We are rolling out the pink carpet in this episode as Delight Ministries founders, Mac Bridges and Kenz Durham join us for a vibrant conversation that uncovers the secret sauce of branding and marketing within faith-based communities.
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Learn more about Delight Ministries at DelightMinistries.com
Learn more about For the Girl at ForTheGirl.com
SUBSCRIBE for more resources on how to lead your church/organization!
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Tithely provides the tools you need to engage with your church online, stay connected, increase generosity, and simplify the lives of your staff.
With tools like text and email messaging, custom church apps and websites, church management software, digital giving, and so much more… it’s no wonder over 37,000 churches in 50 countries trust Tithely to help run their church.
Learn more at tithely.com
We are rolling out the pink carpet in this episode as Delight Ministries founders, Mac Bridges and Kenz Durham join us for a vibrant conversation that uncovers the secret sauce of branding and marketing within faith-based communities.
--
Learn more about Delight Ministries at DelightMinistries.com
Learn more about For the Girl at ForTheGirl.com
SUBSCRIBE for more resources on how to lead your church/organization!
--
Tithely provides the tools you need to engage with your church online, stay connected, increase generosity, and simplify the lives of your staff.
With tools like text and email messaging, custom church apps and websites, church management software, digital giving, and so much more… it’s no wonder over 37,000 churches in 50 countries trust Tithely to help run their church.
Learn more at tithely.com
Hey guys, welcome to another episode of Modern Church Leader, I'm joined for the second time by the ladies who started Delight Ministries. Hey guys, hello, so fun being back. I love it.
Speaker 3:I know, I know, and, like man, so much has changed for you guys.
Speaker 2:You can tell the audience if you want to, but we don't have to. But you know it's been a big. I don't know. You were on Six Months ago or something like that, and the whole world has changed. Yes, Since Six Months I've had a child, so that's pretty fun.
Speaker 1:She is now seven weeks old. She's crazy. A little itty bitty thing. My husband's currently trying to like make sure she's cool and calm and collected, so like half your brain is paying attention over there.
Speaker 2:And yeah, of course, right when we were like let's like record.
Speaker 1:She was like meh, meh, so we'll pray for him out there and then Mack will Mack's pregnant. I love how I'm making this announcement for you. You usually talk for me anyway, so this is great. Yes, ken, is yours sleeping through the?
Speaker 3:night yet, or still up often. We have one wake up time, three or four, 4 am, and yeah, she's about to make like we're doing, like the whole sleep training.
Speaker 1:And so she's about to make like a jump to like a longer stretch, I guess, which will be good yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah we were.
Speaker 1:we were big fans of the sleep training, so I'm a team sleep training all the way.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you got to get your sleep, get a good shower.
Speaker 1:I don't know the girls that go without it. I'm like you. That's awesome. Mack, how far along are you? How much longer I am?
Speaker 2:17 weeks. So we're coming up on the halfway point here, but yeah, so.
Speaker 3:I said that a long way to go. Long way to go Growing a child. I mean, the story continues like now you guys are going to have babies together and they're going to grow up.
Speaker 2:I mean, how cool I know Life long it is pretty fun.
Speaker 3:Yes, so kids had a girl, I'm having a girl, so we're just going to keep, keep living in our girl world where we just like, thrive honestly.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so our poor husbands.
Speaker 2:No, they love it. They love it. I'm sure I have three boys. So my wife is like I was telling you guys before, like she just doesn't understand us, but she's got to deal with you know, three, three kids and the big kids.
Speaker 1:So you know it's awesome, it's so crazy. She'll be so obsessed with like when they start having girlfriends and get married 100%.
Speaker 2:That stage is going to be pretty cool, for sure.
Speaker 1:So, fun.
Speaker 2:Well, last time you guys were on, you guys have a great story. The ministry you guys started. It's amazing. But I noticed you guys do a great job with like branding and marketing and kind of just your style. It's, you know, clearly an extension of you guys. But I don't know. I love talking about like branding and marketing in the church space and you guys seem to be into that as well, so we're just going to talk marketing today.
Speaker 3:Excited yeah.
Speaker 2:Let's just maybe start at the beginning. Like, how did you guys come up with the name, what, what, like in the very beginning, when you guys were dreaming up the ministry and getting things started? Where'd the name come from?
Speaker 3:Wow, yeah, okay. So the funny story about the name delight I guess where it came from was originally we were just starting a Bible study and we knew it needed an epic, awesome name. Like we. I remember having conversations like Ken's night, early days of like what are we going to call this thing? And we tried all these different names but nothing ever stuck. And then our first like Bible study that we ever picked to go through as a group before we made our own curriculum was called duty or delight and I was walking on campus one day and I ran into Ken's and she looks at me and she goes, oh, my goodness, I've invited so many people to delight.
Speaker 3:And I was literally like what is delight? And she's like, oh, that's just what I've been calling it. And I was like, oh, I actually really like it. I think that's good. And so that's kind of where the name came from. It was just a very organic thing or it was a genius move from Ken's Not sure which one, maybe a move of the spirit, or just she's a marketing genius.
Speaker 1:No, that brings up a good point, though that I feel like it is like in the ministry space you do. I feel like you have to still put strategy into things and be mindful of who you're serving and what they're liking, catching the trends and going with it, but then also, of course, like sticking to like your brand and where you feel God leading you. You know you're not going to take that too far because of the spirit and maybe boundaries and things like that. But yeah, I know that in its moment was definitely organic.
Speaker 2:Yeah Well, and it clearly stuck like it worked. You guys liked it and I love the one. You know, just like one word kind of thing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure yeah it's simple.
Speaker 2:After it stuck, did it just from there. It was just that, was it? Or was there like moments of like, oh, we need to think about our real name. Or did that just stick and you guys went with it?
Speaker 3:It really did just stick, which is so funny. We, I remember like we picked our theme verse back in the day. We had like a theme verse of Psalm 37 for delight yourself in the Lord, he will give the desires of your heart. And it kind of became this message of like, not this, hey, he's this genie in a bottle who's going to grant your every wish if you just start to follow him. But hey, when you really learn what it means to delight in him, he transforms the desires of your hearts into the things that he desires for you.
Speaker 3:And it just felt like that was kind of the journey we were taking college women on of what does it really look like to enjoy a relationship with Jesus, not just do it because your parents, you know, had you go to church every Sunday, or not just follow like the cultural view of what it means to be a Christian, but what does it really look like to learn to delight in Him in your everyday?
Speaker 3:And then what happens on the aftermath of that is this transformative life where, you know, I know for both Ken's and I, the things we came to college thinking we wanted out of this life totally changed, and it was really through this community and through our experience with what God did in our hearts. So it kind of became like, the longer we stay with the name delight, the more meaning it seemed to like seem to have. And I think delight, our brand, carries a lot of joy and a lot of fun and, like heartedness, also paired with a lot of depth, and so I think the word delight has really served us well in terms of branding and marketing as well.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, yeah, and I mean that scripture is beautiful, right, like it's inspiring to pretty much everybody that you know reads it, so it's a great. Like the name, the scripture, like it all just works. How did you come up? Like, ok, you got the name, it was becoming a thing early on but then you had to work on, like kind of the brand of it, like so how did how did you evolve? Like you go to your website. You guys have a great website. You have a clear brand, like it's a very clear, defined like style and branding. Like how did that start? Like, where did you go to figure out? Like, ok, we like these colors, we like this style, all of that, like where, where, how did that come to be?
Speaker 1:OK, well, first of all, there's one color, and one color only, and it is Clearly. It is pink and you know it's so funny. It's from the very beginning it just really was like super pink and I think that I was probably a little marketing strategy, like, yeah, it's funny. Even if you go to like the campus fairs and you you're looking and seeing other like campus ministries that are happening, they all typically have, like you know, a white cloth and a navy blue sign that says, like what, they are Right.
Speaker 1:And then there's delight. That's like always bright pink cloth or at one point, actually we like really encourage people. This is LOL. We would be like, ok, this is what you should do. You should go to Goodwill and purchase a white bed sheet and tie dye it pink. That's like that is so cute. And so then, everybody, you know what's unique and delight is actually when one chapter does something. So say, like at Belmont, we're like, we're going to do that, and then we posted on our Instagram and then we actually have like a leader's resources page. It's like behind the scenes that all of our leaders are also accessing and following, and things like that.
Speaker 1:So, they'll see on there. Oh, ok, one thing you could do for your kickoff or for campus fairs, like buy your sheet pink. Like this is all sounds really funny, but it actually like then everybody did it. And then delight was like the only ministry amongst probably 200 other tables there that had a tie dyed sheet. It looked cool and it was attractive and people just went up to it. Like people just naturally go, you know. So I think little things like that have really stuck in. Every year there's like kind of a new trend, like I remember the pink sheet at the beginning or the tarashi and then, I don't know, it's gone. At one point there's a Mexican blanket trend. You know we were like all right, we'll jump on that.
Speaker 2:Everybody had.
Speaker 1:Mexican blanket pink. Yeah, pink ones, don't not multi-colored.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah so, yeah, it's really stuck. And I don't know, mack, you could probably speak to this. I know the team, like over the years, is like kind of almost wanted to like stray away from that. They're like like some girls don't love pink or like you know what if that like excludes people. And I feel like, mack, you've always been really good at like sticking true to it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, we. I think from the early days we decided on pink. You know we were. We were creating the first women's campus ministry. There were no other women's campus ministries, and so from the beginning we wanted it to be clear what it was, and so I think that's a lot of, I think that's why we lean towards pink. It was like we want it to stand out and be different and have a lot of clarity for what it is, and so pink just automatically did that for us. And I'm telling you you can go to any of these campus fairs and I can promise you that Delight's table will probably have the longest line, just because it looks the most fun. You don't even have to know what it is. But you just can't pass a pink table and not like, go check out what it is.
Speaker 3:So and then, yeah, as as like times have changed and evolved, definitely there have been a lot of conversations with our team who have been like, hey, I think people are over the pink and should we change it?
Speaker 3:And I have kind of really always held strong on what I love about the pink is is it's so recognizable it's impossible to ignore that it is delight, and so we have definitely tried to to move with the times of like pink. We don't just stick with one pink, we go kind of every shade of pink depending on where design trends are. You know we've done more lighter pink, we've done neon pink, we've done rosy, mid tone pinks. You know we've kind of gone every direction, but I will never, I will never allow a delight book to go out without pink on. It. Has to have it and and I think that's just really important so that, no matter what it is, you're always recognizing and seeing okay, this is that delight thing. I'm scrolling on my Instagram oh, okay, that's this delight thing. And when we do that as kind of the, the organ of the headquarters, our chapters have kept that going and I think that's kind of what set us apart on college campuses and and made for some some real clarity of what we do and who we are.
Speaker 2:So yeah, and I love it. I love it Cause you got you have a great name, you got your color and you're like we're all in and you do that for long enough.
Speaker 2:And you know you leaned into like pink, like just traditionally maybe. Like pink is the girls like pink and blue for boy girl. You just kind of leaned into and you're like no, this is a women's ministry and we're starting the first one and it's done amazing and it's super recognizable. So like all those things are like true. Now you know how many years later what? 10 years later, 12 years later. So that's pretty cool that you guys have done that. What about like the style, like the, the style of things, like the fonts and the kind of treatments that, like you said, fun and everyone's going to show up to the table? And you're tie dye, like how did you land on like that side of things, not just the color and the name, but now the style of everything.
Speaker 3:Yeah Well, I will say, from the early days, one of the very first things we did and we said, hey, we're going to do this delight thing was we. We invested, we spent some money in the very beginning on a strong brand.
Speaker 3:So we like found the coolest designer we knew in Nashville and somehow convinced her, cause she like only worked with really cool people at that point and somehow we convinced her to work with us. I don't know and and I mean it wasn't cheap, like, but we decided from day one this is really important. And so she gave us a really great foundation for our brand with, like, our logo and things like that. I will say it has evolved and things but kind of this, like swirly letters, again very feminine, very girly, yup, and then, as it cause it's been about 11, 12 years since then as we've kind of progressed. I think for everything that we're doing, we want it to have that feminine energy, and feminine energy has changed Over the years.
Speaker 3:Like what used to be the more like yeah, a floral pattern on a Bible like that was like big eight or nine years ago is not the same these days, like for or at least for the younger girls I would say, now it's neons are really big right now and kind of more of like a, a sans-serif font I see a lot of sans-serif fonts and things like that and so I really work with our designer now on how do we keep the like, the trueness of our brand while also being really relevant for what's new? Because we come out with a new book every semester, so our some of our products aren't ever green. They don't have to last forever. They can last for six months and be really in and be really cool and be really trendy and then we can be done with that look and kind of move on to another look and so that's really a lot of.
Speaker 3:What we do is we try to be hold true to the things that have always worked for us, while also kind of following what's cool, what's relevant right now. Doing some of that paired with what has always like rung true for delight, and it seems to work because it makes it really fun. Every time we launch a new sweatshirt, a new book, it's like, oh, this is fun and new and exciting, yet it pairs perfectly with the rest of my delight collection that I've gathered over the years.
Speaker 2:So yeah, yeah, like there's brand consistency around everything, but then you try to use whatever is kind of trendy at the time or what's in right now and kind of bring it together. That's. It's interesting that you decided I mean interesting and I think pretty awesome that you decided to spend money on kind of brand upfront. I think that's a spot that lots of people don't choose to invest in at the beginning and maybe never, but you know it's not something they put importance on. Why did you guys think that? Like what was in you that made you go like no, our brand, the brand of this thing, is really important. Let's figure it out early.
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh, it's been so long, I like. Well, first of all, it was so long ago. Yeah, do you remember back? I feel like we. Yeah, I think that just with knowing our demographic.
Speaker 3:We were always going after college students, so I believed, especially with like a younger generations, the aesthetics of things really matter.
Speaker 3:I mean, this was when like Instagram was popping off, like Instagram was becoming the thing and you had to have like a aesthetic feed and everything like that, and so we knew, okay, in order for college women to be drawn to this it never really was, so when they were like I'm going to be drawn to this it needs to look like something that they would want to check out and they'd want to go to the website or they'd want to click on our Instagram and go see what it's about. And we always talk about I don't care what gets them in the door, like whatever gets them in the door is great.
Speaker 3:It's really what happens once they're in the door, where the true ministry happens, and so we try to be. We talk a lot in delight, in every layer of delight, about being invitational and what I love about, like the difference in a flyer and an invitation. An invitation is that next step where you there's always an RSVP, meaning you care about whether someone comes or not. It's not just this mass you know, hey, come to this event. It's like no, no, no. This is a personalized thing where we care about whether you come or not.
Speaker 3:And so we try to be invitational in every single thing that we do, and one way I think we do that in our marketing is just we want to meet women where they're at and not like hold true to what's always worked for us and just like say, oh, but you know, once you come it's going to be awesome, Like we want to go out there and find ways to draw them in, to attract them. And so I think, just from being college women at the time because we were in college when we started to like we just knew like, oh, if this isn't look cool, then I wouldn't go.
Speaker 3:We had a lot of conversations like that, like I wouldn't go to this, you know, yet if I clicked on this, I was like, oh, this is so cool, this is so cute. I'm like, oh, I'm going to go to this, let me learn more about this, like I would be interested. Those were important things to us at the time and it sounds so funny and almost superficial, but I think that it's it's. It's been important and honestly, I'll just say it's worked for us.
Speaker 1:I also add you know, since then we haven't had like a quote, unquote professional designer come in and do anything for delight. Really what? It's been is really back overseas it. And then now we have a girl that, like hands on, does everything, and I feel like it's a combo. The brand stays cute and trendy and consistent because you know one, that person who runs the brand of delight is has like has you know she's gifted in that.
Speaker 1:She just like kind of knows what's cool and she's cool and she's she's going to like stay with the times or whatever. Same with Mac she like is cool, has taste, is in the times. It's really funny because genuinely, I like pick up the worst stuff. To this day I just like don't have that in me. So like you know there's that aspect. But then too, I think you just have to just like keep up. It kind of does suck in a way because you have to. You know it's like you got to just scroll and tick tock for a little bit every day if you want to know what's trending.
Speaker 2:What's going on. You know the audio.
Speaker 1:Yeah, all the things. So you know it's a combo of like just staying with the trend and being aware. You know we're in our 30s now but we know what's aware for the 18 to 22 year olds because we just like look and we're joined in and we're part of it. So, yeah, I think it's like a healthy combo of both of those things.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I love what you said, that like it's not just about being cool, but it's like the invitation, like it's the thing. It's like you want to stay relevant because you're trying to reach people and you want to get. You want them like the invite, you want you want it to be something that they think is going to be a good thing and that they think is going to be fun and exciting and it's interesting. You know, it drives kind of an interest so that they'll show up and then they can, you know, really experience the ministry and what God's doing there and the community and all of that kind of stuff. So like the marketing and the brand is important to get people there, right, yeah, and then kind of the ministry side of things takes over and that's really what's important. But if you didn't do a good job in the marketing and the branding and the invite kind of culture, then nobody would be there to experience, you know, what God's doing.
Speaker 1:So it's like they go together.
Speaker 2:You know what I'm saying. It's like that I wish more churches and ministries. Kind of understood that you know, like how you, how you're seen in the world, like matters, because that's what brings people to you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, for real, mac, you need to share about your, about what's their name, the girl that's like popping off on to something. Yeah, that's like such a good truth and nugget that the world needs to hear.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, I actually I recently did a presentation at like a publisher who's trying to reach younger people and they were kind of talking about how do we create Bible studies? So this is a little bit different, but how do we create Bible studies for this younger generation? Yeah, and I think that there is something to the fact that there are. There are other brands out there that are young people are flocking to. You know they're flocking to and it's really important to pay attention. And why are they flocking to? These brands, whether they're inside the church or outside the church? Like what, why? What's going on here?
Speaker 3:And the one that I find so interesting right now is there's this girl on TikTok. Her name's Alex Earl. It's so funny, but she is this like she goes to the University of Miami. She just graduated from there. She's blonde, like classic she's. She's not not walking with Jesus, but young girls our age are obsessed with her. Like they follow everything she does. Like she puts videos on TikTok all the time that are just like sharing about her getting ready, like her what she's doing that night, a date with her boyfriend from the night before, different things like that.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 3:What I love is she just started a podcast and on her podcast she's like talking about all of these different things that are like, hey, what to do if you're dealing with anxiety? You know what to do if all your friends don't want to hang out with you anymore? What do you do when you're feeling lonely? All of these different things that, like we know, jesus has the answer for it. Like Jesus speaks to these things and, and I think what's so, what's so funny and so interesting is like everybody is going to Alex Earl Right.
Speaker 3:Or the answers we're going to her for the answers, and I think one of the things that she does really beautifully is that, I think, is why people are drawn to her is she's super transparent and she's super authentic to being herself.
Speaker 3:And I think that with branding and marketing, especially in the church, one thing that I think we're not good at, that I'm really passionate about is is looking for opportunities to be more authentic and to be more relatable and real, and I think that's one thing that we have a sister brand to delight called for the girl where we can say are more of like the faces of that one, which sounds funny, but we work really hard to be ourselves, not be the perfect Christian girl, but to be ourselves and to be goofy and to have fun and to share stuff that like sometimes we are like, even like, oh, should I share this?
Speaker 3:But people are so drawn to authenticity and and relatability and this Alex Earl girl girl is getting like 10 million downloads on her podcast every single episode, and I just believe, like the places that like we refuse to occupy, like the enemy, the enemy is occupying those places, and so I think it's so important for the church to get in there and to say like, hey, we're going to talk about these things too, and we're going to be invitational and how we invite you in and we were talking a little bit more about content, maybe the marketing, but I think the same can be true even in, even in our marketing, and and how we're inviting people into that story is just doing in a way that meets them where they're at number one.
Speaker 3:And then also not putting on this like perfect facade, but putting on this hey, you can come and be yourself here and you can come and be known here and then watch what Jesus does in the process of transformation and you know it's the delight yourself more and he'll give you the desires of your heart. Hey, but where. That's where the transformation happens.
Speaker 3:And so yeah.
Speaker 2:I love what I'm, I guess, jumping into social media. What's been your guys is, like you said, kind of Instagram. Was you know kind of starting to jump off and like be part of what you guys were thinking about? How is social media played a role just in your overall marketing over the years?
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, big. I mean big time over the years has been, like she said it like start social media. Like started when we started, like so I think since the beginning we've tried to like ride that way.
Speaker 1:Yeah stay relevant and use it to to, like our advantage, you know, get it in front of as many people as possible. And so, you know, sometimes it's like the big things, like hey, what kind of post, what kind of caption is going to be reshared? You know things like that like how many people can see this? What real can we create that other people, like the Alex copy something Alex Earl is doing, but do it in a, in a Christian lens. Do the same thing, just do it different and do it over and over again. And yeah, so it's a lot of that mass read outreach, things like that.
Speaker 1:Then, at the same time, I feel like we've been really, I mean, if it comes to like a smaller level, I feel like we have done a really good job of like, you know, outreach through Instagram, like our chapters individually, like we tell them, like, hey, like reach out to. You know, people are young, people are responding to their Instagram DMs more than they are their text message. So, like, dm them and reach out to them. It's easy to follow and to access those people. So, you know, go to the lips and softball Instagram and start messaging all those people. So I feel like, from a big, big level. You know it's like okay, reshareable content, trending content, things like that, but then it's also like we don't miss the like personal stuff, as well we've always been, really we've always made that a big priority to you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but once again, mac is better at social media than me, so she can speak up to this as well. Why am I talking about social media? I love it.
Speaker 2:You're just the tea up. You know, you're just getting ready.
Speaker 1:What is happening?
Speaker 3:Now I think one thing Ken's really is on me about, which I think is so important, is she's really good at consistency. Where I'm like go, I think, is that have to be on social media a lot.
Speaker 3:I can get like all in and I'm like, oh, like, I'm tired and burnt out on it, but I think it's really important to be consistent and how you show up on these platforms, and so I can say consistency is so important. You might not think it matters, but the more frequently you're showing up, the better. This is so interesting. But like one thing is I now. This is hilarious.
Speaker 3:I use this a lot, but I lead young life now in a high school nearby be and I learn a lot because so much of what delight is such on like a macro level, and now what I'm doing on a high school level is very micro and it's very like I'm actually talking to these kids and I'm trying to get to come to things. And one thing that I've noticed with our social media, with even our young life, is like we can post a post about like hey, come to this event, and you know it gets tiny bit of engagement. Yet if I post 10 pictures with all their faces in it and say come to this event, it is shared on every single one of their stories and they are interacting with it and they're engaging with it and so I think it's really important to pay attention to what do people engage with and whatever people engage with, just do all of that.
Speaker 3:Forget the like, traditional things that maybe even social media experts are telling you. Like what, what do people engage with on your church's Instagram and then keep doing that. Like don't try to be the other church and what's working for them, the mega church or whatever. Like what's working for for your specific profile, and then do a ton of that. Like Kens and I just pay attention to that. It's like okay, I'm not going to waste my time on these certain type of things if nobody cares about them. Like I'm going to put my energy and effort into things that people want to engage with and people are excited about.
Speaker 3:One of the things for Kens and I is like people love when we just get on our stories and take people along for our day and people engage and they respond and they message us and they love it. One thing on delight that I talked to our delight team a lot about is like clarity. I think this is so important. Like People need to know from our Instagram what delight is, and so you have to think about that. Like you have to think about what is the story that we're telling through social media? Like, because it's gotta be on the micro level of one post and it has to be on the macro level of your entire profile or your TikTok, and so I always like, want to invite people into a story that like where they can be transformed.
Speaker 3:So I talk a lot about and this is hilarious. My husband works for Storybrand too, so this infiltrates my mind. But problem solution a lot of like, hey, what is the problem that this person is facing and how is delight the solution for them? And how are we communicating that? Through every webpage on our website, through every post on our socials, through every TikTok, we post that like, hey, come and like, we want to walk with you, Like this community can be a part of the solution. That like is the problem, that like your heart is breaking for or whatever it is.
Speaker 3:And so that's a random spiel, but I've random spiel but, I think consistency is so important, I think doing what works, and then I would say clarity is really important too.
Speaker 2:Have you guys spent time like, like, producing social media content? Let you know, like thinking about, like, oh, we want to do this kind of real or this kind of like these kinds of stories, like has that been part of your strategy or has it all been kind of just like more on the fly taking pictures, jumping on live, like that kind of stuff Like what has worked? For you guys and how have you thought about those kind of things?
Speaker 3:I'll say for us real quick, ken and you jump on it. What is staged and like we spend a ton of money on and we spend a ton of it's like production, perfect value, high production value, flops. Every time it is Ken's and I with our iPhone taking a picture thrives. You know where we're like, engaged, we're putting an engaging caption, it's Ken's and I being goofy, it's whatever, and you can still have good aesthetics with being genuine, but it's just so much more relatable and more genuine when I think that the I think sometimes people think I got to go get a higher production company to record this reel, to launch my new sermon series or whatever. When I think sometimes just the pastor I don't even know, being goofy with a face to camera can work just as well.
Speaker 3:And I think that's where you can be more genuine and authentic. And Ken's and I, again, we pay attention to what works for us and we do a lot of that. So like we don't even live in the same city anymore. So when we get together in the same city, you know we have our phones out all day and it's kind of horrible, but we just crank out as much fun, goofy, serious content as we can, and we throw it in a Google drive or like our shared folder and that's what we're going to post for the next month and it kind of works for us.
Speaker 1:So sorry, ken's, it is simple for us, though I feel like a lot of people do overthink it and then they don't do anything with social media. And for us, I mean on just like a micro level, like we have a meeting every Monday and on that Monday meeting we plan out our socials for the week, including like everything, every social stuff, and it takes us literally five minutes probably to talk through it, and then we have our responsibilities and we just do it from there. And yeah, and then as far as like writing stuff or like heavier lifting things, like you know long captions or serious, you know stuff that we had to like really come up with, I will say we do a lot of repurposing there. Like we have a bunch of Bible studies that we've written over the years, some like just I mean over the last 10 years we have like content.
Speaker 1:And so we repurpose a lot of it. Like we have a book that's called For when I'm in my Fields and it's like short format, little devotionals, so we post that on Instagram all the time. Like we just do, we use that content from the book and just put it into captions and stuff, and so things like that are like really important.
Speaker 1:And then the other thing too if something like pops off, if something does, well, we'll just do it again six months later, like you can do the same thing again. Nobody's gonna know. Nobody, there's not gonna. I mean, if they do know, they might like think it in their head, but they're not gonna like start trolling. They're not gonna comment. I saw this six months ago.
Speaker 1:Maybe you know, or something like that, nobody cares, like, anyways, things like it's gonna reach more and more people and it's all to reach. Yeah, it's all to reach. But we already know that. Yeah, so keep it simple, be purpose, plan it quickly.
Speaker 2:I think it's really important, Right, right, and be consistent, like you said. Yeah, we could keep talking for you know forever. What would you say, I guess, kind of to wrap it up, Like to like people who aren't good at marketing, right, Like you're kind of just your normal folks doing ministry or doing church or whatever it might be. They're not good at marketing. Like what are some of the key things that you guys think like okay, like Dig in on this, like spend time over here.
Speaker 2:This is gonna have like the most bang for your buck, or this is where you can make the biggest difference with your marketing efforts.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, head back, I was gonna say I really think and we alluded to this earlier, talked about this earlier but find someone early on who does know marketing and not even someone who knows branding to help you establish a strong brand. And once you have the tools because they're gonna give you the tools then you just run with that and you keep showing up with that and you be yourself in that Like. I think sometimes there can be a lot of like looking to what other people are doing and thinking, okay, if we wanna have a good, strong church brand or whatever it is like, we need to look like elevation or we need to look like whatever X, y and Z.
Speaker 3:And I think once you have a strong, established brand, then you get to make that your own and you get to have fun with that and you get to be genuine and authentic within that, and so I think it's just really important to start out with what you need, which is finding someone who knows more than you and having them help you in the beginning, but then knowing that, like you don't need their help for forever, you don't need that high production value for forever.
Speaker 3:You can really kinda take those basics, have someone create you some canva templates and then you can run with that for a really long time and always like interspersed that really authentic content to you, and really authentic.
Speaker 3:I think that people really connect to personalities these days, and so it's really important to like involve that in whatever you're doing marketing-wise. And I guess not every brand has that same opportunity to do that. But even still, like can your brand have a personality? Because I feel like Delight has a personality and it's great, because then people are drawn towards that personality and they see themselves in it and they wanna be a part of that, and so I think that that for me, that's what I would say is like find an expert to help you get started with the basics and that foundation and then just build off of it and don't be afraid to mess it up, because you can't mess it up Like you really can't like just get in there and have fun with it. And I think for Ken and I, we just always said this has to be fun. If it's not fun, then let's not do it.
Speaker 3:And like and I know this is some people's jobs and maybe your boss would disagree, but I think that like but that's part of your brand.
Speaker 2:Like your brand, fun was part of you guys in the brand right. It's like who you are. So, you're like it's gotta be that. That's what it's called out.
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly. So, yeah, and I don't know, following up with that is just like the commitment to it. We already hinted at that. But I remember when we first launched even, I think the light took a little bit longer to like grow on socials and maybe it was just really organic at first and less like strategic. But then when we launched our other organization for the girl, that was like a quick launch, just like let's go after this, and I remember we got like probably like I don't know 20,000 followers in the first like few months and it was just through commitment, like, just like through literally being, like setting our mind to it, like, okay, we're gonna like really commit this.
Speaker 1:We want to see this grow. We want to see this reach people. We knew who we were after I mean, we've already talked about that Like we, you have to know who you're after. I mean before the girl, we were like we want to reach people who, like, don't really read their Bible or who, like, don't know the Lord. Okay, what people are doing Alex Earle's are. We want to do what Alex Earle, that girl we mentioned earlier, is doing, because then we will reach them.
Speaker 1:We just like copy what they do. There's people out there that are doing it really well already, so like copy. I mean we are maxed. You know we're not gonna like copy exactly what elevation is doing, but know your brand, know who you're after and if somebody is doing it well in that space, do a variation of that, you know they know what they're doing.
Speaker 1:There's so much access to like. I know nothing about marketing, but I've learned a lot through like, through, actually even like. My husband. He's a marketer and he watches YouTube videos all the time at home and I'll just sit down on the couch and like watch with them. I learned so much. I don't even know who these people are. I wish I could give them shout outs, but there's so much access to like. Some knowledge out there too. So like you can access that.
Speaker 3:And Ken's will try anything. That's one thing she pushes me in is she's like I'm like that won't work and she's like well, let's just try it, let's do it. And so then we try it and some things are flops and we're like, okay, we're never doing that again. And some things like oddly work for us and we're like, okay, great. So I think there has to be this like you can't be afraid to fail or to flop in what you try and what you do.
Speaker 1:It's again paying attention to what works, what resonates with people, and then do a ton of that and more of that, and I think the last thing I'll add too, frank, is just that, like I will say, especially delay outside of socials, outside of our email platform and all these things we've actually probably put equal, if not more, effort into the organic market too, like we, to this day, are like guys never missed it. Like you can like, we said, dm people on Instagram. It's still kind of on that level of like social media, but, gosh, we do so much like face to face personal outreach and are really strategic about that, like we just recently did. I guess this is also on the socials, but yeah, I don't know. We just recently did a campaign to like what, matt, were you gonna say something?
Speaker 3:Oh no, I was like I don't this.
Speaker 3:We reached out to every single one of our delight leaders and said, hey, if you give us a contact of a girl at another school who could potentially start a delight chapter, we'll send you a free coffee today.
Speaker 3:And you know, we got 300 new contacts that now we're then putting into our marketing funnels to try to like work and see what we can get there. And I just think that like again, to me that's being invitational, that's like saying, okay, we're gonna leave the comfort of our home to like invite you into this and then we're gonna pursue those people we talk about, pursue a lot into life, but we're gonna pursue those people, not just put out this blank statement and see if anybody shows up, but we're gonna be the ones to pursue and say, hey, we care whether you show up to this or not. And I think people read into that too. So when you're thinking about marketing for a church, it's not just putting out this wide, this wide, come one, come all, but saying hey, no, no, no, we want you here and we care about whether you come or not and we're gonna keep inviting you, even if you turn us down 12 times.
Speaker 1:We're gonna keep inviting you Just sometimes people rely too much on like a post to pop off when you need to like actually do some personal outreach there as well.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, no, I mean, you guys have a purpose Like you want to like on more campuses and so you want to reach more women who could be great leaders on campuses. And so you're like it's like in the marketing world, right, like it's lead gen you did a great campaign to go get more leads of women who could be great leaders on campuses, right, but it's all with a purpose, like it's marketing and it is like lead gen to drum up more potential people that could do it. But it's like it's all done with like a big purpose behind it, right, and like that's where you want churches and ministries and everybody to not think about marketing as like it's this weird kind of icky thing. It's like, no, we're trying to like make an impact in the world and what we're doing is reaching more people and getting more ministry happening on campuses and reaching more women, like that's all good stuff. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2:So, you want churches to think that way, Like, how do I, how do we use social, how do we use content, how do I do the more personal outreach that's, you know like I mean that's even like invite a friend, like get your, you know that kind of stuff where you're like, hey, invite a friend, get them on the email list, and then the church will do some email marketing, Like there's just all kinds of ways to do it.
Speaker 2:So I love what you guys have put together and just how you're doing it and how you're purposeful behind it and fun and the brand is awesome. And I also love when you're just like watch what other people are doing, like there's people out there doing great stuff and it may not be aligned right In terms of, like what we're trying to, the impact we're trying to make and how we're trying to influence people. For you know, for Jesus, but you can learn from what they're doing and why it's reaching people and then figure out how do you take that and apply it into the faith context?
Speaker 1:So yeah, absolutely yeah. Our entire email list for the girl came from a quiz we did about your dating life. So you know some, you know what's your dating personality that talk about Legion. So there's just so many creative ways that you could do it to reach more people.
Speaker 2:It's kind of fun, I mean, if we're gonna have to wrap this.
Speaker 1:No, we have to.
Speaker 2:We probably all have things to go do right now, but we could have a third episode on Legion and we can go Legion.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we're passionate about that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, you guys rock. Thanks for coming on again. Where should folks go to check out Delight and For the Girl?
Speaker 1:Oh, so you can go to at Delight Ministries on Instagram or at, for the Girl underscore, underscore, underscore on Instagram, and then, yeah, on our website. It's either one.
Speaker 2:Love it, love it, yep. Well, you guys rock. Thanks for coming on again and thanks everyone for listening. We'll catch you next time on another episode of Modern Church Leader. See ya.