In my first run of the Market Like Jesus course + community last year, my favorite section was somehow NOT the target audience section.

(IYKYK...but let's be real, target audience was my second favorite, followed closely by Rule of Seven.)

No, my favorite section was something I'd never taught on before:

What the Catholic Church teaches about marketing.

Specifically, what it teaches about the ethics of marketing.

Because yes, there are actual Church documents that address marketing and advertising. 😍

So of course, I nerdily read through them and analyzed them and made a whole section on it in the course, because I think it is super duper important to know what we're actually signing up for when we decide to start marketing something in the Catholic space.

​You can read the short version of those thoughts here.​

Of course I've always wanted to market ethically, for myself and my clients, but reading these Church documents just emphasized how much of a priority it really is.

Souls are at stake, including our own, which means there's a great responsibility to do it in a way that is honest and honors the dignity of the people to whom we're marketing.

Anyway, as I was writing my first newsletter post maternity leave, I knew I wanted to talk about St. John the Baptist and what we can learn from him as marketers. (You can read that one here.)

I happened to look at my most popular blog post, where I listed patron saints for marketers, and was shocked I had somehow not included him in that roundup originally.

In an instant, I came up with the perfect subject line given that exclusion: "My most read blog post is wrong."

SUPER intriguing, because let's be real, we all want to know when something is wrong.

Especially in someone's most read blog post.

I typed the subject line into the draft of my email and it just felt...wrong. (Pun intended)

It felt sleazy, even clickbait-y.

Of course I was going to explain what I meant...but the blog post wasn't really "wrong."

The other patrons I'd picked a few years ago weren't invalid choices. I just realized now that one was missing.

But I resisted changing the subject line.

"This one is super intriguing."

"The word 'wrong' will drive a ton of curiosity."

"This one will get more opens, and for the first email back, I have to get high open rates to reestablish domain authority."

So I wrestled with it for a few days.

I examined my conscience and my intentions.

And I realized, based on that litmus test, I had to change the subject line. Because it wasn't truthful, and the truth matters, especially when talking about Truth Himself.

The one that went out had only a slight change to make it sit right in my conscience: "What's missing in my most read blog post."

"Missing" versus "wrong" is a little less sensational, but I felt I was able to keep the intrigue without compromising my morals.

(If I'd said instead "John the Baptist was left out of my most read blog post," there would be no need to open it. I would have already "given away the punch line," so to speak. By burying the lead, I was still able to elicit a sense of healthy curiosity without sacrificing accuracy.)

It might look like a small, insignificant change.

But it made a world of difference in my soul.

Because I could stand behind the strategy AND the truth of what I'd written.

I share all this because as we develop more marketing strategies to have in our tool-belts, we can think that all strategies are fair game.

9 times out of 10, the marketing strategy isn't wrong in and of itself. But the intention can be.

Intrigue as a strategy isn't wrong. Literally every good story we read utilizes intrigue to get us to keep reading. Jesus Himself used intrigue in His parables to teach a lesson.

It's the intention with which we use it that matters.

Are we using it to be sensational? To "force" higher clicks/opens? To skirt around the truth? For our own glory or gain?

Or are we using it as a tool to get people's attention and encourage them to take an action that will help them draw closer to Christ?

Getting attention away from distraction, not leading them to distraction.

Encouragement, not force.

They're slight, subtle nuances — but they're important.

Here, my intention was not right. I wanted higher opens for my sake, not His.

If I'd genuinely thought the blog post was wrong, then great, I could have used it.

But otherwise I would be disrespecting the dignity of the reader by trying to force or manipulate that outcome with the original subject line.

I was trying to take control of the outcome instead of using the tool and letting God take care of the rest.

A lot of marketing today tries to force taking away someone's free will by pressuring them or tricking them into taking an action.

But if the omnipotent God didn't take away our free will, then we certainly should not try to take away others'.

(As always with these things, marketing in alignment with God's way also plain works better. People are beginning to see through sleazy marketers' intentions and become disillusioned with high-pressure, inhuman marketing tactics. It's almost as if God designed it that way...)

So don't be afraid of the strategies God's given us to share the Good News and glorify Him.

But let my own recent subject line temptation remind you: Always use them in a way that honors the dignity of others' free will, not seeking to control it.

For His greater glory,

Emily

P.S. Important note: I don't want this to turn into scrupulosity for you.

I'm using a subject line here because that's the example I have, but I don't want fear of using a strategy "wrong" to paralyze you into not marketing at all or to waste tons of time overanalyzing every little detail.

Sometimes, that's the evil one's whole goal: He doesn't care about the outcome, he just wants to get you caught up in an anxiety spiral so you don't do the work God has asked you to do.

As always, the truth is in the middle: I simply want you to evaluate and become aware of your intentions when using these strategies, not abandon them altogether or spin out in anxious debating and never actually do the marketing God has asked you to do.

Awareness, not anxiety.