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 I finally figured out the distinction, for me at least.

It wasn't the strategies used.

It wasn't the number of emails sent.

It wasn't even really the language being used.

It was how much I felt like I knew the person sending the email.

In other words, I found it remotely less annoying when companies sent sales emails when I felt like I was friends with them, even if the business owner wouldn't actually know me if we met in person.

I just feel like I know them from the emails they send, and so their marketing felt so much more genuine.

For example, there's a Catholic business that typically sends out a few emails per week.

Most of them are sales-focused. Sometimes a free resource or timely blog post.

But one of them is typically just a newsletter-style about what's going on in her life, the world, faith, etc.

And because of these weekly notes, I feel like I know her.

So when she sends out sales emails, even those that are themed around certain liturgical seasons, I don't feel like she's "taking advantage" of the season.

Because I "know" her, I trust that she's not trying to just make a sale, but actually trying to help me grow in my faith while supporting her family.

And that makes me want to support her, too.

She's having the same liturgical season themed sales, but I have a far different knee jerk reaction than I do to other businesses with whom I don't feel a personal connection.

(Surprisingly, some of those businesses I do actually know the people, but their emails don't have that same personal connection feeling, and so the marketing still feels off.)

Not much else is different between them in the wording or strategy.

The only difference is realness. Personality. Trust.

That's what makes one liturgical-themed marketing feel genuine and the other feel salesy.

The funniest part?

I realized I've been saying this since 2018.

Way back in the day, I used to sell a course that had an overview of all the social media platforms and how to post on them.

(I don't sell it anymore because social media changes basically every other day and so it was literally impossible to keep up with.)

But of course, there were lots of Catholic marketing tips strewn in there and as I sat down to write this newsletter, I remembered this one:

"People are more likely to buy from people they consider friends."

With all of the changes in marketing over the past eight years, that hasn't changed.

In fact, it hasn't changed since the time of Jesus.

Jesus got to know people first before He invited them to action.

And any good evangelist will tell you that evangelization is a long game: Being willing to accompany someone through a long journey of finding God, and starting with your own vulnerability of sharing your own testimony.

So be real. Share your life with your people.* Journey with them before calling them to action.

That's what makes marketing human.

And way more effective and genuine.

For His greater glory,

Emily

*I know this can be a big concern for some of you. You don't want to share too much of your life (especially if you have children) with strangers on the internet. I get it. Next week, I'll write about how you can be personal in your marketing without being too personal.

Also, if you're struggling with this marketing balance, something exciting is coming next month that can help. 👀

Random Things From My Life

In that vein of keeping things real and personal, I figured I'd share a few random things from my life right now. Reply and let me know if you like this kind of random round-up, and maybe I'll mix these in sometimes!

• We're heading into May, which is the unofficial month of ALL THE THINGS when it comes to the kids (plus a birthday in our family), and this has just been on repeat in my mental soundtrack lately.
  ​
• One of our family values is being outside, and we have a saying, "A walk outweighs everything." Basically, if it's nice out, being outside becomes the priority over everything else on our to-do list. So far, I've never regretted it.
  ​
• What I'm proudest of at the moment? The Holy Saturday-themed dinner I concocted this year. I couldn't find anything on all the Catholic blogs that felt right, so I made up my own: Chicken Caesar wraps (because they wrapped Jesus' body in the shroud and Caesar was in charge at the time) and stone soup in bread bowls so we could "roll away the stone" of our soup.
  ​
  We also played a relay race where each of the kids — and our friend who is a religious sister — pretended to be Jesus opening the gates of heaven (the baby's play pen gate) and freeing the souls of the dead (stuffed animals tossed into a bucket across the room). My husband described it as "unhinged" — I'm taking that as a compliment.
  ​
• One of my goals is to make sure I read God's word (through the daily Mass readings) before I read anything else in my day. I am successful about 42% of the time, I'd say. But something that makes a huge difference for me is marking the readings off in my actual Bible the night before with Post-It flags. I'm finally getting back to this practice post-newborn stage, and I can't tell you how much I love to actually read the readings in the Bible 1) because I can drown out the noise a bit better and actually hear and reflect and 2) because the Biblical studies nerd in me just really likes being able to read the whole story in context.