You all have really loved my Pinterest boards for business cards & brochures... It's time to look at a whole bunch of merch inspo. đ You'll see a lot of wedding favors and wedding party gifts; these are just there to show you just how many products can be customized these days and get your gears turning. Browse my board The content of this board could be used in a variety of ways: Items on sale to your people so they can "rep" their church or school New visitor gifts Small disposable or...
5 days ago â˘Â 1 min read
It's been a while since we went FULL nerd-mode. Today's the day, ladies & gentlemen. đ¤ This past week, I was asked a question: "Can you make the livestream button only show up on Sunday mornings?" Well, of course! Do I have any idea how to do that? No! Will I figure it out? Yes! And I did! Why do this? We wanted to make a BIG RED BUTTON show up on the homepage of the church's website so that a few older, home-bound members could easily find the link. BUTâwe didn't really want this slightly...
12 days ago â˘Â 2 min read
Sending out Easter postcards? Here are a few ways to squeeze the most possible value out of that pretty significant investment. 1) Incentivize a QR code scan Ideally, try to get the recipient to interact with the mailer. Choose an action that's likely to pique your particular community's interest. Here are a few ideas: Scan for 7 SMS devotions leading up to Easter morning Scan to see the breakfast menu Scan for an email reminder on Good Friday RSVP for the egg hunt on Facebook Scan for Holy...
19 days ago â˘Â 1 min read
It took me far too long to learn this: Sometimes when we look at a web page, we can tell that something is off, but we can't put our finger on exactly what. This could be a host of things, but most often it's a problem with the sizes of your text. Either the wrong proportions, too many font sizes, and/or not enough negative space. Today I'll teach you a quick fix that will make your website pages or long-form text look just right. Here's what I mean. Picture these as sections on your website:...
26 days ago â˘Â 2 min read
A while back... ...I posted in the WELS Intersections Facebook group offering to critique/improve a logo. I had a lot of interest, so THANK YOU if you submitted yours. If this newsletter gets a positive response, I hope to do more in the coming months. Our subject today is the logo for St. Mark Ministries in De Pere & Green Bay, Wisconsin. If anyone from St. Mark is reading this, you won't hurt my feelings if you dislike what I come up with. đ I thank you for allowing me to do this! Here's...
about 2 months ago â˘Â 2 min read
The Church Marketing Playbook: Throwing Wide Open Your Digital Front Doors It was an absolute pleasure to present at Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary this week. Here's the description shared with attendees: The Church Marketing Playbook: Throwing Wide Open Your Digital Front Doors Within the next 4 to 40 months, you can confidently say you'll be carving out Saturday mornings for church workdays, receiving emails titled, "Re: New lawnmower" from your grounds elder, and vacuuming cheerios off the...
about 2 months ago â˘Â 1 min read
I'm working on materials for my presentation at Mission & Ministry next week... While I'm at it, I thought I'd share this resource with you. Have you ever sat down to formulate a plan for promoting an upcoming event and thought... "Where should I begin?" Then... you get overwhelmed by all of your options, procrastinate, and end up throwing $30 at Facebook 6 days out from the event? This timeline & checklist was written to infuse a little more intention and strategy into that process. You'll...
2 months ago â˘Â 1 min read
Don't go digital for digital's sake. Go digital for the humans on the other side of the screen. Here are 10 ways that the internet intersects with traditional Word of Mouth interactions. 1) Write stuff that makes sense to share publicly. If someone reposts your graphic on their Instagram story, they, in essence, just sent that sentiment to each of their 500 followers. Take a look at this Instagram account. Pastors write enough content to create something along these linesâand, yet, many...
2 months ago â˘Â 3 min read
How to do search engine optimization on your website by yourself If you're DIY-ing your website or you just want to try your hand at a tune-up, follow the steps below to start to improve your own SEO (Search Engine Optimization). We do these things so that Google can understand what your site is all about. The ultimate goal is that Google knows how to recommend your site to people who are looking for an organization like yours! #1: Write custom page title and descriptions. This is the most...
3 months ago â˘Â 1 min read
My new website is live! Ever since I launched my site in 2023, I've been looking forward to the day I could give it the love it deserved. It really has been a labor of love, and I'm so thrilled to share it with you today! Here's what's different (and the strategy behind each change): I added a new section to my site: a blog! Over the next few months, I'm going to copy over all of my past newsletters into this section. Right now, my archive is stored in my email service provider's ecosystem....
3 months ago â˘Â 2 min read