Marketing

I’m a big proponent of doing quality, targeted advertising. Obviously the best (and most effective) invitation to church is always personal. However, I believe marketing can help enhance the efforts of our church body by making our name known in the community.

Lately I’ve received a number of inquiries about how/why we do marketing.  Here’s some thoughts for churches…

1)      Determine who you’re trying to reach.  When we do advertising pieces we are always focused on the non-churched person in our community.  Use language that they speak. Avoid “churchy” terms.

2)      Be specific.  Determine what you are seeking to communicate.  We always brand a message series and focus on that. If you’re trying to reach those who don’t attend church, I believe you will be more effective with a series that hits a felt need, versus saying “look how great our church is”.  Most church marketing is done to compare why “our church” is a better choice than “the other” churches. Non-Christians aren’t choosing, they’ve already said no to church.  Advertising should touch their heart and compel them to be at your church this weekend for this message.

3)      Use a professional designer.  I know there’s someone in your church who has Photoshop and will do it for free, don’t do it.  We now have the luxury of having a full-time designer in house. However, before that, we used a professional designer who worked for our printing company. Doing it together with the printing, they would charge us about $150 for the design work.

4)      Get second opinions.  Take your piece and have others look at it.  At PVC I have a marketing focus group that examines the pieces to provide feedback. I would highly encourage you to have some non-Christian friends look at the piece to see if it would catch their attention.  Note: if you’re afraid to do this, you shouldn’t waste the money on the advertising.

5)      Pray over them.  We believe each mailer/door hanger/invite card has a divine appointment attached to it, so we pray that God would use them in a big way.

Weekend Reflections

We’re up in Colorado for our High School camp, “Crashing the Rohlinger Family Vacation”.  Sunday we explored some new trails and started all the prep work for the students arrival on Monday…

• I heard Mark Olmos knocked it out of the park at Palm Valley, talking about “becoming all God created you to be”. Can’t wait to watch the video at www.palmvalley.org. we’re blessed to have so many gifted teachers at PVC!
• Once again the “At The Movies” series has been a big hit.  I love doing “recurring” series, because it builds momentum year to year.
• Spent some time last week at Kids Camp. So proud of our KidZone team. Adam and his team were over the top in preparation, and it showed.  I’ve never seen kids so in tune at camp. They were definitely growing in their faith! 
• It’s been a huge leap forward to do our own elementary, jr. high and high school camps. Definitely a lot more work, but worth it to focus the spiritual direction. Camp is so important for kids and this allows us to maximize the week.
• Pray for our jr. higher’s, they’re doing a travel trip to California this week.
• Pray for our high school students, 74 of them are hanging out with my family this week in Durango. Love pouring in to the next generation!
• God is welling up some messages in my heart that need to come out. Can’t wait to be back teaching at Palm Valley on August 1st. I’ll be wrapping up the ATM series with “Land of the Lost”.
• Mosquitos are biting big time in Colorado; I’m being eaten alive!
• I’m praying for so many who are struggling with the economy. I believe this is the time for the church to stand up and share the love of Jesus. This could be our finest hour!

Mark Olmos’ book

Mark mentioned his book “Age of the Fallen” during service this weekend. For more information, or to order, visit Mark’s site SpiritualSwordsman.com

Weekend Reflections

This weekend we continued “At The Movies”, with Ryan Nunez speaking…

• it was fun to be at PVC without speaking. I love just getting to greet, hang out with people, and check out what’s going on in the different ministries.
• Ryan did a great job talking about how God has S.H.A.P.E.D. each of us. You can watch it at www.palmvalley.org
• Caitlin Straut nailed “Free To Be Me”. You’ll be seeing/hearing alot from her at PVC.
• I really enjoyed getting to worship this weekend.
• I think 116 degrees is way too hot!
• I’m so grateful for all the volunteers.  Walking around seeing so many people with joyful hearts & faces reminds me why I love the Palm Valley so much. Thanks volunteers, you guys rock!
• We know who loves Jesus; they serve outside when it’s 116 degrees
• Our kids and youth environments are off the hook. I can’t believe what a great job these teams do in a portable setting to help young people experience Jesus!  I was blown away by the nursery, Pre-school Playhouse, KidZone and Student Ministries. All incredible.
• We have about 100 kids and our team up in Prescott for kids camp. Doing all our own programming which allows us to really disciple the kids. Follow their journey here.
• Next week we head to Colorado with 75 high school students for “Crashing the Rohlinger family vacation”. I’m pumped to hang out with and pour into the kids.  It will also be nice to be in the cool mountains
• Planning a marriage series for September; i think it’s going to be timely!