Pitfalls to Avoid When Marketing Your Christian Company
A Christian company has a number of issues to take into consideration before it can plan out an effective marketing strategy. The issue of audience becomes even more important for a Christian company. What kind of Christian company are you? Is your target audience specifically Christian? Perhaps your audience is broader, but you still want a Christian overtone to your company. Each of these scenarios holds a challenge that is unique to a Christian company. Let’s look at the two different marketing scenarios and how you can avoid making two huge mistakes that can lose business.
If the majority of your target audience is Christian, then the marketing for your company will be a little more directly addressing the Christian aspect of your business. Your marketing messages, advertising, and other endeavors should include the fact that you are a Christian-based business. This might seem elementary, but the trick is finding a balance. You cannot forget that your services and/or goods still come first in your marketing endeavors. If you strictly push the fact that your business is Christian and avoid important information about your actual business, it will come off as tacky, and you might push away potential customers who feel that you’re waving around the “Christian” label for your business solely to increase sales.
On the other hand, a Christian business with a broader audience has its own marketing challenges. Secular customers and business partners might find your marketing alienating if it contains messages specifically targeted towards Christians. At the same time, if fellow Christians see a very weak portrayal of your company as “Christian”, you might also find yourself in a situation where your marketing comes off as targeting Christians simply for increased market share.
So how do you market your Christian business without alienating secular audiences or disappointing potential Christian customers? The key to success for marketing your Christian business is powerful subtlety. Again, this depends on who your target audience is, but if you want to deliver your business’ message to a broad demographic, the best marketing strategy is to subtlety portray your business in a Christian manner. In reality, it’s the way in which you conduct business as a Christian business owner that will impress people. Remember, you may be the only Bible someone ever reads, and if you uphold your business with Christian values, you don’t necessarily need to overload your marketing with the fact that you are a Christian company. Subtle and powerful reminders can be: mentions on your website’s “Abou Us” page, Christian Themed watermarks on stationary or letterheads, tasteful Christian symbols on mail outs or emails, etc.
As long as you include subtle yet prominent reminders that you are a Christian based business, and conduct your business with Christian principles, planning an effective marketing strategy is as easy as relevant indicators that you are a Christian business. In doing so, your marketing avoids both alienating your secular audience and underwhelming your Christian audience.