From the Experts: Advertising Failures

Do you want to improve your advertising? The best way is to find out why advertising fails and learn from it. Have you heard that old saying "Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it?" Read about why other people failed so that you don't have to. No one wakes up in the morning and says, "Today's a great day to fail at our new marketing campaign!" The best way to prevent from being a failure is to learn from others' (and your own) mistakes.

Here are some good articles to read about why advertising fails.

12 Causes of Advertising Failure by Roy Williams
Here are a few rather short ideas about why ad campaigns fail. They aren't long and are easy to read. It covers mostly common problems. I've noticed that a lot of these problems are rooted in impatience and selfishness. Take that out of the equation, and you'll likely have greater success. No one likes a selfish company.

7 Reasons Most Advertising Fails 
by Kirk Phillips
Kirk incorporates humor and is a little more specific than the previous article. While the above article gives more general blanket reasons, this article addresses specific problems. Most of it is not directly applicable to what a church seeks to do with its advertising, but the principles are still beneficial.

Marketing Mistakes 
by Peter Geisheker
This article offers extremely practical solutions. It tells you why a particular approach has failed and how to change it. The best way to understand a problem is to be given an example or an illustration. It's probably the shortest of the articles, but that certainly does not detract from it's value in understanding how not to fail.

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From the Experts: The Digital Church

This first couple of articles analyze the good points and bad points of a digital church. The last few are some guidelines for Pastors about using media like Facebook and Twitter that I found helpful.
  

The Deep Limitations of The Digital Church by Albert Mohler
Summary

Mohler expresses his gratitude for the digitization of the technology-apt church. But he has some reservations about the extent of its use. He is worried, and with good cause, that a church can go overboard with its use of media. He offers some cautions concerning this matter.

Review
I truly appreciate Mohler's first meaty paragraph (after all the intro about an article he read). I agree with him in that there is something extremely healthy about a church that desires to use modern communication tools to carry out the Great Commission. And I also agree that there are certain dangers that must be understood. The only reservation I have is that his article almost makes it sound bad to live stream a service, though I understand his hesitation about it.


Christian Media is Horrible Media Say Critics by Gordon Marcy
Summary

Marcy discusses the balances between focusing on your marketing and your message. Today's culture equates church marketing as bad marketing (and it's mostly true). As a matter of fact, there is a whole website dedicated to bad church marketing. Marcy's argument is that we shouldn't sacrifice the message for the presentation of that message.

Review
I agree with Marcy's focus. The priority should be on the message itself. If you do not communicate your message what is the point of giving in the first place? You've just wasted your time and money if you fail to communicate the message. However, I feel that Marcy downplays packaging. I know he continually mentions that we need to improve our marketing, but the tone I get when I read it is that a bad package plus a good message is okay by him.

Sure, most churches have gotten by doing just that for years, but changing that is what Media Missions is all about. We desire to see you improve your package to compliment a good message with good packaging. I'm sure that is his overall desire as well, I just had to get that in there.


Facebook Guidelines for Pastors and Others by Steve Cornell

Summary
The premise for this article is the Pastor's improper use of Facebook. He tells the story of a pastor who confesses of a Facebook affair. Cornell states that he has seen more than one such Facebook affair. His article features a list of things you can do and shouldn't do on Facebook.

Review
This article is more than just about the scenario he lists in the beginning, but let me go off on a tangent really quick. To me, any pastor who has his head on straight shouldn't be doing the things he has listed anyway. Most pastors know how to properly treat women they counsel or talk to and could apply those same principles to Facebook or any other digital encounter. The problem comes into play when they purposely disregard those safe-guards (mostly intentionally for the sake of having an affair). Nobody accidentally has an affair. It's a willful decision.

That being said, these are great guidelines for everyone, not just pastors. There are some great suggestions about what not to do. I think that should be applied to texting as well. I particularly appreciate his section on photos. It's worth a read, and we should certainly be more cautious about how we use Facebook. The questions at the end also provide a great spiritual check to see what's more important for you, God or Facebook.

When Pastors Update and Tweet Dos and Don'ts by Steve Cornell
Summary
This article is almost exactly the same and the last one. The only difference is that it contains Biblical principle.

Review
I didn't want to just use this article because I appreciate some of the more in-depth details on the last article, but the Biblical principles were too good to just leave this off altogether. You can skip the top details and go straight for the Bible verses, everything else is the same.

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From the Experts: The Contemporary Debate

If ever there were to be a post this week that gets close to touching on the music debate, it would be this one. I scoured the net looking for great music articles to share with you, but the ones I found more or less supported the contemporary/christian rock movement to the extent where they could care less about compromising their Biblical standards.

When I did manage to find one from a conservative fellow, it was almost too conservative. I know that the Bible says, "I would thou wert cold or hot," but come on, we aren't talking doctrine here. In the media tip this week I listed a few Biblical principles to follow. The Bible isn't dogmatic about music, and so neither am I, but I do insist that it honor and uplift God every single time.

Without further ado, this week's articles:

4 Reasons Christians Don't Take Musical Conservatives Seriously by Benjamin Everson
Written by a conservative for conservatives, this article breaks down popular arguments and examines the basic problem. Many times musical conservatives build themselves up as a being the authority on what is right or wrong with music. Instead, we ought let the Bible be the guiding factor.

Review
This article is written from a very realistic and humorous approach and is a great read. I've got all praise and nothing bad to say about this article. Some of the headings seem kind of vague, but after you read his content, it becomes apparently clear as to what he means. This is a must read. If you read none of these other articles, read this one. Do you want to read more about Ben Everson? Check out some of his other articles.


Are Our Hymns Becoming Stupider? by Ben Myers
I'd call this another must read. This article examines what makes a hymn bad and why the songs that have come out in the last 50 years are better than the ones from 100-200 years ago.

Review
The article begins a little harsh. There is certainly no tact to be seen. Even in the title, he is quite bold. I think it's a little harsh to be calling most all hymns from the 19th century stupid. He does draw attention to the fact that there are a few great hymns (hymns like Amazing Grace and O For a Thousand Tongues) that stir your spirit and bring joy to your soul.

I certainly agree, though, that some of the more recent songs like How Deep the Father's Love For Us are infinitely better than the songs I listed the other day. May this be a challenge to any would be song writer out there. We need good hymns and spiritual songs. Will you commit to to serving God in this way?


Why Hymns? by Paul Lusher
Have you ever wondered why we sing hymns? What is the benefit or what good is it? This article will answer that question. It also...pushes them a little too far.

Review
I wasn't planning on this being a long review, for a review shouldn't be longer than the article itself, and this is a pretty short one. I really enjoy how highly the author values music. I agree with him that the only thing that deserves higher praise than our song is the Word of God itself. However, saying "no other musical form can replace the singing of hymns in the church" seems a little bold. Does not the Scripture instruct us to sing to ourselves in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs? Just the same, where does Scripture say that we must only sing hymns? Who created the hymn book? It wasn't God. Who wrote the hymns themselves? It wasn't the prophets or apostles. That's my 2 cents.


Bible Guide to Christian Music by Somebody
Just so you know, I support this guy's conclusions, not the way he presents it. He's got all his information right, but he's a confrontational, in-your-face kind of guy that gives Christians a bad name. If a name isn't written with it, how do I know it's a guy? I just can't see a woman saying the things he does, I give you more credit than that ladies. You know how to be tactful in your communication. Sometimes us guys are just dumb and we don't think first (ask my wife).

I'm probably going to get myself in trouble here, but I only read this article for like 5-10 minutes. You need about 2 hours. It's long. Really long. From what I saw I stand by what I said above, but he could say something heretical later on that I didn't read and I just want you to know I don't support it if it is (I know that's lame to say, but maybe you'll feel like reading it if you like the confrontational stuff).


Why is Our Worship Music Conservative? by Robert Hammond
This article is primarily just a doctrinal statement on music. It's by no means all inclusive, but if you want some Bible verses to give sound principles to your music and my short synopsis was not long enough for you, then check this out. It contains a principle, Bible verse, and implications for each thought. I'll not write a review for this because it doesn't really need one.


What's your opinion about the whole issue? I would like to know where you stand. I would also like to know if you've learned anything helpful about the issue that you use when talking to people about it. Let me know in the box below.

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From the Experts: The Design Process

From the Experts is a brand new series I'll be running each week. I've already told you that each week has a theme. Each tip, inspiration, and tutorial is always (as best as I can) focused on the same topic to bring you a greater understanding of working with that topic. From the Experts will do the same thing. It will bring you articles around the net that are...from the experts.

Here are a couple of articles that I found through my searching. I thought they were good enough to share with you, though I don't necessarily 100% agree with everything they say. I'll add my own mini-review with each link.

Creating Effective Visual Presentations by Andrew Jones (Ministry127.com)
Teaser
"Nothing can be more powerful or distracting than a presentation. One author estimates that over thirty million PowerPoint presentations are made every day. I’m sure you have attended your fair share of them. But I wonder how many were truly captivating, motivating, or convincing?"

Review
Point #2 is a really great point. The busier the slide (i.e. more design elements that are visible) the more distracted the audience will be. Simple and plain, yet well designed is better than flashy, cool, and busy, but don't confuse that with ugly and boring.

Don't let Point #5 discourage you. He is writing with the professional presenter in mind. Think executive office with a $1 million deal on the line. For your church, you simply need two presentations. The first is just a queue of slides with announcements for people to look at before church. The second is during the service. Elements of this presentation are Songs, Scripture reference, Sermon Title, and three to four slides for Sermon Points. You likely prepared a sermon outline when you studied. Take the main point you want to make and turn it into a slide. You were planning on making the point anyway, the slide is just there to make it painfully obvious that it is your point and to keep in the front of their minds the entire time you are talking about it.


Where Do You Get Those Ideas by Jeremy Lofgren (Ministry127.com)
Summary
Jeremy answers a common question with some helpful insights regarding the creative process. There is no magical formula, but there are beneficial steps you can take to improve your designs.

Review
This is a great article. Make sure that you read this. It will answer a lot of questions about designing for churches. Point #3, Studying the work of others, is exactly the motive behind our Design Inspiration link. There is no better source for your own artwork than looking at the art of others. Like the article says, evaluating why you like it is the best way to help you make something truly unique, however it is acceptable to "steal" if you are in a pinch. 

There is a very famous Art/Design quote that goes something like: "Good artists borrow, great artists steal."  I don't know who said it and I'm sure it's been attributed to every famous artist you can think of, but it IS acceptable to copy in our field. So long as it's not the exact thing word for word and copyrighted. If it's a free resource, like from Ministry127.com, then feel free to use it directly as is.



Now you might have read both of these articles or only one of them and you're already saying, "This is too much!!! I can't do it all!!" I've got one final article for you and it will address that feeling. Check it out:

Is It Worth It? by Michael Moyer (MediaMinistryBlog.com)
Summary/Review
This article is also a must read. It features many testimonials from church Graphic Designers who thought about giving up but when their work was done, the blessings that people received far outweighed the time and energy it took to produce. It's a great encouragement, don't skip this article.


 

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