Philosophy of Marketing & The Church

Internet Marketing & The Church

In pursuit of this ministry, I would come across skepticism and questioning continually on how the Church can morally market themselves. And I personally felt for a long time there was no way it could be done effectively without compromising the mission of the church. As I continually researched and discussed Church and Christian Non-Profit online marketing, I was able to get to the root of effective Christian organization marketing.

I had this realization when describing to my friend how business marketing at its core works, and how it directly conflicts with how the Church works. The Church is relational. Businesses want to be relational, but since none of their products are the meaning of life, based in love and cannot grant happiness they simply have to fake relationship. The Church, on the other hand, has to display their relationship in true way.

We are not selling, but reporting what we have seen. If you can convince someone to be a Christ-follower, then someone can convince them to not follow Christ. I digress though. Essentially, by reverse-engineering business marketing with the relational aspect of the Church, we can create an effective strategy for online Christian marketing.

How Business Marketing Works

By understanding the core of business marketing, we will know exactly what we do not want to be.

Boiling down all of my marketing classes and every client discussion I have had over the years, business marketing is presenting a promise (you’ll lose weight, you’ll be happy, you will finally be satisfied, you will have community and the list goes on) all for the low price of $49.99 it will be mailed to your door in less than 24 hours.

Why The Church Can’t Market Like A Business

This is truly the lie of marketing. No one can prove that a product does not deliver happiness. Based on the world’s spending habits, no one is satisfied. If we were to do the same thing we will leave people dissatisfied with empty promises and they will leave the Church feeling betrayed and never having the opportunity to truly know God because we were too busy promising them what we could provide. And the truth is it is not about us, it is about Christ.

How The Church Stands Out in this World

A Church is not a building or a business. It is a body of people. If it is treated as a business we will fail. We must treat internet marketing as a relational tool. Just as a letter can be used to grow your relationship with a fellow believer, junk mail can try to sell you something. 

How the Church stands out among this world is through our unity with Christ. We can talk for hours with another believer that we have nothing in common with except for our belief in Christ. This is because we share the Holy Spirit. For us to try to force the Holy Spirit into an advertisement and onto someone who has not decided to follow Christ would be weird. That would be like forcing someone who has lived in a desert and never seen snow or ice before to have a conversation about sledding. It will be awkward, they will feel uncomfortable and never want to have a conversation with us again. 

So how can the Holy Spirit, our light, shine?

Matthew 5: 14-16

“You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.”

We can shine our light in two ways:

• We can display a real God-filled relationship with our conversation and presentation from us to existing believers in our body. This will cut through all of the nonsense of the world and display something nonbelievers haven’t seen before. The selfless love of Christ.
• Through our first method, we will be encouraging existing believers to shine their light. From making “being a Christian” an everyday thing rather than a Sunday morning experience to equipping and educating the body of your Church.

We need to make sure our actions are towards existing believers. Let us help their light shine. Their relationships will be more effective in reaching lost people than any ad or commercial would.

What About Christian Organizations & Non-Profits?

Christian Organizations are where the lines get blurry, mainly because they actually are a business. Our Christian Non-Profit services are approached with the same integrity and quality as Church marketing, and we are able to perform more direct and traditional marketing due to a Church Non-Profit's business's structure and focus.

How Does Church Marketing Look

Marketing for a Church looks very natural. It does not have any ads or billboards. We have a strict policy against competing with other Churches. Upon working with us we have a Church marketing contract. We require any Church organization we work with to sign off that they will never run Ads as long as they are associated with us. There are certain exceptions, but we do not want to work with an organization that is simply trying to transplant believers. This is not a wise use of the Church’s finances.

A Breakdown of Bad Church Marketing:

Just because a form of marketing can be done, does not mean it should be. When performing marketing for Christian organizations we must rise to the expectations God has called to us in our faith. We need to be (1) financially responsible - Matthew 25:14-30, (2) market with honesty - Matthew 5:48, (3) wise in how we present ourselves - 1 Corinthians 3:18, (4) purposefully be building each other up and spurring one another on - Hebrews 10:24 (5) and most importantly we recognize that we are responsible as representatives of Christ and if we do anything to lead someone astray, their blood is on our hands Matthew 18:6. Bear these in mind when performing any marketing for Christian organizations.

1. Competing With Other Churches

This form of marketing is an unwise use of a Church’s finances. Trying to steal believers from one Church and placing them into yours is a double-edged sword working against you.

• You are using finances to get another person’s finances when you could put that money to better use. While you will get another person tithing, they were tithing before at another church, where their money could be used effectively. This is a circular process that in the end results in wasted money and the Church functioning like a business rather than a body.
• You spent money to change a person’s church, not to save someone. Growing a Church like this is not a win for Christ, it is a win for your business.
• The transplant will likely lack loyalty if you are able to steal them through marketing.
• When going through a transition like this, the person who is transplanted is likely to have damage to their spiritual life due to relationships being severed. This could result in people drifting away from the Church, in the end, living ineffective Christian lives.

This form of marketing includes but is not limited to:

• Targeting specific keywords (like “church”) with PPC advertising that would make you show up above other Churches.
• Geotargeting Churches
• Targeting ads to people that have visited Church websites
• Unethical SEO practices that do not provide users with quality information than can build or equip them, but rather target your reader in becoming aware of your Church.
• Hindering people’s spiritual growth for your own selfish gain is an indicator that you are potentially a false teacher. 2 Peter 2:3

2. Unethical Marketing

• Empty Promises: By presenting empty promises, or promises that we do not control the outcome of we will mislead people and alienate them. In the end driving them away from the Church, and away from God. Do you want that blood on your hands?
• Hateful Speech: 1 Corinthians 13:1 - You can speak truth in your advertising, you can say it in different languages, but without love you are a clanging gong, that will also drive people away from a relationship with our savior. Again, do you want that blood on your hands?

3. Social Media Specifically

• Gossiping: Teach about it, and make it a strict no-tolerance policy.
• Becoming A Club: Something to be continually aware of. We aren’t a club, but a body of Christians. In the body all parts are valuable.
• Reaching Out to Non-Believers: On social media, reaching out to non-believers should not be done very often. Social Media should be used to build and equip your church family and by doing so they will market effectively. Yes, you should post about Christmas service times and occasionally do an invitation for Sunday service, but if this is all your social media does it will alienate the people who do follow your Facebook page. If you try to reach out on social media in the traditional business method you will alienate the people you reach out to. It would be like trying to talk to someone who has never seen snow about sledding. The conversation will be awkward and uncomfortable, they will feel weird and they will think you are crazy. Instead, we want to utilize social media as a tool where real relationships that exist in the real world are supported and displayed. This is one of the ways Christians stand out in this world.

4. Low Quality

• Yes, this is a subject we must bring our attention to because God tells us how we should work. Our work, when performed should not be “good enough” or low quality but should be better than all other secular and Christian professional marketing companies. Why? Colossians 3:23-24 Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.

Have any feedback? Contact us! I would love to hear it and discuss it with you so these expectations can be communicated effectively.