Adopting a “Be Different” Attitude

Churches Like All Other Nonprofit Organizations Are Unique—Marketing and Managing an Intangible Experience is Different

A church at its core is a service company. Unfortunately, most churches have not found the recipe for achieving accelerated growth. The new attender recruitment arena is too complex and becoming increasingly competitive. Under the banner of becoming more marketing savvy and people-focused, many churches are trying to market and grow their organizations as though they were a product company. They become overly obsessed on the tangible elements – like new program features and operational efficiencies – and neglect to develop strategies for differentiating, innovating, and marketing the intangible church experience. But the uniqueness and value of the church experience is what people really care about. And what captures the hearts and minds of people is a church that’s perceived as different.

Marketing the Church Experience

Finding ways to market and manage an intangible experience is the key to establishing a market position and a brand for the church.

The church must never move from the position that it is in fact a service company that is providing for its adherents an intangible experience. The church must find ways to:

1. Define its service business in terms of the benefits people receive.
2. Bring out the intangible aspects of the whole church experience.
3. Lead the church into a different direction from competitors by addressing new, intense, unmet needs.
4. Put people back into the marketing equation, and don’t fall into the trap of automation and re-engineering to increase operational efficiency.
5. Adopt market leadership strategies that get the church out of the parity battles being fought today for new member recruitment.

Find a Leadership Position in the Church Market and . . . Lead

The key to dominating markets is for the church to be different from its competitors. And the tangible result of taking such a pathway is accelerated growth.

Steeple provides fund raising and organizational development services to faith-based and community-based organizations of the nonprofit sector. Our efforts are dedicated to putting nonprofit managers and trustees in touch with the tools and resources they need to develop their organizations and to conduct successful capital campaigns. Our work with clients is for the long-term—to build internal capacity, to create brand equity, and to attract and retain funding. Since 2007, we’ve helped nonprofit organizations like yours raise more than $14 million.

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