Categories
Branding For Church Staff Leadership

11 Pastor Appreciation Day Ideas for 2021

2021 Pastor Appreciation Day is Sunday, October 10

While these may not be the conventional “Tie and Hallmark Card” ideas (although, this tie on the right seems like $14.99 well spent) as church volunteers, leaders, board members, or staff members, here are some ways to truly show appreciation for your Pastor for an impact that will last longer than that Starbucks gift card.

 

ASK: What are your pet peeves that I can avoid?

I was talking with Ryan Wakefield from Church Marketing University, and he said one of the most successful questions he asked his boss was “What are you pet peeves that I can avoid?”

Maybe it’s when emails come in marked as high priority, or letting a call go to voicemail without leaving a message, or interrupting in a conversation, or texting while he or she is preaching that buzzes the apple watch, or (my favorite) giving a piece of paper when that could have been sent by email.

Learning what makes your Pastor tick is one of the best gifts you can give – not only to show that you appreciate your Pastor but also to learn and not accidentally invoke a pet peeve.

 

ASK: Is there anything I can help with for this weekend?

What this can sound like: I appreciate what you do, and I know there’s a lot resting on your shoulders, so is there any way I can help shoulder the load.

Thursday or Early Friday are great times to ask this question because that’s the point in time when we often realize there’s more ‘to-do list’ left than there is ‘week’ left.

This could be as simple as

  • Would you double-check that the coffee supplies got picked up? We ran out of sugar last week.
  • I’m looking for a picture for my sermon of a dog in a car. Would you help me find that?
  • Can you give me your feedback on this phrase in my sermon?
  • Could we change the sign out front by Sunday to say….?

There are often things that your Pastor will notice that others may not, and anything you can do to help take something off his or her mind.

 

INVITE: Bring someone to church

Nothing says “I appreciate our church” like believing in the vision and leadership like bringing someone to church. On Pastor appreciation, Sunday, October 13, 2019, start planning to have a day when everyone brings someone.

 

GIFT: Give a book that you’ve enjoyed or your Pastor has mentioned

Often, a Pastor won’t take the time to buy themselves a gift, so a simple gift can be a sign that you’ve been listening when they’ve mentioned wanting to read a book, and you’re supporting them as they learn and grow.

 

GIFT: Give them an unplanned day, or weekend, or lunch off

This could look different for each church, but offer to preach one weekend, or go to the “Mayor’s Prayer Breakfast” as your church’s representative, or take some meetings, or plan a staff meeting, then instead of everyone showing up, it’s just your Pastor and Spouse for lunch at the restaurant (but let at least one of them know that you’re skipping out…)

 

GIFT: Outsource something that has been too much for your team to handle

Maybe your Pastor has wanted to have more sermon clips show up on Social Media (like through SermonClipper.com), or outsource your graphic design to Church Media Squad to give a boost to your design team and create a higher quantity of designs for your Pastor’s blog, or social media images or your email newsletter, or on screens during announcement.

If there’s something close to your Pastor’s heart, find a few people who will each commit to split the costs for a year personally and make that dream happen.

 

WRITE: A Hand-written note

Rather than ask your church to bring in a card, hand out a piece of cardboard where each member of your church can write a personal note to you Pastor for Pastor Appreciation Day 2019. This will mean way more than some guy in Hallmark’s office writing a card that someone from your church bought.

Not only is this cost-effective, so you can pool your resources for another type of gift, but it really makes a personal connection from each person in your church to your Pastor.

 

DO: ‘Steal’ your Pastor’s car, and get the oil changed, car washed and gas topped up

Ok, probably not steal, but let them know that while they’re in a meeting, you’d like to take their car for an oil change. While you’re out, top up their gas and get the deluxe-premium-super-duper car wash. Everyone loves driving a clean car and take something off the to-do list.

 

GIFT: An online course

Choose an online course from a person your Pastor respects, or a topic that he or she is interested in. If you’re not sure where to start, consider Hope Made Strong’s online course which talks about how to stay healthy in church leadership when you’re working regularly giving all of your energy to helping others.

An online course might not be something they would buy for themselves, but they can go through it with the leadership at your church and see a definite difference.

 

ASK: What is one thing you would like to see our church accomplish in the next 6 months?

Cork board calendarThis is one of the six questions that I ask churches when I help them develop a 6-12 month community-impact strategy.

This could be an outreach event, seeing a certain number of visitors show up at church, setting up a church follow up process using Text In Church or to build a volunteer parking lot team.

You may be surprised at what the answer is to this question – it may be something fairly obvious, or it may be something you’ve never considered before, but mark in on the calendar, loop in all of your key staff and volunteers, and work backward to figure out how to get from here to there – what steps will it take? Who needs to be involved? How can we track progress along the way? How will we celebrate when we hit our goal?

 

GIFT: Bring in someone to help build a community-impact strategy

When I work with churches, we take 3 days on site and create a 6-month community impact strategy. We start with 6 questions that every organization needs to answer and end with clear branding, a marketing strategy to evaluate your guest’s experience at your church and follow up process, and an outreach strategy to help you become known in your community.

Your Pastor leads your church because he or she wants to impact your community and introduce more people to Jesus. Show your appreciation for his or her passion by helping align your whole church (Staff, key leaders, volunteers, and attenders) around a common goal of reaching your community, and create a written 6-month strategy to do that!

As much as a staff member or church member you’ll appreciate the focus and clarity it creates, your Lead Pastor will thank you for helping put words, actions and checkpoints to his vision for reaching your community.

Ready to get started? Send me an email to start the discussion: adam@adammclaughlin.net

 

What are some of the best ideas you’ve heard for Pastor Apprecation day? Leave a comment below so we can all learn together.

 

 

 

Categories
Advertising Branding Marketing

How to Kill Bad Church Events Using Great Marketing

Trust me when I say I’ve been there. An event comes across my desk, and I roll my eyes, completely ignore it and hope it goes away, but I’ve learned that rarely works. Why? Because often when the event flops, the organizer blames it on poor promotion.

Some people can’t wrap their brain around the thought that there isn’t a huge crowd of people begging to be part of the 70’s and over, couples skydiving and paintball event, so when you roll your eyes at the thought of promoting that event on the last page of the bulletin or honorable mention on the corner of the website calendar, it only takes one person to say “I didn’t hear about that,” and now the event organizer is convinced that the event flopped, not because of lack of interest, but because of poor promotion and marketing.

So how can you kill that event that everyone except the event organizer knows won’t fly? Great Marketing.

If you promote the event with great marketing, put your full effort into it and create a measurable standard for what a “successful” event looks like, then the event organizer can’t blame marketing anymore. They may actually come to terms that the interest isn’t there for their event.

 

Here’s Where Clarity Wins:

What is the marketing team for?

In the event organizer’s mind, the marketing team may be to convince people to show up to events. In your mind, it may be to make people aware of the event and allow them to decide if they want to show up. Get clear on the differences for both you and the event organizer.

If you’re not, the event organizer always has an excuse to blame poor attendance on marketing – after all, in their mind, your job is to convince people to come, and since no one came, you must not have done your job.

 

Which of our church’s core values is this going to be emphasized at this event?

Is the goal of this event is to build relationships, reach out to the community, give people an opportunity to use their musical gifts, bring in outside donor funds for a new outreach facility, equipping parents to understand their kids’ health or help people improve their marriage? Which of our church’s core values is going to be emphasized, and how does that create a a simple goal for this event?

This isn’t time for a marketing slogan, alliteration or creating a perfect hashtag. This is one sentence that describes the one main focus of the event. This is easily framed with “If your neighbor who doesn’t come to our church asked what this event is about, what could you tell them to explain it?”

Some examples are “Helping people have better communication within their marriage” or “Going to build an orphanage in Peru” or “Dinner and dancing you can invite their friends to, so they can meet other people from church.”

 

What is considered a ‘win’ for this event?

I made the mistake too many times of not having this discussion before an event. After the event, we would get together for an after-action review (that’s coming further down the page) and I would say “Wow, you had 50 people at your event! That’s great,” and the event organizer (without fail) would say “yes, but I was expecting more. More people would have come if there was some additional promotion.”

Before an event starts, have a kick-off meeting, and set goals for the event. Ask questions like “Based on $20/person, how many people do you need to show up to cover the costs of the event?” or “How many people attended this event last time?” and  (believe it or not) “How many people would you like to see at this event in order to consider it a success?”

That last question can be a can of worms, because that person may say 200 people want to attend the 70s and over couples  midnight skydiving and paintball party when there are only 15 people over the age of 70 at your church, and you know the event organizer is probably the only one wanting to go skydiving and play paintball.

Instead of saying “That’s completely unrealistic” like I would say, (you can say it in your head)  you could point out that there are only 15 people that this event could apply to, and ask if you could broaden the range.

Broadening the range may look like “Based on only having 15 people who would fit in your age range, would you consider expanding your age range? Expanding it from 70 and over to 40 and over would give us a better probability of seeing 200 registrations.” or ” Maybe a $200 dinner and dancing package might not be realistic for 60 couples. Would you consider finding a different restaurant to bring the evening down to $100/couple? How many people do you think that could include?”

If the organizer says “No, this is what the event is going to be,” then you need to say “Based on previous events, age demographics at our church, the average age of families in our neighborhood and the cost of the event, 200 registrations isn’t realistic. What do you think is realistic?”

 

Don’t move forward without that answer

If the event organizer isn’t willing to come to terms here, no amount of marketing/promotion/advertising is going to solve that. Bring in someone to help move the conversation forward, but don’t talk about how / what promotion will take place until that number is clear – It gives everyone involved a goal and target to push for.

It’s also possible that after this discussion, the event organizer realizes that this event is not going to be the success they imagined it may be. It’s helpful to allow the organizer to get to that conclusion, not heavily suggest that the event isn’t going to work. If that suggestion is yours, then the assumption may be that your team has already decided not to put in full effort.

 

Compare the anticipated registration to your promotional tiers

Here’s a video I created with Kyler Nixon about creating and promoting within even categories at your church. If these categories aren’t yet clear at your church, then create them and get clear. If not, everything becomes “top priority”.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9P5nMZ0yRF4

Protip: When you talk about which category this event falls into, mention a few other recognizable and successful events that fell into this category. “The canned food drive was also a tier 2 event, and we had our largest donation amount ever.” or “This is the same tier that the Kids Church team used to recruit 20 new volunteers this past spring.” or “This is the tier we use for our yearly mission trip.”

The event organizer needs to know that the promotion they are receiving is on par with other successful events.

PRO-TIP: Throwing in a few ‘bonus’ promotions outside of the tier – maybe an instagram story, or organizing a facebook event  or an extra in-service announcement will help give your discussion strength if you can say you went above and beyond, and the event didn’t take off. This goes against everything you want – I know – but it’s essential in helping the organizer understand if there’s an interest in this event.

 

Have an After-Action review

Be sure once the event is done that you get together to talk about the event. Did the number of participants match the considered “Success”? Bring a record of how you promised you would promote (based on your tier system) and the dates and times, print material, and announcements you used in your strategy. There’s no need to bring this information out unless your commitment to the promotion is questioned.

Phrase your ideas as questions to the event organizer “Do you think people may not be interested in this topic right now?” would be better than “This doesn’t work and we’re not doing it again.” and follow up with “Is there something else we can try to accomplish this goal next time?”

PRO-TIP: Let’s say the event was a crazy success. You have to be willing to say “wow, that response was great. Let’s do it again next year!”

This process isn’t about you being right, it’s about giving every event the best opportunity to be successful and have honest conversations about the events that were, and be willing to put an end to events that aren’t.

 

 

 

Categories
Advertising Branding Social Media

Don’t post about Daylight Saving on your Church’s Social Media

Hot Take: Don’t post Daylight Saving Images on your Church’s Social Media

I’m going to get angry emails about this one. I can feel it already. Even worse than this post about church music.

Let’s take a step back before we jump into opinions on this one, and consider some facts, then we’ll talk about the real issues of why churches want to communicate Daylight Saving and time changes.

(by the way, my concern has nothing to do with Daylight Saving – that’s just a clear symptom of something else… keep reading).

Fact: According to Pew Research, 77% of Americans own a smartphone (full article). This means that the device they most likely use to tell time automatically updates with the time change.

Fact: Another 22% own a cell phone, not designated as a smartphone, so we can’t say for sure what percentage of those automatically update, but some will.

95% of Americans own a cell phone.

Besides smartphone owners, there are many other avenues of hearing about time changes in the spring and fall:

  • Listening to the radio
  • Watching the news on TV
  • Reading the paper
  • Reminders from friends and family
  • Someone else who lives in your house owns a smartphone (if you’re not in the 77+%)
  • It’s printed on the calendar in your kitchen
  • You just remember because this happens every spring and fall

In order to factually justify that YOUR CHURCH’S SOCIAL MEDIA POST is the reason someone remembered the time change and showed up on time for church would be to find someone who meets all 5 of the following criteria:

  1. Doesn’t own a smartphone
  2. Doesn’t live with someone who owns a smartphone
  3. Attends your church
  4. Follows you on social media
  5. Happens to be in the 10% of the people who see that particular post (based on facebook / Instagrams algorithms)

My point: Churches (as with any online entity on Social Media) have limited attention given to us. We all get a piece of the puzzle in Facebook, Twitter or Instagram’s algorithm. Knowing that (statistically) your ‘social media audience’ is not relying on us to learn about or remember the time change, why waste that attention?

(if you’re not sure what to post instead, check out this article on 31 social media post ideas for your church!)

An exception could be if you’re posting something that pushes your church culture forward, or actually creates attention from people who don’t attend your church – a funny video about being able to sleep in and still come to church, or a values-centered discussion about how your church is using that extra hour to clean up garbage at a local park before service starts, for example. 

If that’s your exception, go for it, because you’re actually communicating your culture, with the time change as a topic. If you’re just posting a “don’t forget” graphic then just forget it.

This isn’t about Daylight Saving…

My concern is not about whether or not to communicate Daylight Saving. My concern is that churches, given the information above, think this is an efficient use of communication and attention, attribute time to making or finding graphics, writing content and wasting attention.

Why does this happen? Here are some possibilities.

 

1. This is how we’ve always done it.

Great! That’s worked before, but it’s no longer valid. We don’t put diapers on our child once they’re potty trained, put gas in a car that doesn’t run any longer or purchase a new fax machine for every new employee. Be willing to say “up until now we’ve been doing X, and from now on we’ll be doing Y” (hint: in 5 days, 5 weeks, 5 months or 5 years, you may be saying “up until now we’ve been doing Y, and from now on we’ll be doing Z”)

 

2. I don’t feel like being creative today

Let’s be honest. This is a simple way to check the box of “posted something on facebook today.” Maybe this is because you’ve got too much on your plate, you’re not feeling creative, you try and figure things out day-to-day without a long-term strategy, or you simply don’t care, other than checking the box that says “I posted something on facebook today.”

We’ve got to be more intentional. People need our church. They need Jesus. They need to learn about the hope we have. Getting lazy isn’t serving them or you. It’s time to build a strategy, delegate strategy building or have some conversations about whether or not this position is for you.

 

3. The concern that “if we don’t post this, someone won’t find out.”

If this reason resonated with you, then I’m sorry I haven’t been able to communicate how blatantly ineffective this is. It’s also possible, you’re looking for a reason not to change, and if that’s the case, despite facts, logic and the opportunity to use that attention towards helping your followers and community learn more about your church’s culture and pointing them to Jesus, it’s time for a gut check.

 

This doesn’t have to be a touchy subject, but for some reason it is. If you need to talk, let it out, or help me see something I’m missing: adam@adammclaughlin.net

 

If you’re not sure what to post instead, check out this article on 31 social media post ideas for your church!

 

Categories
Branding

What is branding, and why does it matter for my church?

Branding is simply what makes your church unique.

Often we may consider branding to be simply a logo or font choice or color scheme.  For instance, we may consider Chick-Fil-A branding to be the cows on the billboards or Nike’s branding to be the swoosh or Apple’s logo to be an apple with a bite out of it.

While those things are trademarked, and no one else can (legally) use those images to represent themselves, these companies are known for more than their logo – there is more than a logo that makes them unique from their competitor.

Consider that when you say “thank you” at Chick-Fil-A they are known for saying “My pleasure” or a black and white commercial comes on of someone playing basketball, which doesn’t refer to a product, but simply ends with a swoosh, or a group of lifestyle shots is on a commercial that ends with a white screen.  Each of these things is not a logo, but each is a representation of what makes that company unique – something that is not branding, (hint: this is marketing) but points to branding.

Your logo is not your branding, but it is a visual representation of your brand – a visual representation of how and what makes you unique.

In practical terms, your branding is your core values, and what you value at your core matters. Your core values dictate what makes your church unique from other organizations, and determine the decisions you will make as an organization.

Why does being unique matter for our church?

We’re here to tell people about Jesus, and make disciples, so why do we need to be unique from other churches? There are plenty of people to reach, and we’re not in competition with them by trying to be better.

This is all true. I don’t disagree with one word, so how are you going to reach the people that need to be reached? A church that sings hymns and has weekly meals together every Sunday is going to reach someone different than a church who has flashing lights and loud guitars.

A church with 2 mid-weeks services is going to serve someone differently than a church with Sunday services and small groups through the week.

A church who focusses on local outreaches to the poor is going to serve different people than a church whose focus is sending people to take the gospel to unreached people groups around the world.

A church with country music during worship is going to reach different people than a church who likes urban gospel. (And they can both impact their community in unique ways, even if they’re next door to each other!)

We’re not trying to be unique in order to COMPETE with other churches, we’re discovering the unique thing that God has called us to be so we can COMPLIMENT other churches, because just like your spouse was drawn to you because you’re unique, your friends like that about you too, and where you work, and which gym you choose (or in my case, which 711 is most reliable to get a coke Slurpee).

Your branding is about discovering what makes you unique. It matters so you can reach the people that no one else can.

 

 

Categories
Branding Social Media

Nona Jones, Facebook: Go beyond content and build connections at Big Idea Nashville

Only 2% of 100 million facebook groups are faith-based. 74% of people find a faith-based community meaningful.

Facebook’s recent algorithm change held nothing back in showing that they would be focussing their algorithm on changes on making meaningful connections from people to people, rather than businesses or organizations.  Nona Jones is a Strategic Partner Manager at Facebook, leading a department helping faith-based communities grow and make connections on Facebook, and recently spoke at BigIdeaNashville.com to 200 church communicators (and I got to be there!)

According to Google, every month there are more than 30,000 searches of “Church online” or “online church” which is a clear indicator that people are looking for faith-based connections online, and Facebook groups are an important tool to continue being the church outside of our Sunday service, not just a tool to enhance our Sunday experience

“Facebook has been viewed as a tool to promote your church’s content, but research is showing us now that we can have the biggest impact by going beyond content and building connections.”

The best way to build person-to-person connections on Facebook is clearly through groups, where everyone involved gets to post content and interact with other’s content – unlike a page that is one person communicating publicly with a brand – groups allow people to connect with each other around a common goal, focus or topic.

Nona offered some helpful insight (from the inner workings) on how to get started if your church is ready to embrace Facebook groups:

 

How to get started with facebook groups at your church:

  • Define the purpose of your group – Is this for everyone who attends your church, or people who are in your community, or members of individual groups or ministry teams? Is this for casual conversation, debating theology, or swapping hand-me-down clothes for moms? Defining the purpose will give you clear direction as you build your group.
  • Assemble your team – This won’t be easy to do alone, and getting a few people to help with reducing the lift required, plus help those volunteers feel more engaged with the purpose of your group. Choosing people who are already active on Facebook will help reduce the onboarding process and get you started right away.
  • Make a plan for ensuring your ideal community member can find and enjoy your community – Just like a new campus or a new service time, launch your group in a big way. Send out emails to people who may be interested, post on your church’s Facebook page and mention it in service or in your weekly small groups. Make the name clear enough to be searchable and specific to your group.
  • Be intentional about how you want people to engage – clearly outline the purpose of your group and make sure the members know what’s allowed or expected within the group rules. This might include general content like nothing defamatory or derogatory or may include specifically what will be posted like content and events for young families, or upcoming events in the community or prayer requests.
  • Keep your community safe as it grows – By having a private group (groups can be either public, private or secret) then your group will be searchable, but you’ll have to approve new member requests. Keep the group safe and relevant by asking a few questions before allowing someone in (are you a member of our church, how long have you attended, or do you meet the suggested demographics for the group).

 

Creating engagement in your group:

Your group is only as good as the engagement within in. Ste the stage for new members to give them the first impression that engagements are encouraged in the group:

  • Welcome new members as they join the group.
  • Have your team intentionally reply to new member’s first posts (including tagging other group members who may be able to help with a question or idea)
  • Remind members now and then what the purpose of the group is to spark ideas for new conversation.

 

Would you like more information on the differences between facebook groups and facebook pages? Check out my post here. (hint: It’s time to use both!)

 

Categories
Branding

3 easy steps to overbrand your church programs

Over-branding in your church is a serious deception. It seems fun or slick or enjoyable to brand your Wednesday night service as “Mid-week Recharge” or brand your youth service with an acronym like “Bibles And Radical Fellowship” (BARF) or your parenting class as “Mothers And Fathers In Action” (MAFIA).

20 years ago, this caught on as a cool idea. A lot of people came to church during the week as a social event, to fill their evenings or to nap in the back row while their kids threw water balloons in the parking lot.

If you told them you’re having an event called “Sunrise and SonShine” they could easily take in what you’re telling them and learn the name. You had their attention – without a phone in their hand…

Fast forward to 2018.

We are getting bombarded with more messages that we can count on a daily basis, while browsing social media, driving, listening to the radio and trying to narrow down our Starbucks order to less than 4 sentences. In today’s world, saying “Saturday morning breakfast” or “First Friday of the month worship night” or “Hope Church Youth” is the best way to communicate your message without having to cut through the noise and explain what your acronym or cute title stands for.

In 2018, having a ANOTHER cute title doesn’t make something memorable – it actually makes it more difficult to remember.

You’re telling them, “Remember a ‘cute’ name AND remember what the event is actually about.”  Your church is the brand. Everything else can happen under that umbrella. Choose a name that describes the event.

Consider one of the most recognizable brands in our world: McDonald’s.

Back in the day, they branded their signature burger a Big Mac, and it stuck. Now, virtually everything else on their menu is a self-describing title: Double Quarter pounder with cheese, chicken nuggets, filet-o-fish. If one of the largest, most broadly-recognized brands in our world is going that simple, why does your church need a code word for every meeting room, classroom, small group and mid-week service?

 

How does this make a new person feel?

Would you feel included or excluded if you didn’t understand the code words at a new church? Would this make you feel like part of the family, or an outsider looking in?

 

However, if you insist, here are 3 options to confuse people with overbranding.

 

Option 1: Create an Acronym that’s just a bunch of random letters

This is a double whammy for confusion. Not only are you going to give people an event to remember topped off with a cute name, you’re also going to give them an acronym so they have to try and remember the acronym, then remember what it stands for, then remember what THAT stands for.

“Join us for GRBSP every Monday at 7pm. That’s our Grandparents reading bible stories to preschoolers.”

 

Option 2: Create an acronym with a completely unrelated real word…

Just choose a bunch of words that start with the right letters, even if they don’t describe your event at all.

“We’ve got a new event called LIGHT – That’s Ladies In Generations Holding Time. Come be part of that on Wednesday morning.”

Or what about choosing words that ACTUALLY describe your event, but form a less-than-desirable acronym:

“Learn more about the Bible every week at our Interactive Bible Study: IBS”

 

Option 3: Pick a word that only makes sense once its explained

We’re going to call our junior youth “On-Ramp” like getting on life’s highway. We’re going to call our ladies bible study group “Purpose”. In a stand-alone way, you may consider these explainable (and I’ve heard the argument “If anyone asks, it’s easy to explain,”) but considering you have 23 small groups, 3 youth brackets, a bible name for every room in your facility, a unique branding for your midweek service and morning prayer, then all-in-all, this is the perfect storm of confusion.

 

For the boring church people:

So if you want to be boring, err on the side of clarity and not confuse new visitors to your church, you could just call events and groups within your church what they really are:

  • Ladies Bible Study
  • Midweek Service
  • Tuesday morning prayer
  • Example Church Youth
  • Example Church 20 something
  • Saturday morning breakfast
  • Invite-A-Friend Carnival

Be boring enough to let the name of the event or group perfectly explain the purpose. It doesn’t need it’s own logo, theme song, and catchy title. In this case, boring wins.

 

 

 

Categories
Advertising Branding Tools

5 things your church can learn from Pumpkin Spice

If you haven’t heard of the Pumpkin Spice craze, welcome out from under that rock. Pumpkin Spice was originally started by Starbucks in 2003. (Here’s the full story according to Wikipedia)

Personally, I don’t like the flavor of pumpkin. My wife’s favorite pie is pumpkin pie and if she makes one, I don’t touch it, but from a communications perspective, I think there are a few things to learn from…

What makes the Pumpkin Spice craze successful?

 

It’s seasonal

You can’t get it all the time, so when people can get it, they’ve missed it and they rush for it, then tell others it’s available. There’s something to be said for scarcity. Is there something on your church’s calendar that is too frequent? If you have a  new member’s class that 10 people attend every month, could it work better to have 30 people every 3 months? Would that give you some space to say “It’s coming up, but won’t be back for a few months.” or could it be more engaging with a larger crowd?

 

It’s a flavor so it’s portable to other food products

Pumpkin Spice is not just about a latte, but has now impacted all kinds of different food. Once realizing that PS could be more than a drink, Starbucks started making muffins, cookies, candy, and from there it took off. When Starbucks saw the success, they expanded with a “Keep something, change something” model.

The ‘Keep something’ was the Pumpkin Spice flavor, the “change something” was the actual food item – muffins, cookies, candy, etc.

Is there something that is successful at your church that you could expand with the “Keep Something, Change something” model? Could you take your Sunday service, or worship or message and turn it into a podcast? Could you take your Pastor’s notes and write blog posts?

Could you take a successful small group curriculum and turn it into a book, or create a video series for facebook, or use it for a facebook live curriculum for people who are unable to meet in someone’s home?

(Check out this post: 40 ways to repurpose your content for more ideas)

 

It’s a scent, so it can go way beyond food products

I can smell when my wife has had a PSL in my car. Product creators have taken a food product and found a way to turn that into other marketable products.

There’s car scent, deodorant, soap, and candles. The manufacturers saw the craze and decided to think outside the traditional method to market their product.

Don’t believe me? Click here for a “Pumpkin Spice” search on Amazon showing over 28,000 products…

What is successful within your church that could be adapted to connect with people outside your church? Maybe you have a date night where you offer free childcare at your church, but could you then invite people from the community, and not only provide child care, but provide dinner, popcorn and a movie for the adults. Let you church people know ahead of time and have them invite a friend.

What if you could take one of your Pastor’s series about families or marriage, keep the biblical principles, but remove the exact scripture references and publish a booklet for your people to share with friends?

Find something that works, and discover other ways to use that success.

 

Starbucks turned Pumpkin Spice into a lifestyle

Phrases like “I’m all about that Pumpkin Spice Life” have turned PSL from a drink people enjoy to imagining that it could be an actual ‘Lifestyle’ as if your life could revolve around a drink.

But what if you could communicate that serving in your church is part of your church’s lifestyle – an expectation, not a request or a great idea. Maybe that’s prayer groups or serving on a team or serving your community or giving to missions.

What could you do to create the lifestyle of what’s important to your church? How could you highlight families that have embraced that lifestyle and give new people a really easy on-ramp to that lifestyle?

 

Even people who don’t love it know about it

I have no inclination to eat, drink, smell or wear a pumpkin spice anything, but it’s everywhere, so I don’t have to love it to know it exists. Why does that happen? Because there are people all around me talking about how much they love their pumpkin spice.

How can you create a way for people who love your church to talk about it? Is it a business card invitation they can hand out, a bumper sticker, a t-shirt or posting something on facebook every week that they can use to share and invite friends to church?

Side note: Pumpkin Spice Jello… Two wrongs don’t make a right.

 

 

What have you implemented from the ideas, and which are you going to work on next? Comment below so we can learn from what’s working for you!

 

 

 

Categories
Branding Podcast

Podcast: How to be known for something with Mark MacDonald

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This week’s Social Media tool – HemingwayApp.com:

Try it our for free here!

 

Our Guest is Mark MacDonald: Be Known For Something

 

 

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Categories
Advertising Branding Marketing Podcast Social Media Tools

Podcast: Can we duplicate content across Social Media Channels?

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This week’s tool: Open-Edit-Print.com

 

Church Graphics… Simplified Save Time. End Frustration. Attract Visitors.Get Unlimited Access to Done-for-you Media and Graphics for Email, Social Media, Worship Slides and Print Promotions. Get a free trial here!

 

Stacey asks about which Social Media channels to be on to connect with a young demographic, and if cross posting is a good idea:

  • Facebook is still the largest user base, so don’t let it go.
  • If you’re using Facebook consistently and seeing growth, reach a younger demographic on instagram or twitter – both have it’s perks as far as content and strategy.
  • Maximize the strengths of each platform (twitter is real time, instagram is image driven)
  • Send a consistent message across each platform, but it doesn’t have to be an identical message.
  • It’s cool to cross-post. Some people prefer one channel over another, so they won’t know you’re cross posting.  Other people will see the same post, but at different times or in a different context.

Have a church communications question you’d like answered? Ask it here.  We’ll reply to all of them and pick a few for our podcast!

 

 

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Categories
Advertising Branding Marketing Podcast

How to create a winning church communications strategy

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https://youtu.be/cCKycHY_lMg

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This week’s tool:

chat-slack-colorSlack:

Slack is a chat app on steroids.  If you’re using a Facebook group or text message thread to communicate with your team, imagine being able to group your chats: communication projects, personal needs, funny comments, feedback, stage design ideas or communications about your upcoming volunteer banquet.

Slack includes different “channels” – chats based on topics.  When you upload a file, like a proof for instance, other users can comment on that proof so you know how to make revisions.

Slack also comes with multiple add ons, so you can find an app for finances, expense tracking or communication integrations.

 

 

Dan asks a great question about how to build a communications strategy.  For us, we’ve built our strategy based on 3 concepts: Branding, Marketing and Advertising give us the opportunity to build trust in every interaction. We call this TrustGlue that makes people stick around when they see we’re living out our values.  Download our free ebook here:

 

 

Have a church communications question you’d like answered? Ask it here.  We’ll reply to all of them and pick a few for our podcast!

 

 

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