It’s pretty simple, actually. It’s obsessive attention to detail. I don’t think this just applies to graphic design, either. My friend, Micah Garman (@micahgarman) is a great guitar player. But there are a lot of great guitar players out there, but what makes Micah different is when he covers someone else’s music. He’s able to *quickly* reproduce the same sound as the original. Not just the same notes/melody/harmony. But the same sound.

This is the secret of good graphic design. Attention to detail. Granted, 96% of the population may not be able to tell the difference between Helvetica and Arial (typefaces). But to you, the designer, it should be glaringly obvious. And of course, this doesn’t apply to just fonts. Photos, clip art, layout designs, etc. It’s attention to detail. And it begins by learning to pay attention to the detail in OTHER people’s work. Read a magazine, and identify page layouts. Look at a product label, and note color usage. Pick out a billboard, and look at letter-spacing. Visit a wedding photographer’s blog, and grok their depth of field and rules of thirds.

Then look at YOUR layout with an objective eye. DaFont.com is a great resource for free fonts… but at what cost? Are you using Bleeding Cowboys because EVERYBODY is using it? Does the photography in your flyer look like it came out of a point-and-shoot camera? Are you using stock fonts, clipart, and templates?

The 4% that can tell the difference will appreciate your attention to detail, and will see that it was (or wasn’t) carefully crafted. And the remaining 96%? They may not be able to identify what specifically is right or wrong with a design, but they will *feel* whether it is professional or not.

The invite cards, worship guides, connection cards, offering envelopes, small group catalogs, etc. say a lot about your church. People are already getting an impression of, and making up their minds about, your church before they’ve even started reading the first three words.

I recently bought our family iMac on Amazon. Apart from not having to pay shipping or tax, and apart from the decent discount they offered, one of the main reasons I bought it on Amazon was because of their credit rewards. I’d been waiting for a big purchase before signing up for their credit card for this very reason. With their credit card, every dollar I spend gains me a point. But every dollar I spend on amazon.com gains me 3 points. And for the first 90 days after signing up for their card, every dollar I spend gets me 6 points. Those points can then be redeemed for cash. So all in all, because I bought the iMac on Amazon with their credit card, I ended up saving nearly $300, and $130 of that was cash back for using their card.
The point of my post isn’t about to toot amazon’s horn, but to talk about maximizing your return on investment, specifically in marketing your church. The “super-bowl” of the church calendar is Easter. People who wouldn’t normally go to church, will consider going on Easter. People who only go once or twice a year are almost certain to go to church on Easter. Even people who really only attend once every month or so will probably make sure that they’re at church on Easter. I have a whole different post brewing in my head about what they should experience if they come to your church on Easter, but I’ll save that for another day.
Knowing that people only need a small push to get them to church on Easter, we marketed accordingly. We purchased about 100 TV ads to play locally on Comedy Central, VH1, MTV, Spike, etc. We also purchased about 100 radio ads, spread out over a local urban station, top 40 station, and rock station. We ordered several thousand postcards from Next Day Flyers advertising our Easter services, for our regular attenders to hand out at work, etc., and we also ordered yard signs from customsignbanner.com to put out in the median all over town over the weekend.
When it comes to marketing, we’ve found that when people hear about Shoreline from multiple sources, they’re exponentially more likely to attend one of our services. If they’ve seen a sign in the median, and then later in the week overhear someone at work talking about Shoreline, they’re much more likely to attend one of our services. But the main dynamic at work here is that we wanted to maximize our marketing investment.
There have been times during the life of the church that we have purposely NOT marketed. During times that we felt we were lacking in our level of excellence or creativity, we’ve abstained from marketing. During times when we were so full that there weren’t enough seats to fit everyone, we’ve purposely abstained from marketing. Because if people come, there’s a good chance they will only give us one shot, and if we’re not at a standard of excellence that we’re comfortable with, or if people won’t be able to find a place to park, or sit, then there’s a good chance they won’t come back, even if we do get all our ducks in a row within the following months.
But the flip-side of that is Easter. At Easter we’re preparing enough seating for high attendance. At Easter we’re rehearsing with a heightened level of excellence and creativity. And at Easter we’re doing our biggest marketing push, because for every dollar spent on marketing leading up to Easter, it has 3 or 4 times that value of marketing dollars spent the rest of the year. Because a lot of people are already preparing to attend a church on Easter Sunday, it just needs a small push to get them to attend. And if we can come up with as many ways as we can to promote the Easter services, there’s a much greater chance that they will hear about Shoreline’s name from multiple sources.
It’s almost always a good time to market your church. But at certain times of the year, your marketing can be strategic, and get a much higher return on investment. Other Sundays that fall in to this category are (in this order) #1: Easter, #2: Mother’s Day, #3: Christmas, #4 & #5 Right after Winter and Summer break. Use this knowledge in your favor, and get the most out of your marketing.