My friend Kirby Myers (a regular reader of my eNewsletter) is a pastor for the Bible Church of Brownsburg, and the inspiration for this article. He got me thinking of how businesses could learn a lot from churches when it comes to marketing and customer evangelism. Here are some “faith-full” marketing strategies that you might want to incorporate into your business:
- Relate your Message to your Customer’s Lives: In the Sunday morning sermon, the pastor or minister always ties the message to our lives and allows us to reflect upon the message as it relates to our individual situation. Similarly, your marketing message should make your prospects think about your product or service as it relates to their personal and business lives. How can they use or apply your product or service? How will it change them? What action should they take now?
- Interact and Inspire: Most church services are filled with lively music, uplifting stories and interactive presentations. Why not make your next speech or PowerPoint presentation interactive and inspiring too? Utilize benefit-oriented and powerful language, as well as graphics, music or other interactive components to make your presentations truly memorable and motivating to those who experience it.
- Encourage Fellowship: Churches often include fellowship as an important component of the service. This not only allows church members to get to know visitors, but encourages them to feel at home and part of the church family. Have a customer appreciation night or open house and invite both your customers and prospects. Alternatively, you could hold an educational workshop and have networking before and after the event. Allowing your customers to meet and interact with your prospects is a great way to promote your business because it encourages a positive experience and allows your prospects to learn what it is like to use your product or service.
- Recruit your own Brand Evangelists: Churches survive only if they can continue to bring more people to God and maintain their church membership. In the same way, you can maintain a solid customer base by getting your customers to talk about you and refer others to your product or service. You can utilize case studies or testimonial quotes, start a customer referral program, or simply ask your customers if they would mind sharing their positive experiences with colleagues or businesses.
I hope I’ve inspired you to take a different approach to your marketing messages. If you follow one or more of these ‘faith-full’ strategies religiously (I couldn’t resist the pun), you will soon have a strong following of customer evangelists.
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