Targeting churches?

[framinzfun]

We have a small church right up the street from us, and we get a newsletter from them periodically. Are church congregations good targets for framing? I must admit, I do not go to church, but don't they also give out small papers every Sunday? Has anyone ever gotten into one of these things. I tried calling the church, and noone answers, so I may have to find a time when someone is there. Any ideas? Am I heading in the wrong direction?

[JbNormandog]

Call on a sunday, someone will probably be there then.

Look at the types of businesses that are advertising on the sunday flyer/mislet thing. (Ok I stopped going to church a long time ago and forgot what those things are called).

My point is, if people are advertising in there that share the same type of client base you are after then I would consdier it.

Also look at the demographic of a typical church goer. Are they in the age group most likey to use a framer?

Around here there are sales reps that represent churches and take care of several of them. They sell space like a newspaper does.

Hope this helped a bit and good luck.

[Bob Doyle]

Jeez, I just finished doing a Shadow box for a 1800's christening gown. Complete with rosary beads and baby shoes/boots. wouldn't mind doing a few more!

[Bill Henry-]

Man, I would be careful with this one!

If I saw a commercial ad in our church bulletin, I might have the same reaction as I do when I see ads on screen at the movie theater. I would have a tendency to shy away. I don’t sit on the board, but I would not approve of such an ad in our church bulletin – a gut reaction to the “money lenders in the temple” sort of thing.

Besides, if it’s a small church, you’d only be hitting a few hundred (at best) consumers once a week. I think your advertising dollars might be spend more productively elsewhere.

[EllenAtHowards]

A lot seems to depend on the denomination. Roman Catholics seem to do this as a matter of course. Hasn't caught on in the Episcopal church that I am aware of. From perusing the ads, they seem to be predominately parishoners. You could join... kind of like the folk song where the fellow goes to his girlfriend's funeral, but just so he could ride in a limousine...

[Ron Eggers]

I'd probably refer to it as "marketing to church-goers" rather than "targeting churches."

The latter sounds like headlines to me.

[Paul N]

I thought for second you meant arsonists targeting churches....

[Jay H]

Ellen you are right. I had never seen it until a few weeks ago when my wife and I went to a Catholic church the other day. I didn't like it but again, I had never seen it before.

Carry on.

[Richard Darling]

I frame posters and news articles for my church gratis. The only church I've ever heard offer advertising is I think a Lutheran regional office that sends out newsletters to all their constituents.

Most churches (please don't start another thread on this one) don't have a lot of money. I think your best bet would be to provide framing for some art the church might want to hang in its building, perhaps with a donation plaque or something next to it.

[B. Newman]

If you really want to reach this demographic, you need to advertise/market through the Christian radio stations and most of them have publications geared toward their audience. Our local one is called "The Shepherd's Guide."

These folks can be very loyal to businesses and are often very upscale customers. These radio stations were the very first ones I heard using ads which featured web sites several years ago.

Now, we've beat this type of topic to death before with "I wouldn't advertise there if they paid me" to "I would support this station with my last penny..." so please, let's don't do that again.

She asked a simple question, and this is a simple straightforward answer. Let's leave the "passion" at the door and treat it just like we would any other marketing venue.

[Gumbogirl]

Find out if those churches publish directories. We have over 4500 families in our little parish, and we have a directory published every 2-3 years.

When we go to get our pic taken, the deal is we get a free 8 x 10, and an offer to purchase a whole bunch of other pics for a tidy sum. I know some families that rely on this to get their family portraits done.

If they are comfortable spending that much on the pics, they might want to put them in your nicer frames or your nicer readymades.

Olan Mills does ours, and there's already a parishioner that gets a lot of the framing, but I get some of it. We don't have an official deal with the OM directory people, we just buy ads in our bulletin around directory time. (done in the fall) Then we do it again around first communion time, which coincides with brides and grads and Mother/Father's Day.

We have used a lot of parishioners for services b/c of their ads. To me it's like having a neighbor that does something and I would've used their business if only I'd known about it. I have no problem with it, but, then again, being Catholic, I don't consider it strange. :D

[RoboFramer]

We have a beautiful 14th (or something silly) century church in our village.

It does not meet 'the needs' of the 'church family' of today; they are gutting/modernising it and also altering the structure.

What I think of this has no place here, but, they needed £750,000 for the project ($1.3m) - they rasied it - quickly - from donations within the 'Church Family'

Nuff said?

More can be found here if interested (needs a bit of searching on the 'news and views' then 'discussion forum')

Angmering village website (http://www.angmeringvillage.co.uk/)

[BUDDY]

I am Catholic and we did advertise in the weekly church Bulletin.( at one time in our Parish and in the neighboring one as well.) The bulletin is for Church announcements and mass schedules as well as other events along with Gospel explanations and such.

It is mostly Parishioners who advertise in an effort to defray the cost of publication and distribution to what may be thousands of households.

In my experience it didn't generate any real additional business since most other parishioners KNEW who and what We were and where we were also. It was more of a support type thing. We even regularly Donated work to the Church and School as well as the priest and nuns. But as I said it was an effort to help with defraying expenses, especially for some of our personal Clergy friends.

But I have seen a few other Denominations ( even some Non-Christian )publish a support type listing and even have seen a Phone book notice for some and have occasionally seen Billboard captions indicating a Bible versus. If you feel the urge to help do so if you think it is going to add revenue I think you may be approaching this from the wrong avenue for a couple of reasons.

BUDDY

[deaconsbench]

Do you really want to go through with that plan? :D

http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b62/deaconsbench/churchsign.jpg

[Wendolene]

I advertised in a parish bulletin for 9 months once with absolutely no results.

[BUDDY]

Deacon some may not agree with the Catholic Faith but they I'll bet they are "TARGETED" Regularly by The Jehovah Witnesses, and the LDS on a regular basis. As well as some street corner preachers. LOL

IMO this and the other TARGETING is a conversion attempt. Which you don't have to agree with or accept but it is meant as a helping hand not a harmful threat.
BUDDY

[Whynot]

Originally posted by Wendolene:
I advertised in a parish bulletin for 9 months once with absolutely no results. But you failed to offer that church 10-15% of your proceedengs, which in return would have gotten parishioners' attention, am I right?

[RoboFramer]

You could volunteer for a born again conservators sermon.

"Oh Yes my Brothers and Sisters Ahhhh haaaaaave SSSEEEEEEEEEEEENN the light - oh yeah AH HAVE -

and it has FEEEEEEEEEEEYDID MAH PITCHERS"

Sort of thing

[BUDDY]

Cornel your reply,"But you failed to offer that church 10-15% of your proceedengs, which in return would have gotten parishioners' attention, am I right? " may be correct for Wendolene ( I am not sure) but not for me. I actually offered the percentage for all purchases made in the churches name for a period of weeks and I got one maybe two takers.

It was so small I was embrassed to send it to the Church that I added funds to it when I made the contribution.
BUDDY

[Jack Cee]

Unless it is one of your prohibited practices; attend a sunday service and introduce yourself to some members of the congregation as a local business person and see where it goes from there. You may not even have to convert to become a friend and neighbor.

We do a lot of framing for members of our congregation.

Jack Cee