Marketing is not the sole preserve of companies in the business world; it is also Churches and non-profit organisations would do well to attach importance to good PR. The term Church marketing includes the importance of various marketing activities to make churches more attractive and to reach new visitors. In this article we explain that good marketing and the Word of God are not mutually exclusive.
Why church marketing? - How churches benefit from strategic marketing
Marketing is an instrument to increase the popularity of companies and their products or to better position themselves in competition. For companies, marketing clearly has economic reasons, but churches also benefit from a clear positioning and a modern strategy to communicate their message.
A few decades ago, it was simply a given that congregations would flock to churches for services and the church had an established place in the lives of the entire population. Today, however, churches are finding it harder to reach their members and expand their audience.
This means that churches also have to look for new methods to reach people. Church marketing is not profit-oriented and does not try to turn the church into a capital-seeking enterprise. Rather, it is about the preservation and cohesion of the congregation, reaching people in need and also raising the profile of the individual church. Priests or pastors can introduce themselves, special projects can be presented or the preservation of classical architecture can be promoted.
Church marketing helps to better communicate the church's message and thus reach potential church members. In the search for meaning in life and the pursuit of God, churches today are in competition with each other. This makes a New form of communication necessary, which adapts to technical and social conditions - the term church marketing emerges from this interface.
How church marketing works in practice
Much of church marketing still finds its target audience through traditional channels. Whether through baptism, communion, wedding or holiday services, the church is best communicated through space, attendance and events. Parishioners bring friends and relatives when they feel safe in a church. This is no different today than it was a few centuries ago.
But church marketing has also adapted to the fast-paced society. Messages can be put up as posters or signs in the neighbourhood, or congregations can be brought together in social networks. A church can do classic content marketing as a blog or show the special work of the congregation in videos and picture series.
Fundraising for regional or national projects can be digitised, church services broadcast via live video or the beauty of church architecture transformed into a virtual tour. All these possibilities show how diverse marketing for churches can be and at the same time help congregations to stay true to themselves and their message.
Marketing is not primarily about economics. It is about the Expanding the target group to reach the right people, to communicate and around a Exchange in dialogue. Non-profit organisations, charitable associations and of course churches also benefit from all these functions of good marketing.
So why shouldn't a modern church be represented on Facebook, Instagram and in the email newsletter just as it is in the real world?
