While marketing is often thought of as advertising or self-promotion with the purpose of selling a product or service, and some have an even lesser view of marketing (Read target="_blank">Is Marketing Evil?), in a broader sense marketing is everything an organization does to reach out to people who can benefit from what that organization does.

Every organization – whether it’s a church, a school, a non-profit ministry, or a for-profit business – exists to serve people. Every organization wants to reach out to the people who it can serve. Therefore, effective marketing can help every organization grow, serve more people, and have a greater impact.

May is Marketing Month at OurChurch.Com. We’re focusing this month on helping not just for-profit Christian business but also helping churches, schools, and ministries get the word out about what they’re doing and connect with the people they can serve. At OCC we believe marketing is not about hype, false impressions, manipulation and pressure, but rather communicating authentically and effectively and getting your website listed at the top of search engines and directories so that people who are already looking for an organization like yours can find you.

1) Free Search Engine Registration
What good is great website if nobody can find it, right? Unfortunately, churches and Christian ministries usually don’t give much thought to making sure people can find their websites in search engines. Have you? OurChurch.Com is the leading provider of search registration and search engine optimization services to Christian organizations. This month we want to see as many Christian organizations as possible take steps to make their websites more visible in search engines, so we're providing 3 opportunties for you to receive free search registration services.

• Get our Major Search Engine Registration (Google, Yahoo, MSN, etc) for free when you purchase the Christian Search Engine Registration service (which will get your site listed in about 50 Christian search engines).
• B. Get both the Christian Search Engine Registration and Major Search Engine Registration services free when you purchase our Guaranteed Search Ranking service.
• C. Get both the Christian Search Engine Registration and Major Search Engine Registration services free when you purchase our SEO (Search Engine Optimization) Management service.

2) New Church Marketing Online Blog
Last month OurChurch.Com launched a brand new site dedicated to helping Churches reach people in their communities online. Most people looking for a new church start their search online. (Read How People Find a New Church) If your church wants reach these people, it’s important that your church website be at the top of the search engines. The Church Marketing Online blog helps pastors and church leaders better understand search engines and how to use them to reach people in their community.

3) Top Church Search Rankings - No Set-Up Fee!
OCC's Top Church Search Rankings service can put your church's website at the top of Google, Yahoo, MSN, and Ask! Just read the case studies and see for yourself. Right now we're waiving the $399 set-up fee on this new service.

4) Learn and Discuss Marketing
One of the great things about online marketing is that you don’t have to spend a lot of money to get the word out about your organization if – and this is a big if – if you know what you're doing. In May we’ll be focusing the articles in our Christian Web Trends blog on marketing issues. We also hope you’ll join us in the OurChurch.Com Marketing Forum to discuss marketing ideas and issues. Have you got questions about marketing? Got a marketing idea you want to run by other Christian webmasters? The marketing forum is the place to talk about it.