Advertising Your Church (Pt. 5)

So you’re going to do advertising… Let’s assume it’s advertising that needs copy written (most does). Who will write the advertisements, and how should they write them?

Well, preferably you will have a professional copywriter (someone with background in marketing or at least journalism) who will work alongside you, or a team from your church.

Here are some tips for writing advertising copy (that I found in my computer – I honestly don’t know if I cam up with these, read them in a book, or heard them in a seminar) –

(1) Don’t imitate others. Don’t just use something from some other church. Their church is different than yours’. The community they’re targeting is different from yours’.
(2) Advertising is NOT for evangelism. You’re not going to win anyone to Christ through your ad, so don’t try. Consider it pre-evangelism. Evangelism is meant to be shared relationally. Use advertising to get them to come, not to get them to believe.
(3) Use advertising to attack objections. Think about why people don’t go to church, and hit those themes.
(4) Write from the viewpoint of the person you want to reach. Put yourself in their shoes. Marketing guru’s tell us the most important word is “You.” The more you use the word “you” the more it will be read. Always use “You” rather than “I” or “We.” For example, what interests you more, an American Airlines ad that says, “We fly non-stop to Dallas,” or that says, “You can fly non-stop to Dallas”? I don’t care if they fly non-stop to Dallas, but I do care if I can!
(5) Focus on benefits more than features. Features are what you offer, whereas benefits are how the person will be impacted.
(6) Emphasize motivation, not information. WHY I should come is more important than when or where.
(7) Do not use religious jargon. If you do, I will kill you. You are trying to reach non-believers, not believers.
(8) You may want to use testimonies, but make sure there’s no churchy language in them.
(9) Advertising a message series is generally more effective than advertising your church itself.
(10) Ask for action. Aim for a specific decision you want people to make.
(11) Use humor (but only if you’re funny!)
(12) Have fifty-three people proofread your ad (print ads) before they go to print.

– featured on newchurches.com