Marketing

How do we market ourselves as a church?

I was thinking recently about how we market ourselves as a church. As the resident media/communications intern at St George's, marketing is one of the biggest priorities of my job. In my day-to-day role, this manifests itself as communicating information clearly, be it in print, online, or in film. I don't think that the concept of marketing should be constrained to just these areas, however.

The Christian author Richard Reising explains in his book Church Marketing 101 that the idea of marketing extends beyond how we advertise ourselves (as a church) to the outside world. It involves more than just well-designed flyers, or clever puns on our notice boards. Marketing covers everything that we do as a church that has an influence over others, and everything that shapes their opinions.

I'll illustrate this with some examples:
A church could have the greatest public relations team in the world, and produce the most beautiful and clear weekly news sheet, but if the welcome team (which is all of us!) isn't welcoming anyone, then the church is failing to effectively market itself. Conversely, the welcome team at a church could be incredible; everyone who visits is immediately made to feel like long-missed family member, and by the start of the service, they've already been invited to dinner seven times. However, the external advertising of the church could be awful, with out-of-date bulletins, and no indication that the church is even still running. Again, the church in this situation has failed to market itself properly.

In the marketing-saturated world we live in, we're subjected to thousands of influences both obvious and subtle every day. In such an environment, only the exceptional examples stand out any more. Sadly, this is true of both extremes - we only take notice of obviously brilliant or terrible marketing. Think of the billboards or television adverts you've seen recently. How many stick out in your mind, and for what reasons? Maybe you know a few hidden gems around town - possibly cafes, shops or restaurants. As brilliant as they may be, they're selling themselves short if they're not making their presence more known.

I believe it's essential that the worldwide church develops greater awareness of how it markets itself. I believe the same is true of St George's. Where do you see the need for St George's to improve its marketing?

I'll close with a video that illustrates this discussion better than I can in words. Every time I watch it, I spot different things that challenge me, but I spend most of it cringing, recognising more than a few painful truths!

For more on this subject, I'd recommend checking out www.beyondrelevance.com

Giles Smith, 24/02/2010