PART ONE: WHY YOU SHOULD
MARKET YOUR CHURCH
Jake Dell
Office of Communication
May 9, 2012
Some questions to started
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Do you like advertising?
Do you like being sold to?
Is there such a thing as good marketing?
How would you measure good advertising?
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Do you like any of these? Is this marketing?
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Chrysler 300 Commercial – “Advice”
Old Spice – “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like”
Advent Greetings – “Julia La Roche”
Episcopal Church – “Thad’s Santa Monica”
Madison Area Episcopal Churches – “Remember”
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Goals for these sessions
• To explain why a parish would want to market itself
• To explain how a parish can market itself
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By the end of this session, you should be able to:
• Give a simple explanation of why a church should market
itself
• Identify the five basic elements of a marketing plan and give
an example of each
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What I won’t cover:
• Branding and creative development
• How to write ad copy
• How to do social media
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So, what is advertising?
• “Advertising is salesmanship in print” – Albert Lasker
• The great ones all agreed: good advertising sells product
Albert Lasker, Lord & Thomas
Claude Hopkins, “Scientific Advertising”
David Ogilvy, Ogilvy & Mather
Are you advertisers?
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Is Luke 1:1-4 an advertisement?
Many have undertaken to draw up an account
of the things that have been fulfilled among
us,2 just as they were handed down to us by
those who from the first were eyewitnesses and
servants of the word. 3 With this in mind, since
I myself have carefully investigated everything
from the beginning, I too decided to write an
orderly account for you, most
excellent Theophilus, 4 so that you may know
the certainty of the things you have been
taught.
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Is Luke 1:1-4 an advertisement?
Many have undertaken to draw up an account
of the things that have been fulfilled among
us,2 just as they were handed down to us by
those who from the first were eyewitnesses and
servants of the word. 3 With this in mind, since
I myself have carefully investigated
everything from the beginning, I too decided to
write an orderly account for you, most
excellent Theophilus, 4 so that you may know
the certainty of the things you have been
taught.
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Yes, Luke 1:1-4 is an advertisement!
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Luke acknowledges his competitors
Tells us his gospel is based on eyewitness accounts
Tells us that he himself has verified the sources
Assures us that this account of Jesus’ life can be trusted even
if the others can’t be
Isn’t this “salesmanship in print?”
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Church advertising
• “Evangelism in print”
• Or, evangelism by another medium
• Goal is to get people to become Episcopalians
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Brief history of church advertising (2,000 years)
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Jesus’ sends his disciples to preach the kingdom of God
Epistles and gospels
Preaching revolution 12th –13th centuries
Printing revolution and mass communication
Evangelical missionary movement 19th – 20th centuries
Mainline indifference, rise of mega churches, 1970-2001
Today ...
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Brief history commercial advertising (100 years)
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Traveling salesmen
Catalog and direct mail (copy writers)
Creative revolution (1950s to present, television, Mad Men)
Digital
Ironically, commercial advertisers are often called “brand
evangelists”
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Evangelism and advertising share common roots, then diverge
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Person to person (salesmen, evangelists like Phillip)
Print (epistles, gospels, tracts, ad copy, mass marketing)
Creative revolution (television, church sat this one out)
Digital
Can the church jump back in the game?
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Marketing and advertising
• Advertising is a marketing process
• Good marketing triggers a response
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Conversion funnel: from prospect to customer
• Purchase intent
• Brand consideration set
• Sale
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Conversion funnel: from prospect to Episcopalian
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Intention: “I might like to go church”
Consideration: “I might like to go to your church”
Evaluation: “I’ve gone to your church”
Conversion: “I will join your church”
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What is marketing?
• Marketing is a coordinated strategy of sending messages to
people so that they purchase your product
• Church marketing is a coordinated strategy of sending
messages to people so that they join the Episcopal Church
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Measuring success (commercial and church)
• Number of inbound leads
• Number of units sold / Number of confirmations
Why do I say “number of confirmations” and not number of
baptisms, pledging units or ASA?
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Examples of inbound leads
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The classic pew card or visitor register
Traffic to your website
Facebook likes
Twitter followers
Word of mouth
Referrals
Walk-ins
If you market your church well, you will increase the number of
inbound leads you get in each of these categories
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Talkback
• In one sentence, why should you market your church?
• Can you afford not to market your church?
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Contact
(The Rev.) Jake Dell
Manager, Digital Marketing and Advertising Sales
Office of Communication
Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society of the Protestant Episcopal Church
jdell@episcopalchurch.org
(212) 716-6264
Twitter: @jakedell73 and @EDNTweets
Blog: http://preachingscarf.blogspot.com/
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