I always know when something I'm working on is really good. Not by my own marketing merits — but when the work being done is just truly Christ-centered. How? Because the spiritual attacks are THROUGH THE ROOF. Everything goes inexplicably wrong right before a youth group meeting? Yep, that must mean it's going to be an INCREDIBLE meeting where hearts are going to be drawn to Jesus. Working on a project for a client and met with roadblock after roadblock? I praise God for the incredible work...
about 1 month ago • 2 min read
"Look at this," I said to my husband, showing him the stack of ads we'd gotten in the mail. You know the kind, the ones that come in an envelope of offers from local businesses, 90% of which are home improvement-focused. Most normal people look through the stack, pull out any they want, and then recycle the rest. I, however, am not normal. Instead, I save them for my husband to rant about all of the marketing errors I see in them. (It's one of the perks of being married to me, I'm sure he'd...
about 1 month ago • 2 min read
My Friday was a rager, y'all. I spent most of my work time battling with WordPress settings for a Catholic school website I'm building. I know, try to hold back your jealousy. It was one of those, I'm doing the right things, this should be working, WHY IS THIS NOT SHOWING UP LIVE?! kind of things. (Turns out, there was a setting hidden in the column level that was overriding my changes at the universal level because...why?! The world may never know.) And as I sat there getting more and more...
about 1 month ago • 3 min read
Each week, I teach you a new way to market like Jesus. But today, we're mixing things up. I'm not going to teach you how to market like Jesus, but someone else instead... ....someone whose birthday is today.... ...and who is the next best thing to marketing like Jesus... Mary! In honor of Mary's birthday, here are a few ways we can Market Like Mary: Market with grace. From the few stories we have in the Bible about her, the word that always sticks out to me when it comes to Mary is grace....
about 2 months ago • 4 min read
You stare at the calendar for September, and among all the "starting back meetings" that litter every evening of your week, you see one that maybe you forgot about until now: The parish council. So you start drafting up the agenda with "keeping people up to date" items that happened over the summer and groan. This could very easily just be an email. You anticipate all of the blank faces and "That sounds great!" unengaged reactions. How do you foster discussion and participation so you make...
about 2 months ago • 3 min read
Monday Marketing Musings coming to you on Tuesday after Labor Day — praise God for the great gift it is to get to do this work for Hm! I know this week is likely crazy for you professionally and personally, so I'm going to make this quick: Have three minutes? (Or less if you have this digitized) Put the following message up on your outdoor sign: "All are welcome to come inside and pray — that means you too!" with the hours your church is open. That's it. Often, we focus on all these big...
about 2 months ago • 1 min read
Monday Marketing Musings coming to you on Tuesday after Labor Day — praise God for the great gift it is to get to do this work for Hm! My husband and I have terrible luck with restaurants. It's a running joke now that we can only go to chain restaurants because no matter where we go or how highly it's rated, we will have a terrible experience. So our go-to since our dating day? Cracker Barrel. (So much so that we went there after we got engaged and almost had our rehearsal dinner there.) It's...
about 2 months ago • 3 min read
September is coming, which means every group you only hear from once a year is now looking to get space in the bulletin (and back of the church) to promote that they're starting back and looking for new members. Among those? Altar servers. And let's face it: It's one of the most difficult groups to get new people for, because the target demographic is kids, many of whom in your parish probably aren't attending weekly and who you can't really promote to directly since they likely aren't...
2 months ago • 2 min read
It should have been a disaster. The TikTok manager for a gluten free baked good company accidentally changed the name for their account recently to her own name. She thought she was updating her personal account, but accidentally did it on the company's page. No problem, right? Quick fix? Nope. TikTok doesn't allow you to change your name for 7 days after you change it. So now, instead of "Sweet Loren's," the company's TikTok was now "Ryan." During a product launch. For seven days. Why do I...
2 months ago • 4 min read