Well, before Firefox had a melt down the last time I wrote a blog post I was writing about how much I can't stand Church marketing, but understand that it really can be effective, but I wonder if I could make it more effective? You see I just finished (with some challenging difficulty) a direct mail piece that will be sent to 15,000 households in Santa Fe in which the house holds have an avg. age of 44 and younger. Now if what I just said is not amazing then you either do understand what I just said, or you are in marketing and realize that marketers can target their audience decently now-a-days. Well, this is cost the church a little more than $3,000. Now yes that seems a lot, but the marketing group we are outsourcing this with is excellent, and there was a mix-up on when the cards should go out, so we are having t pay for the express delivery and rush order from Outreach.com. We are realizing that our church (BTW: The is always God's church deep in my heart and must be reminded to the congregation often that this is not their church...sadly) is lacking in a younger demographic, and will eventually go the way of the dodo bird unless it changes and learns to relate and talk with the younger generation and the culture outside the walls of the church. So anyway, for this reason we chose to use this card to reach that younger generation and demographic of Santa Fe:
Now you can see that this card is reaching those who have been hurt by the church or hopefully the ones we are trying to reach....the C&E'ers (Christmas and Easter only attenuator) That is why we liked this card, because we believe this group of people that I just mentioned, are a huge population in Santa Fe. Well, even though this card does not have some Christmas theme on it we will be advertizing our Christmas Eve services on it and hope that we can bring to the services we hope 1/2 of 1% for this first mailing(I think I read this info in an Adam Hamilton book titled Leading Beyond The Walls). Now I am sure lots of you are saying wow! 1/2 of 1% of 15,000 households...is it even worth it? Well, good that is the question you should ask!
Well, lets assume that the 1/2 of 1% is correct that means that we have a decent chance maybe a little less of 75 house holds/people that wont throw away the card as junk mail and will try out one of the Christmas Eve services. Now, at the Christmas Eve services we will be pushing hard a new sermon series that will focus on topics that not only church members but the rest of the community of Santa Fe would be interested in a Christian view point on it was. The series will include preaching on" 1) The end times(Revelation)/is there anything after all of this? 2) Politics and Christianity, 3) Social Justice and Christianity, 4) The problem of Evil/Why do bad things happen to good people and good things happen to bad people?, and the last one is 5) who is Jesus? We came to these sermon topics because we polled our congregation in worship and asked them what they wished was preached about from the pulpit (except I don't get behind the pulpit, heh) Now, of that 75 who come to Christmas Eve services lets assume that 3 families join our church and give $1000 over the course of a year(or more families and less $ over the year), then the money it took to produce the mailing would be paid for and the next year you have enough to pay for another one! This whole idea of trying to reach through a sermon series is Adam Halimton's and we are using the idea that he shared in his book Leading Beyond The Walls<-- I have to get credit where credit is due) Now, I think we should have sent out people to ask the people in the community (@ Starbucks, The Oasis, Walmart, Target, etc...) what they would like to hear, but the Sr. Pastor beleived that our congregation was a representation of the community and by asking them we would be asking the community, while that statement is a little true, I still do not beleive the culture outside the walls of the church is at all the same, and therefore don't know if we are really being effective in who we are trying to reach, but this is the first time and we will evaluate it in the end! Now with all that said, I am going to take a Jerry Maguire moment! If any of you have seen Jerry Maguire, you would know the idea behind the movie was that the sports Agent would focus less on Quantity and more on Quality. So, after writing this huge paper and giving it to all of the higher-ups they call him crazy and fire him. And he keeps one player in the end and through it all shows the world that it can be done and other player start wanting the relationship that Jerry has with his one player.
Well, what if the church does the same thing? What if we focused on quality and not quantity? I have a double minor in undergrad and one of those was marketing so it has always interest me to see how and what marketing techniques are being use all of the time and how they are changing to be more effective. Well, working with Long John Silvers Inc. before I started Seminary I got to know direct mailing very well, and saw its effectiveness, but only if it was done well, and very often! and the last one for the church is difficult when it (and a lot of them are) costs so much money!)
So, if the church is willing to spend $3000 on direct mail to reach 15,000 households, what if you made the direct mail piece more effective (they would not throw it away) and only sent it to $300 people? So, here is my thought. Lets see if we can find a grocery store or Wal-mart, or who ever would be willing to meet you have way and buy $10 gift cards for 300 households? or $5 cards for 600 people? If you could get the company/store to give a discount then I believe that those 300 or $600 people would be more willing to come to the church that really cares about them putting literally money (gift card) where their mouth is. We tell them we love them, and care for them, and yet often we just want to talk to them and rarely drive them to a good dinner, bring them home and help them find a job/school/etc.....
I came to this idea when I watched what the Opera show is doing. One show they gave away a new car to every audience member. Another one they gave all the teachers in the audience (the entire audience was made of teachers) around $13,000 in gifts and also $2,500 for all the taxes on the gifts). It is obvious that marketers are on the cutting edge of advertising, and willing to go beyond the box of what has worked in he past, and I believe that the church must do the same and come up with creative ways to develop relationships with people who need a relationship with Christ, and the church should be willing to go the distance when it comes to reaching those who are in need of Christ. When was the last time you were willing to reach out to the community in a real and tangible way? If it is good enough for Christ why not good enough for us? When was the last time you ate with a tax collector? Stopped a group of people from killing a unfaithful wife? Died on a cross? Well, the last one you and I don't have to do, but I believe the other tow are two examples of Christ trying to teach us by living and doing what he desires for us. Who is the tax collector in your town, that everyone despises? The woman or man that everyone shuns as if they were not faithful to their spouse.
Now....can you imagine if not only you followed the risk taking life of Christ, but an entire church? That is something I can't wait to see, and that is something I can't wait to be a part of.
KUTP!!!!! and God bless you all!
(Oh and BTW: There is an Easter Egg in there somewhere...just a cool place to unwind)
Next time I will let you see the guts of my new computer...that I hope to build sometime...heh.
Vblog!
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