Sorry this is coming out a day late this week! But I hope it will be worth the wait because... My bulletin research is completed! 🎉 And I'm so excited to start sharing it with you. I ended up reading a total of 279 bulletins this month. (Thank you SO MUCH to everyone who sent me your bulletins!) And in looking at all those bulletins through the eyes of both a marketer and an outsider peeking into these parishes... ...I learned a LOT. Current bulletin trends, some fun things being included in...
1 day ago • 1 min read
Well folks, just 113 days left: On October 13, Publisher will officially no longer be supported by Microsoft. And since they announced it in February 2024, panic has ensued. Because many, many, MANY churches were using it to design their bulletins. So if "switching the bulletin out of Publisher" is on your to-do list this summer, I rounded up the five main options I see for parishes to use instead. And then one thing I know you are 100% going to want to do but I am imploring you not to do. 1....
10 days ago • 4 min read
I was looking through my email stats for this newsletter for the past quarter — which emails performed best, had the most clicks, etc. — when I noticed something: There was one word in common in each of the subject lines that had the most opens this quarter. And I used it completely accidentally. You know what that word was? I'll give you a hint: I used it in this subject line too. "I" Yep. The word "I" appeared in every single one of my top-performing subject lines for this quarter for the...
10 days ago • 2 min read
When I relaunched my course Market Like Jesus last month, someone almost immediately unsubscribed from my list. That isn't uncommon; I actually expected it. It's totally, 100% normal to get unsubscribes when you send any kind of email, but especially a sales email. And if my newsletter isn't helping someone anymore, then no worries! I don't want to waste their time, so no hard feelings if they move on. So the unsubscribe shouldn't have bothered me...except that the person who unsubscribed was...
17 days ago • 3 min read
Whenever I ask parishes who they want to see more of at their parish, 9 times out of 10 I will hear: "More young families!" And I get it. Young families are a sign of parish vibrancy — plus we all know that you need new people with longevity to be able to keep a parish afloat. So the first thing I ask after hearing a parish wants more young families is, "What do you have for young families?" And 9 times out of 10, it gets really quiet. I'm going to say this right now: If you want more young...
17 days ago • 6 min read
"Bring it all to my Sacred Heart." I looked around the Adoration Chapel. Had someone just said that out loud? Nope. It was totally silent. I looked back up at the monstrance, holding tightly to everything that had been worrying me. I sighed and finally released it. Okay, Jesus. Here you go. I thought that was how my devotion to the Sacred Heart began. Because Jesus told me to. But it actually began almost 15 years earlier. That day in Adoration, I knew that was Him speaking to me because it...
24 days ago • 4 min read
How did you fare in this year's "priest trade" season? (aka new pastoral assignments) If you have a new parochial vicar or pastor joining you this year, there's a million things I know you need to tell him right away. In all of that, your communications basics can (understandably) fall by the wayside... ...until suddenly he's been here a year and a half, and you realize he's using the parish logo from 2005 he swiped from a random old file. To make it easier to share your brand basics with...
24 days ago • 2 min read
If you've spent any amount of time on the internet, you know how pressurized marketing has become: The upsells that never end. The manipulative, "right on the edge of being a lie" overselling that's framed as helping you out (but is really just playing on your psychology). The ads that follow you EVERYWHERE. As Catholics, we're called to market differently. We're called to market from love — not for our gain or pride, but for God's glory and to serve the people He's asked us to serve. Most...
about 1 month ago • 3 min read
"That's it, I told God I'm done," I declared to my husband after coming home from Adoration one evening in 2017. I explained to him that I was going to shut down Gloriam. I'd been building it for six months while also working full time and finishing up grad school. And what did I have to show for all my efforts? Zero new clients. The conversation that followed went something like this: ⬇️ 👩 Me: "God must not want me to do this business. He's not bringing me any clients." 👨 My husband (with...
about 1 month ago • 3 min read