I can't believe I missed this one. I was a guest on a podcast a few years ago and the host asked me something along the lines of, "What skills do people need to be good at marketing?" I replied that marketing comes down to a combination of three skills, really. Most people are not naturally gifted in all three, but if you have two out of the three, you can usually get by. I still stand by those three, but there's a fourth one I missed that's actually the most important. We determined last...
1 day ago • 6 min read
Marketing as Ministry #1: Marketing can be holy. I'd planned on going with her all along. Before our third child was even born, I knew exactly who I wanted as a lactation consultant. After struggles with nursing my first two, I was determined to make it work for baby #3, so I planned ahead to find someone before she was even born. There was one consultant who was often referenced in our area, and though her marketing was pretty sparse, I saved her info on my phone for if we needed it. So when...
5 days ago • 4 min read
Something that's been tugging at my heart recently is that as Catholics, we have to market differently. The industry is becoming saturated by tactics that manipulate people for personal gain and bots that have stripped marketing of its humanity and leave us questioning what is true and what is generated. Catholics have always been called to be different. And that's becoming no less true in marketing. Just as "they'll know we are Christians by our love," someone should be able to look at our...
8 days ago • 3 min read
I need your feedback on something I'm planning to offer you this summer! Scroll to the end of the email to vote. There is a communication tool every church has, but few use well: The bulletin. Most church bulletins look exactly the same. Major contact info. Boilerplate language about who to contact for various sacraments. All the prayer and intention lists. Upcoming events. Lots of clip art. But what if we zoomed out and asked a simple question: How is the bulletin forwarding our church's...
8 days ago • 2 min read
I looked down, the decorative koi pond with its stone border looping around my feet. Was I really going to do this? I swallowed. The itchy dryness in my throat almost gagged me, the lingering taste of sour Twizzlers mixing with the suffocating air of the greenhouse. I glanced around quickly. The only witnesses were rows of potted plants and cacti. So I did it. I knelt down and cupped some of the water from the koi pond into my mouth. The bliss of finally parching my thirst was quickly cut off...
15 days ago • 6 min read
I know you're in the thick of sacraments so I'll keep this short: Whenever I'm working on communications for parishes, there is one thing I always ask for and very few churches have: Photos. Particularly, photos of people looking happy doing things at your church. As much as we love (and do want to showcase!) beautiful church architecture and prayer spaces, I'd wager that 95% of people aren't going to your church because of how it looks. It's because of how you make them feel. And one of the...
15 days ago • 1 min read
On Easter Monday, my husband's 92-year-old grandmother went to go be with her Lord whom she loved so dearly. I could go on and on about how incredible this woman was and how blessed I feel to have been known and loved by her for the past decade. The second reading at her funeral was Colossians 3:12-17, and let's just say, my mouth dropped open as I realized she checked off every single one of those attributes. Literally every single one. It was like it was written about her. I aspire to be...
22 days ago • 2 min read
Back in Lent, I went on a mini-tangent here in the newsletter about the trend I was seeing in turning liturgical seasons into sales seasons. I shared that there was some liturgical season-themed marketing I didn't mind, and others that bothered me, and I couldn't quite put my finger on what the distinction was. Since then, I've tried to be more cognizant of what I find annoying and not from a consumer perspective, as someone who is subscribed to a LOT of Catholic businesses' email lists. And...
22 days ago • 4 min read
I plopped my head down on the giant conference room table, the throbbing pressure making it feel like it weighed at least 580 pounds. My pillow? Piles of giant 11x17 papers strewn about haphazardly, marked by giant circles of red pen. I stared blankly across the table to my co-worker, who looked about as haggard as I did. "I hate it," I groaned, rubbing my eyes. "I officially hate all of it." Suddenly, epiphany and relief spread across our faces. "It's done!" we proclaimed! "It" was the...
29 days ago • 2 min read