If you watch television, drive down the street, visit a store or surf the web you are exposed to marketing. Within our daily routine we are exposed to hundreds maybe thousands of marketing messages. There are so many messages being communicated to us that the most important messages can be missed or quickly dismissed. In this era of over-communication how do we push through the madness to get our message out?
The idea of marketing can bring both derision and praise when we are talking about ministry. Even our perceptions of the idea of marketing can skew how we utilize this important tool. Marketing is perception and it is continual. We can totally miss out when we think of marketing as mere advertisement. Marketing is more than advertising. Marketing requires a thorough thought process and awareness of environment. Most churches fail at marketing because they do not recognize that it encompasses everything about the normal community’s perception of who we are and what we are about.
Four P’s of Marketing
Product – what you are selling and what are it’s components
Place – where is it distributed and by whom
Price – what it costs
Promotion – the tools used to make it known
In the Ministry World
Product – the Gospel
Place – location
Price – hard to define – it fluctuates wildly in ministry because of varied communication
Promotion – witnessing, public relations, advertising, and more
The truth is that Marketing is the sum of everything we do – both intentionally and unintentionally – that causes people to develop a perception of who we are as a ministry.
A person’s perception is their reality – our goal through marketing is to manage their perception – to clearly communicate reality. Marketing is the management of perception.
The first steps to marketing your ministry (church, children’s, youth, family) are:
1. Understand how people perceive you
2. Have a Vision for how you would like to be Perceived
3. Make Adjustments to guarantee that people perceive you correctly
So how is your marketing and what needs to change? Let’s open a dialogue about people’s perception vs. our vision. How would you like to be perceived? Do you think marketing is important? What are the misconceptions people have about your ministry? Join the conversation and Comment.