I’ll start off by saying that I’ve heard a lot of bad church marketing advice on how churches should “market” themselves. I’ve also seen churches with good intentions execute marketing poorly due to bad advice.
But the one thing that gets to me more than anything else is this little piece of advice…
The Worst Piece of Church Marketing Advice? If you can’t go big, you shouldn’t do it at all.
I disagree with this for a few reasons. Here’s my church marketing advice.
- Church marketing isn’t just for megachurches with mega budgets. While a lot of people do attend large churches (which is what makes them large, right?), not everyone feels comfortable in that type of setting. There are people out there looking for a smaller church. Also, a church with a smaller budget can still come up with a marketing plan that’s financially feasible and that reaches its target area.
- A large, poorly executed marketing campaign will get a lower response rate than a small, strategic campaign. If you can’t send out 100,000 postcards and can only do 5,000, make sure you work with your team to come up with a clear message and eye-catching design.
- A smaller marketing campaign will see better results than not doing anything at all. Going back to point number 2, just make sure you are strategic about how you use your funds.
So if you are a small- or medium-sized church, or one with a smaller marketing and communications budget, don’t give up. God can use anything and everything to reach people, even if it is through a small marketing campaign. I’ve heard stories of churches reaching people who were once lost and now active church members–through a postcard. Pretty cool, right?
