Christian College Marketing

Marketing of Christian colleges is a nuanced art. It requires a sensitive touch and storytelling that answers two big questions. The first one is a burning question that haunts all of us at some deeper level: how do we reconcile Scriptures/faith with modernity? The second question is an institutional one: how can we define our flavor of Christianity that is narrow enough to attract the right-fit Christians and broad enough to attract other denominations and people of different faiths from around the world?

If you survey Christian college websites, you will see a few flavors of treatments:

(a) Address perfect-fits, but ignore others.
(b) Beyond the logo and tag lines, don’t address Christianity at all.
(c) Caricaturize the college’s flavor of Christianity by leaning on a picture of their beautiful chapel.
(d) Mention the Christian roots only in the history of the college.

You will be hard-pressed to find instances of colleges that are comfortable unapologetically embracing the roots of their faith, reconciling faith with modernity and defining an inclusive definition of Christianity.

Our team at Elliance excels at taking these tough issues head-on. To see some wonderful examples where we struck just the right balance, check out the websites we have built for St. Edward’s University, St. Norbert College, Duquesne University MBA Sustainability, Appalachian Bible College and Pepperdine University, Graziadio School of Business.

You might be wondering about the secret behind the success Elliance has had in marketing of Christian colleges. In a nutshell, it’s our talented team. I have attracted a group of seekers trying to reconcile their own faiths with modern values. They are active citizens living engaged, faith-inspired, contemporary lives. Full credit goes to them for creating wonderfully nuanced experiences for Christian schools.

As a man of faith myself who was raised at the midpoint of tradition and modernity, who enjoys both Jung and algorithms, loves science as much as art, appreciates the visible and the invisible, my contribution has been to create a psychologically safe environment where people feel comfortable deepening their personal faiths while leaning into differences with others.

If you have examples of websites that do a wonderful job of marketing of Christian colleges and universities, I would love to hear from you.

Learn more about our higher education marketing services.