[Click here to download Liquid Church’s Spring Catalog]

This spring our church put together a catalog and we’re mailing it to 5,000+ homes in our database. It’s not an insignificant investment for our church. Why is a church producing a “catalog” and how does it fit in our strategy?

• Recall // Like most churches our issue isn’t getting people to come to church … our issue is getting people to come back to church. We designed the catalog as a “recall” tool and sent it to everyone who has been “active” in the last 18 months or so. Our hope is that people will remember the positive impact our church had on them and they’ll give us try again.
• Show Don’t Tell // You’ll notice the catalog is highly visual … from a design point of view we’re attempting to make every “spread” grab the readers and stir emotions. Pictures and design tell stories … word tell facts. This piece is attempting to communicate that our church is active and engaged.
• More Than Digital // There is something great about promotional material that isn’t just digital. We invest a lot of time and effort into online marketing strategies … but something magical happens when a piece of mail arrives at people’s homes. Because of the advent of so much digital communication most people only get bills and junk mail at home … when our piece arrives it’s welcomed because of the context!
• More Than Easter // We are doing a bunch of communication about Easter … attempting to encourage our people to invite their friends to come to this “Big Day” but we also want people to know that our church is more than just this one day. We’re communicating about a bunch of different things happening during this season at our church not just Easter through this piece.
• Artificial Deadline // Internally because this piece needed to be out the door … it forced us to firm up a number of ministry details for this spring. Although we self imposed this deadline on ourselves … it was motivating to ensure that we were communicating the right things to our community!
• Shelf Life // In the past when we’ve produced these catalogs we’ve noticed that they have longer shelf life than a normal “invite card” or other “series promotional material” we produce. Our people seem to treat them like a magazine and leave them hanging around their home for a bit. That’s good news for us … the fact that people are hanging onto them means their family and friends are more likely to see them!

Does your church produce a “catalog” like this? I’d love to hear about the lessons you’ve learned!