Church Marketing Myths Roundup

A couple of weeks ago I posted the Church Marketing Myths blog series. I was very fortunate to have so many of your insightful contributions and comments which made the series one of my favourites. I love when we can all join together to work out how best we can clearly communicate the message of Jesus.

I thought I'd recap and put all the myths into one place. 

Myth No. 1 Church Marketing is evil. It degrades God. It isn't biblical. Marketing is for business, not the church.
Myth No. 2 Churches Shouldn't Spend Money On Marketing 
Myth No. 3 Marketing Alone Will Grow Your Church
Myth No. 4 Your people aren't marketing your church
Myth No. 5 What works for one church will work at all churches
Myth No. 6 If it's hip, it works
Myth No. 7 Good design doesn't matter
Myth No. 8 The Pastor knows best
Myth No. 9 Marketing Will Resolve All Your Problems
Myths Mash Up 20 more myth busters. 

So what do you think? Truth or lies?

Leave a comment if you are interested in being a part of it of a blog series on marketing or are interested in doing a guest post in the future.

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Comments

[Debi Debanto]

Great series idea - can't wait to read it. More myths 1. marketing is the job of the communications director, not the rest of the team. 2. silos sell - each individual ministry should market itself.

[Trevor from Excellerate Church Software]

This is a great list. It's amazing how many myths there are out there about marketing. One I've encountered and thought I'd add is the myth that "Marketing always works."

Marketing can work. But, it's amazing how many people think it works, period, no clarification and no context needed. The truth is that some marketing works, some bombs, and a wise steward of resources ALWAYS tracks to see whether it worked or not. That way, if one method succeeds and another fails, you don't spend money on the failed one again, but instead double your spend on the successful attempts.

Some churches do this tracking with visitor cards that ask how people heard about the church.

Some advertise only certain service times or certain locations (if you're multi-campus), that way if you see that every service has a 5% bump, but the one you advertised has a 10% bump, you know the effort worked, and you know it worked by an additional 5%, not by 10%. And, if every service goes up 5% whether you advertised it or not, then you know the marketing may not have worked. At the very least the effect was negligible, and you should spend money elsewhere.