The book has been on my office shelf for a couple of decades. I remember hearing from the author at a regional gathering of Christians in media. Roy Williams has been a fixture in the marketing world for decades. The book that caught my attention the other day was Secret Formulas of the Wizard of Ads.

As I grabbed the book off my bookcase, I noticed a card I had placed there some years back…and it led me to an intriguing thought. Let me paraphrase it for us in Christian media.

“Think about the people who don’t listen to (or watch) your station. Do they not listen because they don’t know about you…or because they do know about you?”

The first part of the problem may be due to poor marketing. The second part of the problem may be because of poor imaging or branding. Or poor execution. Or poor content. There is a big difference between the two problems.

And we can easily get into the “which came first, the chicken or the egg” issue. Can you effectively market a product that will not keep the listener or viewer coming back? And can you invest in producing quality programming if you don’t have an audience?

Here’s my suggestion: Pray. Then set high standards for all your programing. If your station or ministry carries programs from outside sources, ask yourself…do these programs come up to our station’s standards? If not, tell them. When I managed a Christian radio station, there were times we had to contact the program producers of a ministry we carried to tell them that while their content was fine, their broadcast didn’t come up to our technical standards. What I usually heard was, “No one else has said anything about the quality.” We set a high standard, and our listeners came to expect that.

Of course, the saying holds true: Content is king. But quality is part of the content, too. In fact, most folks make their decision to listen or watch a program in the first few seconds. The depth of your content is not the initial determining factor. It is the quality of the program…and the sense the listener or viewer has that there is something there for them.

I grew up on the era of records and record players. And inevitably, the vinyl record would get scratched. That click was there from then on. If we really liked the song or album, we listened anyway. That is rarely true today. Those distractions can cause a person to miss something powerful and meaningful. If your audience is tuning out, then your ministry is suffering.

Roy Williams, in the short piece I read, talked about “The World Outside Your Door.” In other words, how others perceive you and your ministry. That’s why branding is so important. That’s why consistency is so important. And that is why simplicity is often the best path to follow when presenting your ministry. That doesn’t mean things are reduced to simplistic thoughts or presentations. John Maxwell explains the value of simplicity:

“It may seem counterintuitive, but if you want to take your communication to the next level, don’t try to dazzle people with your intellect or overpower them with information. Give them clarity and simplicity.”

I often think of Jesus’ parables. They were short. They were simple in their presentation. They had one main point. They were about something His audience could relate to. His topics revolved around the everyday things of life. Lighting your home. Drawing water. Building your house. Planting and harvesting. The people heard something and quickly could realize, “There is something here for me.”

So… what can you do today to make sure people know what your ministry is about, that will cause them to want to listen or watch…and stay tuned in? The impact of your ministry may depend on what you do today.

God’s best…