Somewhere out there is someone who can use your product or service to solve their problems. But without marketing, there is no chance for this person to find your business.
Most Christian business owners leave the marketing to their staff and generally attend to the operations side of the business. Marketing is very important to your business because that is how people will generally get to know your company.
You have to set the tone and be the guiding hand when it comes to marketing principles that your company abides in. There is so much marketing advice out there but so few provide the Christian perspective.
Hopefully, you will find this helpful as you build your Christian business.
Here are seven Biblical principles that you should apply to your marketing:
1. Always communicate in Truth
“The truth shall set you free,” said Jesus in John 8:32.
Jesus also said he is the Truth (John 14:6). Truth matters in a very big way in our testimony. We cannot separate the truth from our identity in Christ because Jesus is the Truth.
The truth should be reflected in how you market your products and services to people. A lot of companies make unsubstantiated claims just to make people buy. All you need to do is go online, You will soon be bombarded by ads about instant weight loss, miracle cures, making passive income online, and a lot more.
Differentiate your marketing as a Christian business owner. Don’t lie or pitch too hard that the truth is erased. Don’t make a claim you can’t prove. For instance, if you’re selling health supplements make sure that you abide by the rules of the Food and Drug Administration. There should be a “no approved therapeutic claim” disclaimer clearly labeled.
Marketers are notorious for making outrageous and misleading claims in their ads. The Federal Trade Commission and consumer groups regularly sue companies for false advertising and marketing. New Balance, Wrigley, Philip Morris, Kellog, and Sketchers, paid millions to settle false advertising claims. Volkswagen is still paying billions for cheating carbon emissions reading in the car computers.
Sit down with your marketing teams and lay down the guidelines for them to follow. Don’t forget to measure each marketing plan against the guidelines. Strike out any messaging that you think stretches or plays loose with the truth.
2. Apply the Golden Rule
“Do to others as you would have them to do to you” (Luke 6:27; Matthew 7:12).
Nothing impacts our perspective than switching shoes with the other person. That’s what the Golden Rule does. As laid out by Jesus, it’s a proactive and positive way to see things from a different point of view.
Just ask yourself if you’ll be a satisfied customer after doing business with your company. Don’t sell a product that you wouldn’t buy yourself. There are a lot of products out there that should not be out there. Weight loss products are notorious for not delivering what they promised. Conditions are hidden in the fine prints that customers only find out when it’s too late.
The country is being flooded by cheaply made products from overseas. Not only do they leave a wake of unsatisfied and even angry customers. These cheap imports also drive a lot of local entrepreneurs out of business.
How about your service? Will you be delighted as a customer of your service? Mechanics, technicians, plumbers, and electricians are a few examples. They are under pressure from their employers to do their job as quickly and as cheaply as possible to bolster their margins. They are pushed to recommend unneeded upsells, expensive materials, and costly repairs.
You will always do a good job if you were fixing your own car or house. Think of each job as if it was your property. You’d be doing an excellent job, methinks.
The best thing about good products and services is that they tend to market themselves. Think of all the delighted customers that will be giving your business great reviews on your website or social media pages.
Don’t be shy to request a review on your social media page or website. Ask if they would be willing to recommend your business to their friends. Word-of-mouth is the most powerful form of marketing.
That’s how the Golden Rule works. It doesn’t only apply to interpersonal relationships it applies to your business as well.
3. Weights and measures
“Do not have two differing weights in your bag—one heavy, one light. Do not have two differing measures in your house—one large, one small. You must have accurate and honest weights and measures, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you. For the Lord, your God detests anyone who does these things, anyone who deals dishonestly.” (Deuteronomy 25:13–16)
I understand that having an awesome photo of your product is very important. Take food photography for example. It’s vital that it must look absolutely delicious so that you can just grab the picture and take a bite. That’s the expectation. But the reality is that the two-pound burger you ordered isn’t anywhere near the photo in the ads that you just saw.
Christians are set against a different standard than the rest of the world. You must be totally honest with the quality of your product, services, or contract. Underweight, substandard, misrepresented and lousy services are wrong. In some cases, it’s criminal.
A Christian business owner must be totally honest with the quality of his product or services and price if fairly. To advertise or market a product as having high quality when it is a lemon is a “dishonest weight.” Same with offering services, with a lot of shady terms in the fine print, is a “dishonest measure.”
4. Love
“Love is patient. Love is kind. It does not envy. It does not boast.” 1 Corinthian 13:4-8
With all the negative things that are happening in society right now, we could use more positivity in our marketing. Most secular marketing relies on pleasure, power, and position to sell their products. Some even rely on fear. This is not how a Christian business owner should do marketing.
There is no more positive message than the message of love. Particularly how love is defined in the Bible. Apostle Paul in the verse above gives a precise definition of love. That’s should be the message of love in your marketing.
God not only defined love in His Word, but He also demonstrated it in John 3:16,” For God so loved the world, the He gave His only Son so that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.”
The world defines love by twisting it. Learning to love ourselves is how the world defines love. Then go out and demand that love from others. That’s Satan right there speaking. Enticing the world with this twisted definition of love.
A lot of marketing caters to the so-called political correctness. Just because it’s called politically correct doesn’t mean it’s right. Take the case of pro-choice which hides the fact that babies are being murdered. Equal rights radicals who don’t think about the right of the storeowners whose business they loot and burndown.
Jesus said in Matthew 19:4-5, “the Creator made them male and female… and the two will become one flesh.” That’s a direct rebuke to same-sex marriage proponents who justify their cause in the name of love as per their definition.
Biblical love is only one message you can relay among others. There is also hope, honesty, loyalty, and many other positive messages from the Bible.
5. Family
“Friends love all the time, and kinsfolk are born for times of trouble.” — Proverbs 17:17
Family is where God-man, man-woman, and parent-children relationships can be lovingly expressed. But just like anything else that God created, the devil will seek to destroy. The institution of family is under more attack now than at any point in history.
These attacks are unrelenting in popular culture. There are websites that promote extra-marital affairs. Movies and TV shows that preach an LGBTQA+ lifestyle. Countries left and right are legalizing same-sex marriages.
How about giving families everywhere a boost by marketing your products or services through traditional family values?
A father enjoying dinner with the family instead of having a night out with the boys. Mom teaching the family recipe to her daughter. The whole family is out in the park just enjoying an old-fashioned picnic. When was the last time you saw such ads on the TV, much more on the Internet?
Instead of copying how the world does marketing, you can stand out by going in the opposite direction. If your product or service can solve a problem while conveying a family-friendly message you can differentiate your brand.
6. Fairness
“…brothers: even with a man-made covenant, no one annuls it or adds to it once it has been ratified” Galatians 3:15.
We live in a very litigious society. In the US, each year around 100 million cases are filed in the state trial courts and 400,000 cases in federal courts. Almost 2.9 million are civil cases and is rising by 16 percent.
Any service-type businesses have a ready commercial contract reviewed by the lawyers. Christian business owners should have a contract that is fair and just to all concerned. No sneaky clauses that trap the customers or place them on the losing end of the rope.
Don’t insert ever-green or auto-renew clauses in your contract. Don’t hide your terms behind fine print. Explain each section of the contract clearly to the customer before they sign the dotted line. You may want to go over the warranty section at least twice just so it is clear to the customer.
Some businesses are just glad to deliver what their contracts states. Christian business owners should make it a point to over-deliver in order to delight their customers. Throw in a free body or engine wash if you’re in the auto repair shop business. Plumbers and electricians can give free consultations and job estimates, or even minor repairs if you spot some small fixers while doing the job
You can market your services as having the fairest and most transparent contract in the market. Reliable and trustworthy contractors are never in abundance. Word spreads quickly, especially in small markets
7. Fair Value
“You shall pay your neighbor according to the number of years after the jubilee, and he shall sell to you according to the number of years for crops. If the years are many, you shall increase the price, and if the years are few, you shall reduce the price, for it is the number of the crops that he is selling to you” (Leviticus 25:15-16).
The Bible is talking about giving fair value because the land goes back to the owner in the seventh year of the Jubilee. The farther the Jubilee is, the more crops you can harvest so you must price it accordingly.
Pricing our services at a fair value is how God wants us to conduct business. Monopolies or competition can artificially inflate or deflate market prices. Christian business owners are to go by what’s the fair value. It doesn’t matter if you’re the only one who has the stocks in 100 miles.
Our free economy is prone to predatory pricing. For example, farmers often have their profits bleed out by greedy middlemen who buy below market price when there’s a glut in supply. These same middlemen hold on to their stocks to artificially inflate retail prices so that they can sell at windfall profits. It’s a double whammy for the guy at the bottom by being forced to sell at a loss and then find his dollar is able to buy less at the local grocery.
As Christians, we are not to take advantage of others whether we are selling or buying. Do not sell at exorbitant prices well above your costs and do not buy below what you know is the production cost from suppliers.
Trust God to take care of your business. “Whatsoever you do to the least of your brothers and sisters, you do unto me,” says the Lord Jesus (Matthew 25:40).
Final Thoughts
We are called to separate ourselves from the world. This includes Christian business owners.
“Come out from them and be separate “(2 Corinthians 6:17). We are not here on earth to make money, that’s what the world does.
We are here to make a difference. Money can be one of our tools, but it is never at the expense of your Christian testimony.
