What Tesla can teach us about successful church marketing

Did you know that Tesla sells more luxury cars than any other company?
I think the challenge of that question is so important, I did both a blog and article on it. Below is the podcast and then the continuation of the blog:

I was surprised when I read that statistic, but even more interested when I read how they did it. Let me share the terlerati.com comment on it, a chart that illustrates their success, and then I'll talk about how this inspired me about discipleship and church marketing. Then I've got some spiritual challenges for you and then at the end of this some practical tools you can use to put into practice to make your seasonal marketing more successful than ever.

Quickly, name one advertisement you’ve seen recently from Tesla Motors themselves? OK, name any advertisement you’ve seen from the company, ever? Tesla’s marketing strategy is as disruptive as its business model. It lets you and I advertise for them, for free. . . . . Tesla does not spend millions of dollars in a traditional ad campaign. They let you and me discuss it, rave about it, hate on it, or rejoice in the spirit of going electric in a Tesla, be the catalyst to a viral and brilliant marketing campaign. At the end of the day, Tesla advertising is free.

Here's a chart that illustrates their success:

Chart from: https://cleantechnica.com/2018/10/03/yep-tesla-gobbles-usa-luxury-car-market-8-charts-graphs/

How can this help the church with our advertising?

As someone who has taught and been active in the church for many years, I know when someone is excited about their faith, when they are actively living as an apprentice to Jesus, when their lives are being changed as they walk with Him and study his Word, they want to tell their friends. When they are loving without judging, helpful and accepting while being honest when needed, when they genuinely care and forgive because they've been forgiven people are drawn to it. And they want to share.

A growing disciple, someone who loves his or her church because the church is the source of growth and family, that disciple doesn't need to be told to invite friends to church—they can't quit asking.

Perhaps when we look at outreach and marketing in our churches instead of looking for some new tool or program (which we might need, that isn't to discount them), perhaps first we should ask ourselves, what are we doing to help our people become the kind of disciples who will share their faith and invite people to church because they are excited with what they've found and can't wait to share it.

What is your church doing to grow people in their faith?

What I'm going to say next might not be terribly popular, but when I ask what you are doing to grow people in their faith, I don't mean how exciting and contemporary is your worship service and maybe 15 minutes of a sermon on Sunday morning? Those things might be fine and we can all use an hour of upbeat music and a few encouraging words, but that in and of itself probably won't make an unchurched person into a committed follower of Jesus when life gets difficult and the noise of struggles drowns out joy.

People need to know the spiritual resources they have in Christ. They need to know God's viewpoint of life and how He wants them to live. They need to know how to take what's in God's Word and apply it. The only way they will get this is by studying and applying the Bible.

In the Bible the Creator of the universe and Savior of our souls' talks to us.

Think about that; stop and think for a minute what that truly means. If we really believed that perfect love and wisdom was available to us; that the answers we need and the peace we seek could be found; that there is little new that God's people haven't experienced and conquered,  I imagine it wouldn't be as hard as it sometimes is to get people into Bible studies.

I've seen again and again, when people start reading their Bibles, when they are taught both the big picture and the instructive details, when they learn, think about it, talk about it and try to live what they learn, their lives change. They get excited and they want to share with their friends.

Whatever your church, your location or denomination, I'm sure there are studies, resources, people you can tap into to get your people involved in God's Word so they are growing in their Christian lives. Talk to people, look online, check out suggested resources. I started a new podcast (www.bible805.com) to share my teaching God's Word (I have a live class every Sunday here in Ventura, CA) with an emphasis on history and reading through the Bible in Chronological order, with lots of suggested applications thrown in whenever useful. I find that when people study in this way they gain confidence in God's Word that spills out into life. I would love to have you listen to it and grow with us. But whatever resource or resources you choose, get your people into God's Word! Get them growing and excited about their faith.

Once they want to share, give them tools to share their faith and market your church

Some of the core beliefs of Effective Church Communications are that:

1. Seasonal activities are great times for your church to reach out and invite in unchurched people
2. That these seasonal events should involve every part of the church: leaders come up with themes, communication creators create outreach materials, the congregation are the inviters, hosts, and human follow-up
3. Your job is to motivate your people to pray for and invite their friends

To help you do these things, I've created numerous free Templates for all the holidays that you can download and modify for your church. These are primarily print and digital communications, but you can use them as inspiration for any kind of communication in print or digital format; in a traditional church bulletin or the latest social media. For any holiday one of the first pieces I encourage you to create is one where on the one side of the piece (or you could make it all digital) is motivation to invite others to your seasonal outreach and then it also includes a place where people can have a list of those they are praying for to invite. One for Easter is HERE. There are others for other holidays that you can find by going to the Template section for that particular holiday.

The tool or channel that you use to get your message out there or for your people to use to share for that particular holiday or event isn't what is important. What is important is that you've done all you can to get your people excited about what it means that they have salvation in Jesus. When that happens your people will become the living marketing message your church needs to grow in numbers far beyond the impressive sales of a car company, even one as impressive as Tesla.

More....

For an article about motivating people to invite their friends to Easter events and images of the communications that will help you do it, CLICK HERE.