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May 29, 2009

Church Marketing Lab: This One's for the Dads

(Filed under: Peer Review)

It's been a couple of weeks since we've clued you in on what's been going on in the Church Marketing Lab, so we thought we'd give you a special Father's Day edition. Here's what's been brewing that might interest dads over the past couple weeks:

This I can get behind--the artwork for Father's Day plus barbecue.

Continue reading "Church Marketing Lab: This One's for the Dads"

Posted by Joshua Cody at 6:54 AM
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May 28, 2009

Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us

(Filed under: Reviews)

by Phil Prior, Guest Blogger

Maybe Tribes is the book that all of us involved in church marketing have been looking for, the book that acknowledges that we are trying to do more than just find people to keep the pews warm or the collection plates full. We want everyone to know about us, but more than that, we want everyone to know God.

Widely acclaimed marketing guru Seth Godin has written a manifesto for those people who are born to do more than influence. Tribes is a book for anyone who just has to lead.

According to Godin, tribes form around leaders, and the tribes that he’s most interested in are those that are on the move--those groups of people who are playing a part, forming a movement, going somewhere with purpose and desire to create change.

You could be the guy who has been put in charge of the woefully underfunded church web site that needs a major redesign if anyone is going to look at it again. Or you could be the girl who works with the youth group who is tolerated rather than loved, but you know that there’s a brilliant group just waiting to bust out and take your community by storm. Well, this book is for you. “Leadership is a choice,” Godin writes. “It’s the choice to not do nothing. Lean in, back off, but don’t do nothing.”

Continue reading "Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us"

Posted by Guest Blogger at 8:20 AM
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May 27, 2009

The Church Needs to Get Angry

(Filed under: Social Justice)

Eugene Cho asks if Christians just aren't angry enough about grave injustices like human trafficking. He does so with some language your grandmother wouldn't approve of (though he does use asterisks instead of typing out the actual word), so be warned.

Is it possible that we as Christians just aren’t angry enough about injustices like human trafficking and slavery? Perhaps, we’ve grown too desensitized, domesticated, and docile. I’m not trying to say this for the sake of the ’shock factor’ but I really believe there are times when the Church needs to have a deep[er] anger about the grave injustices of the world particularly when it involves the exploitation of children.

He goes on to talk about a movie screening his church did as a small way to begin to address this injustice.

What do you think? Do churches need to have more righteous anger over social justice issues? And here's the uncomfortable question: What kind of marketing message does that send?

Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks at 6:53 AM
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May 26, 2009

Search for Church Poll Results

(Filed under: Poll Results)

Some hear "SEO" and adrenaline starts pumping, veins pulse and palms sweat in excitement as you dream of rising to Google's top result. More of you probably hear "SEO" and think "huh?"

For you, Wikipedia is a great start.

But you know the poll drill--we wanted to know how our readers' churches handle SEO. And the results were split pretty evenly.

By a slight margin, with just over a quarter of you, those of you who have talked about it but taken no action are in the lead. It's time to get with it and do what you can to make your church easier to find online.

Then, neck-and-neck are the quarter of folks who are prioritizing search engines and the other quarter who haven't thought of search engines. Maybe these two groups should get together for some sort of search engine pow-wow.

Nearly 20% of you declared that you only worry about it if by "search engine" you mean "Sunday morning automobile." Undoubtedly, some of you were joking, but this is indicative of a wider problem. There are still a ton of churches who aren't doing what it takes to reach their communities.

This week, we're wondering: How do you follow-up with first-timers to be sticky and close the back door?

Posted by Joshua Cody at 3:14 PM
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Nobody Cares About Your Web Site

(Filed under: Web Sites)

Media Salt has a great article, whose title I shamelessly stole here, focusing on what your church can look like on the web.

Their basic idea? If you're still struggling to make all sorts of information (photos, videos, sermons, etc.) available on your site, you're already a step behind the curve. You need to be making your content available in ways that are even more convenient than your own site.

Although it's a bit disheartening to advocate a step forward when so many churches are still three steps back, I think it's a testament to how helpful it could be to have someone actually in charge of managing your church's online presence.

Make sure to check out the entire article at Media Salt.

Posted by Joshua Cody at 7:45 AM
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May 22, 2009

Be Generous, Creatively

(Filed under: Social Justice)

For many, a down economy is a frightful time. Luckily, as we've noted before, God is not taking part in the recession. This is a prime opportunity for churches to reach out and do good with their creativity and God's infinite resources. Luckily, some churches have been doing just that.

Check out Rock, Paper, Scissors, Love. It's a Rock, Paper, Scissors tournament to benefit the Rapid City Fire Department. It's great to see the church caring about the community in this way. It communicates, "We care when your house is burning down, and we want to partner with our town's bravest."

Last year, Willow Creek raised $700,000 in a single weekend to support Feed My Starving Children, an organization that ships meals to over 60 countries to feed starving children. This year? $1.3 million. It's another example of a church thriving in the midst of tough times.

What is your church doing to get both generous and creative in tough times?

Posted by Joshua Cody at 7:09 AM
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May 21, 2009

Homeless Marriage, Church Marketing and Simplicity

(Filed under: Philosophy)

Somewhere along the way down this road of the church in America, we picked up some buzzwords. Then, those buzzwords picked up some baggage. Things started one way, but they turned into a whole different monster. I'm thinking of two words in particular, and we'll take a quick look at them.

Relevant became an excuse to borrow ideas wholesale and call them your own. And Extraordinary became an excuse to push the envelope and go one step further than anyone before.

We ended up with church copycats, church campuses that rival the Vatican and churches who focus more on their laser light show than the great commission.

The Swerve blog recently explored this same subject, and they're looking for you to chime in on how to undo some of what has been done.

I think the example of one church is a great reminder of how to take those words--relevant and extraordinary--and live them to the fullest. We'll take a look at their story as well as these two words, and we'll take a look at the press that ensues.

Continue reading "Homeless Marriage, Church Marketing and Simplicity"

Posted by Joshua Cody at 6:25 AM
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May 20, 2009

Where Do I Begin?

(Filed under: Church Business)

From a recent post in the lab:

Hello all... I am new to this board, although I have been frequenting Church Marketing Sucks for quite some time. We have been in existence for a year and are just getting off the ground.



As it is, we really have no one in the church with marketing/graphic design experience but I would like to do more of it myself. My background is in dramatic arts, so I have a experience with stage/theatrical design. 



Where do I begin?

This is quite common in the church, where you're brought onto staff as the youth pastor, secretary, etc. and then someone finds out you know how to use a computer and poof you're the communications person.

So what do you do?

Find Community
Though it may feel like it at times, you are not alone. There are many that are in the same boat as you. Join a local lab, jump into the Church Marketing Lab, reach out to surrounding churches. Surround yourself with people who are doing it well and are struggling to find their way. This is an opportunity to receive encouragement, learn the craft and speak into others.

Continue reading "Where Do I Begin?"

Posted by Michael Buckingham at 7:18 AM
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May 19, 2009

Updates From the Events Lab

(Filed under: Events)

We wanted to give you a reminder that Michael Buckingham, of CFCC and Holy Cow fame, will be speaking again this year at the HOW Design Conference in Austin, Texas. His session was a hit last year, and this year he'll be looking at Being Creative in a World of Blah. If you're in the world of design, make sure you don't miss out on this. Tell your pastor that Church Marketing Sucks said they should pay for you to attend.

Too late for you to make it to the HOW Conference? Well, you can go ahead and start dropping change in your piggy bank for the Dirt Conference in November in Little Rock, Ark. Michael will be speaking there as well, and with a conference booth like this, how can you say no?

Posted by Joshua Cody at 12:39 PM
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1,500 and Going Poll Results

(Filed under: Poll Results)

As we passed 1,500 posts on Church Marketing Sucks, we thought it was a great time to ask you, the reader, what you wanted to see more of in the next 1,500 posts. Looks like this is how posts 1,501-3,000 should break down:

The next 750 posts will be about churches doing it right. It looks like this is what you guys want the most. Keep your eyes peeled as we've got a couple of these coming up in the next week or so.

After that, we should run about 465 posts on marketing theory and philosophy. We'll count on our in-house guru Brad Abare for more great stuff in this category, like his story on the Heath Brothers yesterday.

And we'll round it out with 285 posts on church marketing that sucks. After all, we have to earn the right to keep our name, yes?

Let's get technical in this week's poll: Does your church ever consider their position in search engine rankings?

Posted by Joshua Cody at 5:15 AM
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May 18, 2009

Heath Brothers on Going Viral

(Filed under: Word of Mouth)

Their monthly column in Fast Company is always a great read, and this month is no exception when the Made to Stick brothers Dan Heath and Chip Heath give us a few tips for making messages viral.

Viral marketing has become a hip, low-cost way to reach a lot of people very quickly--with little effort. But as marketers ... slash ad budgets, "viral" needs to mean more than "free" and "fueled by prayer." Making an idea contagious isn't a mysterious marketing art. It boils down to a couple of simple rules.

The rules, suggest the Heaths, are as easy as one, two three:

1. Make it emotional
The more intense someone's response is to your message, the more likely people will be to talk about it. "Come to our potluck" has about as much emotion as a turtle on race day. Consider instead messages like "Mabel's chili has been known to make grown men cry. Try it this Sunday."

Continue reading "Heath Brothers on Going Viral"

Posted by Brad Abare at 7:08 AM
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May 15, 2009

Taking Church Beyond Sunday

(Filed under: Social Justice)

So that Compassion blogging indie rocker Shaun Groves has a sarcastic little blog post about how church leaders in the developing world don't get it. They're doing goofy things like feeding the poor, job training and education ("stuff we Christians in America are savvy enough to get politicians and nonprofits to do for us") and even filling up their church buildings on non-Sundays. That's crazy.

It's striking nerves and spreading across Twitter. So Groves followed up with a question: "Now what will you do about it?" He's gathering responses and plans to share them next week.

I love the idea of churches being more than Sunday and churches doing more than a church service. We should be doing service, not just sitting through a service. How can your church begin to follow the example of leaders in the developing world (or how are you already doing it)?

Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks at 12:07 PM
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Church Marketing Lab: Summer Fun and More

(Filed under: Peer Review)

This week in the Church Marketing Lab, we hit 8,000 pieces submitted. It's come a long way since this announcement. One thing that still hasn't gotten old is to see someone post in the Church Marketing Lab for the first time. They've started down the road of commitment to improving their churches efforts to reach the world, and that's why we exist.

That's what eli.braud did this week with his Young at Heart info card.

Continue reading "Church Marketing Lab: Summer Fun and More"

Posted by Joshua Cody at 4:51 AM
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May 14, 2009

What's the Story?

(Filed under: Events)

It's been a week of exciting news in the world of church communications events.

First on the list, the Center for Church Communication is excited to announce a new conference, Cultivate, coming to Chicago on October 27, 2009. It's not just new because it's new, but new because it's doing things differently. We hesitate to call it a conference, but that's the category it fits in (and get together just doesn't seem catchy enough). So why another conference? Because Cultivate isn't about talking heads. It's about conversations and engaging with other communicators. That's right--no fancy keynote presentations. Cultivate brings ministry and marketplace leaders to the table, and the people will drive the content.

As if that weren't enough the very next day is Story, Ben Arment's first project since leaving Catalyst. Part theater, part conference, Story is a first-of-its-kind experience that will bring together six master communicators, all focused on telling the greatest story ever told.

Can it get any better?

Oh, yes it can. The very next day is an opportunity to go even deeper in Story through workshops with illustrators, designers, scholars, authors and communication experts focused on your story as a church. 

Cultivate + Story ... this is gonna be good! If you're involved in communicating the story of the gospel for your church, you won't want to miss these events.

Posted by Michael Buckingham at 7:06 AM
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May 13, 2009

Church Copycats

(Filed under: Philosophy)

Recently, I came across Godwitter.com via the xpirimental blog. My palms became sweaty, my heart sped up, my stomach twisted and my mind went back to the service formerly known as GodTube.

Then I thought of the 68 threads with "copyright" in their title in the Church Marketing Lab. Next was the 44% of churches who don't give a rip about copyright. After that, the proliferation of iGod series, Survivor retreats and logo ripoffs. Lastly was Joshua Blankenship's post from a few years ago with a hefty focus on creativity.

We do this under the guise of "redeeming our culture" or "being relevant." And I have nothing wrong with either of those things. But seriously, a Christian version of Twitter? 28.3 million search results for Christian social network?

Continue reading "Church Copycats"

Posted by Joshua Cody at 9:34 AM
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Tweet Tweet Poll Results

(Filed under: Poll Results)

Recently, my mother asked me, "Do you twit?" I'll give you a little context for why this matters. I've never even heard her use the term "Facebook," although once, after watching Dateline, she did demand I delete my MySpace account, despite my never having a MySpace account. She has never, and likely will never, have an e-mail address or turn on a computer. When mom starts mentioning technologies, it means they've been beat into obsolescence and it's time to move on, leaving Oprah, Ashton Kutcher and CNN holding all the blame.

It seems Twitter is so prevalent that pastors are asking congregants to post updates during services.

21% of you are sick and tired of being sick and tired of hearing about Twitter all the doggone time. You don't care what the pastor wants you to do, but you wish he'd shut up about Twitter.

Congratulations, only 6% of you chose the snarky answer on this issue. And another 22% of you are genuinely unsure how you feel about getting all a-Twitter during church. It seems a bit ... distracting.

The biggest chunk of you? Those are the ones who say that churches ought to be doing anything to engage people--Twitter or not. At war with them are the 25% who think you can take your Twitter and put it where the stained glass window don't shine.

I feel like there has to be some point where we do a little bit of focusing without going off and spewing 140 characters every six seconds, but hey, I'm just a codgy old 22-year-old who can't keep up with the kids these days.

This week, we're asking: Church Marketing Sucks recently turned 1,500 posts old. What would you like in the next 1,500?

Posted by Joshua Cody at 7:38 AM
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May 12, 2009

Advertising Age Explores Church Marketing

(Filed under: Philosophy)

The fundamental principles of church marketing have been explored here exhaustively. But it's always good to keep getting back to the basics and exploring the building blocks of church marketing. A recent Advertising Age article does that, complete with marketing-terminology to get on the nerves of church jargon purists.

They cover the CNN article about changing religions that we recently discussed, the decline of brand loyalty, the United Methodist Church's Rethink Church campaign and a quote from our own Brad Abare.

So if you have 10 minutes to spare, visit the article for a quick church marketing challenge.

Posted by Joshua Cody at 7:10 AM
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May 11, 2009

The Failure of Church Marketing

(Filed under: Philosophy)

In a recent article published on wrecked.org, Jonathan Foster takes some shorts at church marketing. The article is entitled The Failure of Church Marketing, and he goes through a fairly common criticism of church marketing.

He argues that laser light shows and whizz-bang web sites have become the primary goal of some churches rather than life change. He goes through the medium-message argument that we have discussed before here and here. In the end, he concludes that church marketing is failing because too many churches are choosing to have incredible media, leaving the message by the wayside.

We couldn't agree more.

Stop only doing marketing. Stop not doing marketing. Marketing sucks when it's the primary focus of churches and when it's not even on the radar.

Simply develop your message, and ask yourself the best way to communicate it without compromising.

Posted by Joshua Cody at 7:42 AM
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May 8, 2009

Church Marketing Lab: Three Posters and a Billboard

(Filed under: Peer Review)

The Church Marketing Lab has been booming lately. We've been discussing how long people keep old files around, how to target a specific audience, how to promote without bulletin inserts and more. And of course, we've seen some great graphics come through the pool.

Check out this idea for a new billboard and ad campaign.

Continue reading "Church Marketing Lab: Three Posters and a Billboard"

Posted by Joshua Cody at 7:08 AM
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May 7, 2009

Churches Should Learn to Shut Up Too

(Filed under: First Impressions & Beyond)

The Harvard Business Blog recently published an article entitled When to Keep Your Mouth Shut, taking a look at the high cost of over-communicating. They give some examples: continuing to describe product features after you've convinced your audience, starting with an apology for a lack of preparedness or a pilot letting passengers know over the intercom that they'll have enough gas to reach their destination.

It's these moments, where nothing needs to be said, that someone tries to fill the space and ends up losing momentum, or worse, trust.

So I tried to think up some instances of when the church over-communicates and loses focus:

• The prayers that start and end the announcements after the pastor just ended the message with a prayer. Heck, announcements after the message in general.
  
• Long-winded pulpit explanations that most Sundays aren't like this week (usually because you're talking about church finances or structure).
  
• The lead singer who can't help but give a mini-sermon at the start of each song.
  
• Apologizing for the typo on the screen, the error in lighting, the misplaced set item, etc.

Sometimes it is just better to keep your mouth shut and let your actions do the talking. Sometimes it is just better to keep your mouth shut and not draw attention to things that wouldn't garner attention in the first place.

So what do you think, what are some times churches ought to just shut up?

Posted by Joshua Cody at 7:29 AM
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May 6, 2009

Church Violence Poll Results

(Filed under: Poll Results)

Is your church ready for the unthinkable? Unfortunately, church violence has happened more than once, with incidents making the news too often. So it's probably a pretty good idea to make sure your church is ready for the worst case scenario, but let's see if you are.

19% of you are ready for any situation. You've got a disaster manual in case of fire, violence or screaming babies, and nothing is going to throw you off your game.

29% of you are a little bit less sure. You've got a plan in place, but you're not sure everyone has a great grasp of it or that it's thorough enough for the worst of scenarios.

Another 28% of you keep putting it off, even though you plan to make one. Fortunately for your marketing, your name isn't published here, but it could bring great peace to some attenders knowing you already have a plan in place.

And a final 24% just believe God will protect you, and there's no need for a plan. Which is why you keep your money in a big stack on the altar and don't check the background or credentials of staff members, right?

Most of our articles, rants and discussions take a turn towards light-heartedness, but this isn't one of those times. This is a serious subject, and just as you have the responsibility to protect your finances, staff and vision, you have a charge to protect those who attend your church. We'd love to hear about some of your stories and plans in the comments.

This week, we're turning to Twitter. Do you support pastors encouraging attenders to use Twitter during services?

Posted by Joshua Cody at 6:30 AM
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May 5, 2009

Monitoring Your Church Online

(Filed under: Technology)

Remember a long, long time ago, when you were first thinking about church marketing? You had that argument with someone about whether stats mattered and whether churches should even keep track of the numbers. What do numbers really matter? It's not about that anyways.

Well, unless your church is the Russian Orthodox Church, you probably ended up keeping some sort of statistics. You know how many people are at a service, Sunday school, etc.

So why don't churches seem to care about the Internet? Too many times, we don't notice when people share experiences about our churches online, and we don't know how well we're doing in using the Internet to reach out. But it's not such a hard task.

Here are four quick and dirty ways to keep up with your church online:

• Keep up with your web stats. Perhaps your server provides this or maybe you need to install a tool like Google Analytics. But set some goals and see how you're meeting them. If you aren't, rethink what you can do to meet those goals.
• See if people are chatting on Twitter. Check out search.twitter.com and enter "Your Church's Name." See if people are mentioning you and what they're saying.
• Search blogs. Google's Blog Search or Technorati are good tools here.
• Get your Google on. You probably can't hire someone to optimize your site for search engines, but it's vastly-documented online. If you aren't getting high up in search results, look it up online. Providing great content that stays up-to-date will pay great dividends.

Posted by Joshua Cody at 7:22 AM
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May 4, 2009

Twittering the Sermon

(Filed under: Technology)

The micro-blogging service Twitter has been soaring in popularity lately, and now the intersections between church and Twitter will get even more attention with this Time magazine article, Twittering in Church, with the Pastor's OK..

The article covers a few examples of churches using Twitter, most notably Westwinds Community Church in Jackson, Mich., which encourages Twitter use during the sermon (which we covered last June), as well as Trinity Church and their Twitter Passion Play.

The article is a quick overview and overwhelmingly positive. For a less enthusiastic take, consider four reasons to stop Twittering in church.

Of course Twittering the sermon isn't the only use for Twitter. This article covers how churches can use Twitter (and Facebook) to expand their reach. There's also the e-book, The Reason Your Church Must Twitter. And if you're still scratching your head, you can go back to our initial post on Twitter from January 2008.

Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks at 9:34 AM
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Technology X for Your Church

(Filed under: Technology)

Media Salt recently answered the question, "When can we start using [insert Internet technology here] for our church?"

Perhaps it's Twitter. Perhaps it's Facebook. Maybe it's a sharper site or and mobile platform application. Whatever it may be, they say, "Don't wait. Do it now."

They look at a few different technologies, and it's a good read. But we'd encourage you to get involved in the conversation. Are you wasting your time trying to figure our where technology is headed and plan ahead?

Posted by Joshua Cody at 5:40 AM
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May 1, 2009

Church Marketing Lab: Let's Discuss

(Filed under: Peer Review)

So normally in the Church Marketing Lab, we have some wonderful pieces posted and some incredible feedback that helps folks improve their skills. We thought we would take a break from our regularly-scheduled photo roundup to show you some of the discussions that have been going on this week:

• Where does someone go when they're new to the world of church marketing and design?
• Just for fun, here's the coffee everyone is drinking.
• Amidst the swine flu, the real flu and general gross-ness, aren't door greeters and forced handshakes a bit ... disgusting?
• There's a great discussion happening on which content management system is the best for churches.

So you're not a designer? That's a-OK. Just hop in and enjoy the discussions.

Posted by Joshua Cody at 5:07 AM
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