Niche marketing is a big deal. It’s a way to get people to buy your product over another company’s by specializing. You don’t have to be the overall best, you just have to be the best for this niche. You’re probably aware of Church niche (and sub-niches within the church niche) but I want to warn you to be careful and critical of some of these offerings.
When It All Works Out
Of course, when someone does a niche product well everyone benefits. The company has customers, the customers are satisfied because their specific needs are met better than a default offering and even other companies who operate in different niches can benefit as they are free to specialize in their own group and not worry about complaints from that niche.
So church specific offerings can be fantastic.
“For Church” in Name Only
The most significant issues I’ve noticed is when there are tools which are specific for churches in name only. They promise that their tools will help deal with the problems that churches have but look much the same as non-church specific tools.
“We understand what churches need.”
This statement is one that I’ve often seen, but it doesn’t always result in any noticeable difference. Now for a service provider that still means that this provider has value but for something like a WordPress theme, a streaming provider or other tool, if their understanding doesn’t show any tangible difference in offering then what does it matter?
It’s easy to say you know what churches need; it’s much harder to show a tangible difference.
Non-Christians who don’t get the church
On the other hand, I’ve also seen non-Christians who clearly don’t get what churches and Christians do or need. Sometimes they treat churches like businesses and use some out of context bible verses to show they speak our language.
This is often reflected in their products and services as well. They misunderstand our needs and create ineffective products.
Sometimes a Generic Solution Is Best
It’s true, sometimes a standard product rather than a church niche product is just as good. Just as you don’t need a “church specific screwdriver” (unless your church has a very specific screw) you might not need a church specific streaming tool or website theme. Some of these do offer great extras and are worth it, but not all of them are.
Scott Magdalein says
Saw a “church project management tool” one time that looked exactly like a shared to-do list. Nothing church-specific about it at all.
Chris Wilson says
Haven’t seen that but it doesn’t surprise me. I’ve been thinking more about this since I wrote the post and I do wonder if in some cases it’s just really really poor marketing where they don’t explain their specialized features…(I suspect this is the minority).