Clever, Spiritual, or Clear?
Two Obstacles to Effective Marketing
By Josh Roberie
Are you sure you are getting your message across with your marketing efforts? How do you know that people understand you when you communicate with those who are unfamiliar with your insider language? Is it possible for creativity to go too far when working on promotional language and branding?
In this blog, we will look at two obstacles to effective marketing by asking, “Is what you are saying clever, spiritual, or clear?
Can you be too creative?
“Cute and clever language is almost always the enemy of clarity. Clarity sells, while and cute and clever confuse.” Donald Miller
Creativity has boundaries. Once you begin to sacrifice clarity for creativity, your message is diluted. Do not try to stand out so much that people can no longer understand what you are saying. This can happen when churches try to force every value and aspect of their church to fit within a certain theme, like their name, for instance.
Another example of over-focusing on being clever is when someone tries to use alliteration beyond the confines of clarity. The purpose may be to help people remember what you have to say, but that does not matter if they do not understand it. When you can make everything start with the same letter, and it works, great! If it is not clear, then do not force it.
Can you be too spiritual?
“Companies often make the mistake of using insider language that is hard to understand and sounds awkward when saying it out loud.” Donald Miller
Every industry and profession has insider language - even churches. Religious language makes sense to you and other insiders but confuses outsiders. It may be hard for you to see your insider language because, well, you are an insider. You are so used to it that you do not see it. If you want to reach people outside of your church, you have to make sure to speak their language.
It can feel like you are compromising when you break with traditional descriptions for spiritual things. Remember, though, Jesus made things simple and spoke using illustrations that were easy for people in that time and culture to relate to. Relevance is not the enemy of the scripture. It is the connecting point to it. We must make the truth of God’s scripture accessible by communicating it in a culturally relevant way.
Are you being clear?
Being creative and religious are great things! The world needs a church that is creative and rich in spiritual strength. Although these things are essential, clarity is also a priority. The solution is to balance these things when creating a name for a ministry, writing a message, or planning a promotional message. Applying this principle will help you in your marketing and in many other areas of ministry as well.
Josh is a ministry leader, communicator, and creative who helps train and coach church planters at the Association of Related Churches (ARC). He has written Believe Again: Finding Faith After Losing Religion and has contributed to many ministry publications, including Relevant Magazine. You can stay connected to Josh through his blog JoshRoberie.com and Social Media at @JoshRoberie.