)

I don't know if I agree with the statement great marketing is frequent. I think if it's remarkably memorable one or two times, rather than just normal many times, the fewer times is going to be remembered long before the normal one many times. Instead of sending out direct mail constantly, we are going more in the direction of becoming involved in our community - sponsoring events, being present at events to serve as a team, last year we did the 10K turkey challenge and challenged our church and the community to donate 10,000 turkeys to a local food bank who kept a freezer truck on our property for a few weeks. By communicating our vision, "A place where people really matter" by doing acts of kindness and showing that we mean what we say, I think that is leaving a more lasting and honest impression of who we are as a church and the love that Christ has for everyone. The love of God is what draws people into him. Not that postcards aren't a great tool for some areas (we send maybe 2 a year) but practical acts of love reflect more what the church is about to the community than typical marketing methods.

I would have to agree with the relationship between frequency and effectiveness of marketing. Growing up in Houston, there was a man who ended every commercial for his furniture stores by jumping up and down and saying, "[my store] saves you money!!!!". The first few times I heard it, I thought it was just more REALLY low budget, innefective advertising. Now, a dozen or more years later, that guy's furniture stores practically constitute an empire and he's still employing the same tagline/ service mark. It wasn't smart at all. Though it was cheap and clumsy, it became familiar, and it worked like a charm.

Direct mail is great, but to do it effectively, campaigns must be tested and once they have been tested, they must be run consistently over a period of time.

Also, to exercise the best stewardship of resources, they must be measured. In the marketplace, this means tracking ROI. In the church, it is harder to track dollars attributed to new visitors as a result of a given campaign and debatable if it should even be tracked in this way.

The reality for most churches?? It's cost prohibitive. Plus, if DM is not part of a greater strategy (web, personal invites, print media, etc.), then it will likely not pay off in the slightest. Unless a church is willing to dive into a longer term strategy of DM, it is merely throwing away dollars.

Also, the above mentioned issue of mail glut is a significant issue. Some days, I get upwards of 5-6 postcards in the mail. My response? Into the round file. I don't have time to read all this stuff. So then, might there be a more effective way to make your church know, like personal invite cards promoting programs or events that members can hand out to their circles of influence?? I think so. Doesn't cost a lot. And the response rate? Likely much higher then most direct mail campaigns, which are lucky to get a 2-3 % response rate.

but do you want to be remembered as the annoying church whose annoying marketing was everywhere or the one who did it with intent and purpose and excellence?

i am on one church's email newsletter list and i get 4 a week from them. in comparison, we send 1 email bi-weekly on wednesday. we tracked email click and open rates for a while before we decided the frequency, and we found the less we did them, the more impact they had by a significant percentage.

also you mention he did the same tagline on the commercial all the time. that is not frequency, but consistency.

Regarding the furniture store in Houston (Gallery Furniture), the owner, (Mac), is not only consistent, he is ubiquitous! He is relentless about advertising on TV, Radio, Billboards, Newspaper ads, event sponsorship, direct mail, you name it. Not to mention his own "personal evangelism." If you go to his store, more than likely you will see him there working the floor. Anyone who has been in Houston more than a few days will have heard of his furniture store.

But back to DM... Direct mail is a powerful tool when added to the mix (Personal Touch Cards, website, etc.) Certainly there are some neighborhoods where every other church is sending out a postcard. But there are many more neighborhoods that don't receive any.

Frequency (along with a consistent message/look) is important. Think of your local grocery stores... you probably get a weekly mailer/circular from them. Churches don't need to do mailers weekly, but at they probably should consider doing them 4 to 6 times a year.

I don't think there is a right or wrong answer to this.

I really think it depends on your market and your message. Our people are so overwhelmed with clutter in the mail, in their inbox - their lives are complex and in order for us to be effective, we do what we can to subtract from the clutter. Frequency doesn't work in our environment. We've tried it, measured it and said a fond farewell to it. We send a monthly newsletter to our attenders, but to the community, only one mailer a year, if that. We don't advertise in the newspaper or on radio or TV. We rely on word of mouth and acts of kindness and keeping things simple, short and concise. Those work perfectly for us (In the last year we have grown by 600 people, or close to 20% from last year - not counting numbers, but lives changed - after this month we will have baptised over 200 people.) All this is just the work of the spirit in his people. :) We just ask for guidance and listen. DM is just not a standard way of marketing for us.

It really is going to depend on your market and market tone. Saturation is very different than frequency. If your market tends to be high on the DM, then you risk saturation and you become part of the clutter.

Frequency is essential in marketing efforts. Yes, a captivating piece will move people, but it usually takes them several times (standard is 7) to actually see it.

Consistency of course is tied to frequency. Frequently running different style of commercials won't work. Frequently running commercials with a consistent campaign can be effective.

The method will change from market to market and it may very well take some time to find out what your market pays attention to. Once you've figured that out consistently give it to them.

Of course this is just one part...we haven't even touched on tone, message, offer...it takes time. Some of it works, some of it doesn't.

Again, I think DM can be useful, but for most church situations, it is a money sink with limited returns. A recent study done by Mission Portland found that 70% of new Christians came to church as a result of a personal invitation. And that does not even broach the retention issue, which most churches, including mine, struggle with. Only 20% of those that visit church visit again. An ex-pastor on our marketing leadership team has quoted stats that say seven impressions (a card, a personal visit, a personal connection on Sunday AM, etc. in combination) must be made within the first two weeks after a visitor comes for the first time, else they won't stay long term. So then, DM relies on mailings for both conversion and retention, so it can become costly. It seems clear that personal invites and follow up touches are far more effective at driving participation then commitment.

Yes, it's true, frequency and consistency shouldn't be confused (regarding Gallery Furniture in Houston), but I believe the center portion of the Venn Diagram containing those two nouns would be quite spacious.

I liked the comments about quantity vs. quality in mailers. Makes me wonder if it's more valuable to surgically target a demographic than to wash an entire zip code with a less-expensive/ lower quality mailer. I don't have the answer, just a thought (shot from the hip).

I think targeting your audience is the best way to go. It allows you to know who you are talking to and tailor the message to them.

I agree that consistency and frequency can cross over, but often times frequency outweighs consistency. Many -even large companies- think that as long as they put their logo on an ad it's consistent and forget about tone and form of communication.

It's about quality and raising to excellence for Christ.

I just thought of this as I was reading the thread on retention...we sent out a targeted direct mail postcard to all households with kids for a family weekend...we targeted the list and of course the message.

Not only did we have an increase in attendance, but retention was higher because we knew who we were talking to so for those that showed up we met their expectation.

DIRECT MAIL - Design + Development + Production + Testing + Frequency + Consistency + Measurement = EXPENSIVE (to do it right anyway)

I am not dissing on DM here (it is a valid strategy for FEW churches), but merely trying to see how it is the best stewardship of funds. DM is a longer term commitment of time and money to achieve effectiveness. Many of the churches I am aware of barely have enough money to pay their pastoral staff subsistence wages. Plus they have a hard time keeping the few people they do get into the door.

What are some other strategies, maybe viral in nature, that would leverage personal invites and strong word of mouth more effectively? Any thoughts??

Becoming involved in community events. Sponsoring good causes. Being doers of the Word. Touching the community with love instead of typical marketing methods. The old adage is true - actions speak louder...

I'm interested in how you can get the price down to 4.3 cents - what size mailer is this?
We send 11 x 6 cards and by using a carrier/courier route we get the price down to 9.5 cents a piece.

I've been heading up mailings for the Vineyard Christian Fellowship in Cambridge for 7 years. We've had great growth - from a church plant of 40 to over 1,000 in Sunday attendance. Still the #1 reason people come is personal invitations. Still, we send 150K cards out 2-3 times a year. They are effective in bringing people in.

In working with many churches I think the factor of success is does the postcard message match what the service really feels like? If the mailer is trendy and cool, and the church (or pastor) just isn't then I think the effectiveness drops.

Direct Mail as much as it pains me to say this is very ineffective unless done in mass. According to those who are the greats in this field (think big companies) marketing is only to keep your name fresh with your customers. Ad space, mails pieces, great web stuff, and more add to this. As mentioned several times, word of mouth viral marketing is the real deal. Bands and new companies feed on word of mouth. The 22 imutable laws of marketing state that the best form of promotion is non-self promotion. Get good PR from being covered by some form of medium or by sources outside of your immediate control. Just tonight I discovered a student who put together their own plan to expose our event to his friends in school. It won't look slick or pretty but it will come from the credible source, him. Lastly I think we oversell based on looks. I see so many churches put out content the promotes their church but, in reality they did not fit the look at all.

To those who have tried both direct mail and television ads, what have you found to be more effective? We've been doing a lot of direct mail but are thinking about doing television ads. Which method has brought in more visitors per dollar?

Following the trend of DM -- to do or not to do, there is direct mail and there is direct mail. The promotional product business is a multi-billion dollar industry. It works. I should know, I'm in the business. Research shows that 70% of promotional products received in the mail or picked up at trade shows have a life inside the target market's household of one year. That magnet on the fridge or the calendar on the computer -- could be looked at every day. Your postcard with statistics and directions is great, but make it a magnet and you stand a better chance of seeing that person come through the doors of the church. When they have a need, they'll have a way to find you. Make your message pertinent to the neighborhood you're targeting. Some of the magnet companies will seal the magnet right on the postcard. It's a little more expensive, but the "prize" is visible and functional.

Responding to the consistency / frequency discussion... Too often we put the cart before the horse. Before doing anything we need good brand development. Most leaders know what their church's unique vision and personality is but now they need help communicating it. Once the gold rises to top in the form of a well developed image we can put it to use with media. Here's where consistency and frequency pays off. Now the media is relevant and genuine. This is why we shouldn't be hasty in sending out a stock card with a gimmicky or trendy message. First speak to them heart to heart.