Church Marketing Sucks

Church communication can be overwhelming. Especially when you’re starting out—whether you’re new to the field or new to a church. There’s so much to do, and the weekly pace of services and their bulletins and announcements can be relentless. When you want to make improvements, it’s hard to know where to start.

We’re talking about the basics on our Courageous Storytellers membership site this month. Part of getting your head around the basics is knowing where to start. So we want to offer a few quick tips on where you can start.

Start Where You Are

You need to start where you are. Recognize where your church is at. You’re not the church down the street that’s always doing over-the-top events. You’re not the church you see online that’s always sharing incredible designs. You’re not the church with the quotable pastor always being shared on social media.

Maybe you do have amazing events, designs, and have a quotable pastor—but the point is you can’t play the comparison game.

Your church is your church. It has its own strengths and weaknesses, and it can’t be any other church. 

Be who you are.

Where Are You?

That means being realistic about what you can accomplish.

• If your church barely manages to keep a website updated, then you might not be ready for a full-blown mobile app.
• If your church struggles with the weekly bulletin, launching a print newsletter might be a bad idea.
• If your church has never done video, switching your weekly announcements to a video format might be too much.

I’m not trying to squash your dreams, but sometimes you have to start small. Find some small wins you can achieve to build confidence and momentum. Show your church that you can do communication better.

Maybe you will launch an app, a print newsletter, and weekly video announcements. But if you try to do it all at once, you’re going to be overwhelmed. You need to start with things you can stay on top of and do incredibly well.

You need to manage expectations, both for yourself and your church.

Level Up What Works

Once you understand where your church is at and what’s realistic, then it’s time to focus on making your church better at being your church.

Figure out what your church is already doing pretty well. And make it even better. 

• If your church has an effective process for creating a bulletin, maybe you can take it up a notch by streamlining the copy with a template approach.
• If your church has incredible worship music, maybe you can start sharing short video clips on social media.
• If your church has a website that works, maybe you look for copy tweaks and new photos that take it up a notch.

You don’t need to reinvent the wheel to make an impact. You don’t need to start an entirely new thing. Sometimes you just need to see what’s working and make it work a little bit better.

More:

For more help getting back to the basics, check out this month’s resources from Courageous Storytellers. Church communication is hard. We can help.