Are You Available for God?

One of the bible verses I love the most is from Isaiah 6:8 “And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send, who will go for us?’ Then I said ‘Here I am! Send me.’”  This verse, which so many of us know and love, describes availability.  We cannot be sent forth by God if we are not available to Him.

Why do I mention this?  In this week’s Marketing God Podcast we discuss marketing strategy and that the cornerstone of any marketing effort is availability.  If a product is not available, it cannot be purchased.  If a service is not available, it cannot be used.  All other marketing efforts build on availability as the foundation.  The best marketing in the world is meaningless if the product or service is not available.

As we discuss marketing strategy this week, it is a perfect time to roll in the impact of COVID on our parishes and ministries, and we do just that in this week’s podcasts.  Because of the regulations, mandates, and concerns from the pandemic, our parishes, ministries, schools and so much more were closed for a period of time.  When they were closed, they were unavailable, no one could use them.  What became available were Masses streaming on our TV’s or computers.  We fast forward and I am hearing of so many parishes and ministries wanting to know how to re-engage, how to bring people back to Mass in person for example.  To do that, we need to start at the beginning of the marketing strategy path and consider availability. 

This topic of availability starts off our week’s podcast, but just because you are open, that is not enough.  People need to be aware of what you are doing, aware that you are now available and so awareness, the second step in the path to loyalty, is discussed in detail this week as well.  Once people are aware that you are open, they need to try you again and so for the third podcast we address trial and repeat.  To round out the week we discuss how to measure marketing efforts and the role of pricing.  The podcasts this week are aligned with Truths 35, 36, 37 and Truths 11 and 7 from the book Marketing God.

The podcasts this week really pack a punch as they use the concepts from the previous weeks to create concrete marketing steps that will lead your parishioners, members, etc. down the path of loyalty, not just to your church or ministry, but importantly to God.  I recognize that I am a bit biased as the author of the book and the podcaster, but I would offer that I see this week’s podcast and the associated truths in the book as some of the most critical topics as we consider how to market your parish or ministry. 

As before, there are worksheets with each podcast linked in the description and all the podcasts for this week dropped overnight.  So, you can listen to one a day or all at one time, whatever works best for you. You can find the podcasts on any of your favorite podcast apps or at media.donnaaheckler.com.  

If you want to join a community of people trying to determine how to reach more people feel free to join the Marketing God Facebook group where we hope to work together, offer ideas and solutions that everyone can use. We continue to pray that these tools help you, your parish and ministry inspire those you support to become loyal to God!