Just say it: church marketing. Does it make you cringe a little bit? Because that’s the reaction I used to have too. It conjured an image of a church that is inward-focused, trying to be flashy, and selling people a gospel of over-production and moving lights. That didn’t sound like anything I wanted to be a part of.
But than I heard a definition of marketing that made it all make sense: Marketing is perception management.
Perception Management
What people in your community know (or think they know) about your church builds an image in their mind of what your church is. Maybe it’s as simple seeing your logo on some promotional material and thinking it looked cheesy and out of date. Maybe they have a coworker who had a bad experience as a first time visitor. Or maybe they couldn’t afford to feed their family and your church fed them. Everything that your church does (or doesn’t do) that your community sees affects their perception of you. So let’s start being intentional about it! Hence the term perception management.
But there's more to it than just wanting your community to have a positive perception of your church. You want them to have an accurate perception (hopefully positive and accurate aren’t mutually exclusive!) Do they think you’re a big flashy church with lights smoke and fire, or do you meet in a coffee shop? Are you modern? Traditional? Big? Small? Friendly? Note that none of those adjectives are good or bad. They’re just who you are.
It goes deeper than that too. Don't forget that you don't only reflect your church, you represent Christ to non-believers. Their impression of your church will affect their perception of Christ.
So What?
Since perception management reaches into every part of your church’s ministry, there’s an endless amount of things to be said about it. We’ll continue to explore this topic here. But for now, just know that definition. Every time we talk about marketing here, we mean perception management.
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I'm not the first person to think about this. Here's some of my favorite resources:
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