Selling and reaching out to religious institutions

PROMOTIONAL PRODUCTSReaching Out to Religious Institutions
Selling promotional products to religious entities requires direct targeting and building relationships.
Oct 27, 2008

By Dawn McMullan, Contributing Writer

John Bagwell knows marketing to religious entities is different than marketing to any other customer. When Dallas-based Bagwell Promotions created a Web site just for reaching out to churches, Bagwell took the utmost care to make sure the site reflected the market he was trying to reach, going through the online catalog to eliminate any items that didn’t fit the mission of the new site.

"Since we had a lot of Baptist churches as clients, I deleted beer and alcoholic items as best I could," he says. "On the Web site, I stressed an online catalog where visitors could find other items for the ministries. A few weeks after launching the site and a lot of patting myself on the back for doing such a good job on the design, I got an email from a pastor who asked, 'Can you tell me how I might use condoms to promote my church?'"

Needless to say, condoms have since been deleted from the ChurchMax.com inventory list.

There are, no doubt, many stories like Bagwell's that illustrate the differences in working with religious institutions vs. corporate institutions. But none of these differences would likely surprise Kirk Chritton, director of marketing at MCH, a Sweet Springs, Mo.-based company that specializes in business-to-institution marketing. "They are definitely different to work with than a corporate client," Chritton says. "That's because they're not trying to make a profit. They're not advertising or doing a promotional effort because there's a profit motivation. You have to talk to churches in terms of what their mission is. It may be membership. It may be community support."

Determine the Mission
Chritton recommends targeting your direct-mail pieces to religious entities by creating a religious theme, even if you just change the cover (without being denomination-specific, of course): "It can be tricky to make sure you have appropriate creative material that isn't overly denominational. Some people may be offended if it's a mistargeted message." As Bagwell found out.

While the church-specific Web site has brought in business, Bagwell says 40% of church business still comes through the company's main Web site, bagwellpromotions.com. Nevertheless, Bagwell still thinks ChurchMax.com is a good idea: "I think it gives us a little more credibility within the industry."

Read the full article at http://www.impressionsmag.com/impressions/content_display/promotional-products/e3i69a1fca74124be467c74953a4cfd6995