May 27, 2011
Body Waxing and Church Mailers
Church mass mailers kill me. At least as a way to reach young adults.
I check my apartment’s mailbox once a week and its usually nothing but junkmail I toss (or the occasional letter from Momma).
Compare that with the fact that I check my inbox at least 8 times a day. Seriously – I check first thing upon arrival to the office in the morning, again right before I leave work, and then my phone automatically downloads new mail every 4 hours.
Past that, I’m always on facebook. Not in a creepy stalkerish obsessed way, just in the ‘I’m a young adult and thats what we do’ way.
So I’m curious - why do we have budgets for mass mailers, but not facebook adds?
I keep hearing people lamenting the fact that its hard to get young adults to go to church. But then I get their flyer or postcard or coupon for a free coffee in my mailbox, and it makes a whole lot of sense to me. Their message, no matter how pure or important, is completely lost in the mass of junk that it arrives with.
There is a trash can right next to the door in my apartment complex’s mail room; anything that isnt a bill or from Momma goes there. Seriously – if I dont know you, then that flyer that you lovingly spent hours, and prayed over, and brought in consultants and graphic artists and demographic gurus to create…it doesn’t even make it 3 feet. Sorry. Unlike my inbox, my mailbox doesnt have a spam filter, so I just toss everything. I don’t need a new credit card. I don’t want to try out your new tanning salon. I don’t need $5 off my next pedicure if I opt for the full brazillian waxing next time I visit your salon.
And if your loving church flyer was tucked in there somewhere? Sorry, but it just became a casualty of body wax and bad visuals.
So please – spend your money wisely. The message of the Church is far too important not to. Put some of your ad budget towards online material (starting with a mobile optimized website I might actually read). I know I’m not the only person in the world and that there are probably quite a few who DO read mailers. But the tide of the youth seems more interested in the internet than the mailbox. Maybe we could put just a little bit towards that instead.
