So why am I in video marketing? Using my skills to convince people to support my guy? It's cause I learned from the best. I grew up with a certain type of marketer as my father (and his father before him). Not a traditional marketer, mind you; I grew up under two generations of preachers.
And if you don't think preaching is marketing, you either haven't set foot in a church or in a marketing agency. The parallels are incredible. Unholy even. From church, I learned the best sales pitches have symbolism. My dad would call them 'sermon illustrations'. He would tell a story, then he would relate it to the point he was trying to make.
There can't be a more direct comparison than the word 'conversion'. You know what it means in video marketing, and you know what it means at church. It means you finally convinced somebody to join your side. A conversion is what all brands rely on. It means you have convinced a customer to be loyal to your brand, and that benefits you and your cause (and usually your bank account).
And all of this takes brain games. What marketers would call the psychology of influence. And it takes repetition. Sometimes it takes using fear to sale an idea. Churches are experts at using fear to convince. I've gripped the back of the pew in front of me many times as fearsome language would echo across the room. It takes brain games and repetition too.
One of the first things I learned in marketing work is how to write a 'call to action'. My supervisor Eric used them so often he called them CTAs. Lo and behold, at the end of every sermon, there's a call to action. An 'altar call'. I'm telling you, the parallels are unreal! You warm people up with a story, you make your cold, hard sales pitch, then you make a call to convert. It can't get any more basic in marketing or in church.
How about tracts? Have you ever been handed a brochure by a church that tells a little story and and then it makes it pitch to convert you to their religion? We even got one at a recent trunk-or-treat called The Little Ghost.
Marketing is all about attention. And churches are masters of attention. Most churches here in Oklahoma have a crowd of hundreds that attend at least once every week. Most brands would kill for this kind of attention. I've watched my dad give hundreds of sermons and other pastors give hundreds more. I've learned the power of this marketing language combined with complete attention. The audience comes into a brick-and-mortar location for an hour and a half and gives their undivided attention, even swatting at their kids who aren't paying attention to the pitch.
Churches have it down! What if you could make your business so life-changing that hundreds of people come each week and start giving YOU money? That's good marketing!
So if you haven't been to church in awhile, I encourage you to go find the biggest operation of a church that you can find in your town, and check it out! For me, that's Life.Church. They are a marketing powerhouse with live broadcasts, film productions, social media, apps, and more. They run like a well-oiled marketing machine.
Go this week and take note of their language, their sales pitch, and their branding. You'll probably be surprised. And you just might be converted ;)