Mar 23, 2023
Strategize your
ministry impact
like David at war
"…from Issachar, men who understood the times
and knew what Israel should do..."
1 Chr 12:32
"…from Issachar, men who understood the times and knew what Israel should do..."
1 Chr 12:32
See how
How do ministries successfully multiply impact?
They stay relevant because they understand
the times, and engage effectively because
they know what needs to be done.
They stay relevant because they understand the times, and engage effectively because they know what needs to be done.
About Cornerstone
Introducing our modular marketing program
for ministries to build marketing plans with
strong foundations and smart campaigns
Introducing our modular marketing program for ministries to build marketing plans with strong foundations and smart campaigns
Bart Rendel
President & Co-founder
40 Parables has built an incredible process with CornerStone. If you follow their guidance, they will leave no stone unturned when it comes to your core business, brand personality, and buyer journey.
We have worked with others who want to take short-cuts when it comes to clarity. Kurian and his team take no such shortcuts.
The results are a rock solid marketing plan that all but guarantees success. We are ready to equip the church like never before because of our partnership.
The Building Blocks
Brand
Strategy
Brand Strategy
Develop a strong marketing foundation strategy that your brand can build off.
Develop a strong marketing foundation strategy that your brand can build off.
People &
Programs
People & Programs
Segment, target, and personify them
easily with our positioning tools.
Segment, target, and personify them easily with our positioning tools.
Brand
Engagement
Brand Engagement
Unleash your inner brand personality
with our brand strategy workshops.
Unleash your inner brand personality with our brand strategy workshops.
Harvest
Hour
Harvest Hour
Deploy your custom-built marketing
plan that maximizes engagement.
Deploy your custom-built marketing plan that maximizes engagement.
How It Works
Intuitive Exercises
Workshops
Gamified Tools
Conversations
CornerStone is a highly intensive modular marketing program
that runs from 2 days to 2 months and establishes your
positioning, brand strategy, and campaign roadmap.
CornerStone is a highly intensive modular marketing program that runs from 2 days to 2 months and establishes your positioning, brand strategy, and campaign roadmap.
Strategic Steps
Step 1
Kicking off with
pre-work review
Step 3
Strategizing
your prospects
Step 5
Shaping your
program portfolio
Step 7
Creating your
marketing strategy
Step 2
Aligning vision
and direction
Step 4
Curating your
prospect pathways
Step 6
Building your
brand strategy
Step 8
Delivering your
marketing plan
Strategic Steps
Step 1
Kicking off with pre-work review
Step 2
Aligning vision and direction
Step 3
Strategizing your prospects
Step 4
Curating your prospect pathways
Step 5
Shaping your program portfolio
Step 6
Building your brand strategy
Step 7
Creating your marketing strategy
Step 8
Delivering your marketing plan
Activity Flow
Positioning
Golden Pyramid
Problem Priority Matrix
Audience Segmentation
Program Portfolio
Persona Building
Branding
Brand Messaging
Reputation & Emotion
Brand Personality
Voice & Tone
Brand Values
Go-to-market
Buyer Journey & Funnels
Website Strategy
Acquisition Pipeline
Nurture Sequence
Analytics Dashboard
Fernando Ramirez
CTC Business Manager
40 Parables didn’t just build our website and email automation. They asked the required questions that challenged our thinking, shaped our marketing strategy, and cemented our launch plans.
We went to 40 Parables as a client and came away as a friend and partner.
Frequently Asked
Questions
Frequently Asked Questions
Audience
Program
Participation
CornerStone is ideally meant for ministries and Christian organizations that are very serious about strengthening and scaling their marketing efforts.
It provides a solid foundation for those who want successful marketing campaigns and excellent executional templates for their ministry.
CornerStone’s tangible solutions are what ministries need, especially at a time like this when they are seeking help to be more relevant because of COVID-19.
No, CornerStone is not just for ministries, but also for Christian brands, organizations, and businesses. Because of our raison d’être, we focus on those who focus on the Great Commission.
At this point, CornerStone is not tailored for churches.
If your ministry or Christian organization is not getting the marketing results that you were hoping for or pursuing, you should definitely consider CornerStone.
CornerStone lays out the foundation for your ministry marketing to excel.
If you are trying to figure out where your marketing is going wrong, CornerStone will reveal that for you and help you fix it as you strengthen and scale your marketing efforts.
Just like the wise man who built his house upon a rock, CornerStone ensures that your marketing has a very strong foundation.
For those who don’t have a strong marketing foundation, participating in CornerStone can help them avoid losing their marketing effectiveness.
We don’t build homes without an architect initially creating a plan and blueprint. Similarly, running digital marketing campaigns without a strategic marketing foundation is like building a deck of cards.
Apart from the possibility of collapsing at any moment, such a campaign will be difficult to track and trace.
No, CornerStone is not similar to StratOp. While StratOp is aimed at strategic operations, CornerStone is aimed at strategic marketing.
There is no area of overlap between these two streams of service, although they both share underlying planning principles.
If your marketing campaigns are struggling to justify the ROI, or you’re not able to meet your goals, it could often be due to a weak marketing foundation or the absence of a detailed action plan that can be measured for effectiveness.
The ROI for a strong marketing foundation can be justified in 3 ways:
1. CornerStone will help you know the real scope, impact, and cost of your marketing efforts, and even let you decide if you want to pursue them.
2. CornerStone will help you track your results better so that you know where your money is being well-spent and where it’s not.
3. CornerStone will strengthen the quality of your marketing as you try to stay unique in a very crowded ministry space.
No, there is no eligibility criteria. You can join CornerStone as long as you have the budget and the manpower for it.
We strongly recommend a team of 3–6 people including the CEO, the person who’s responsible for marketing, and at least 1 board member.
The presence of these leaders is key to the program’s success. As we will be strategically thinking and potentially shaping the future marketing direction of your brand, it is important that they are all in alignment.
CornerStone runs anywhere between 3 weeks to 3 months, depending on which aspects of strategic marketing services you choose to work on.
Different ministries are at different stages of building strong marketing foundations for themselves with the help of CornerStone.
For some ministries that have gone through the whole process with us, we also serve at the execution level to take these marketing plans to fruition.
CornerStone helps to shape and strengthen a strategic marketing plan that lets you build your execution with excellence in a measurable manner.
It creates a wholesome marketing strategy, which ties back to the overall goal and can be easily understood by anyone in the organization from a board member to a marketing executive.
Having a strong foundation with CornerStone today puts you in a position where you would only need to marginally tweak it for the times ahead versus having to build it for the future.
If you already have an in-house marketing team, yes, you do need them to participate in CornerStone.
However, if you are starting a new ministry or a new division in your ministry, and don’t have an in-house marketing team yet, we would need the head of the organization and at least 1 board member to take part.
Yes, we have different options across positioning, branding, and launching marketing campaigns. Depending on what is a good fit for your brand, we can figure out the smaller or more appropriate alternatives.
Click here to take our diagnostic test to see which aspects of your marketing are strong enough and which ones need to be strengthened. This will give you an idea of what is a good fit for you.
As a first step, click here to take our diagnostic test to see which aspects of your marketing are strong and which ones need strengthening. This will give you a fair idea of what is a good fit for you.
Depending on which aspects of marketing need to be strengthened further, we will give you a custom quote as to how CornerStone can help your brand with strategic marketing.
CornerStone is a modular marketing program that uses interactive sessions, exercises, workshops, and conversations to understand and unleash your ministry’s marketing.
CornerStone audits and analyzes your marketing, shapes the direction of your marketing future, and lays out executional plans for you to take action right away.
CornerStone is always both offline and online. We strongly insist on having in-person workshops along with online exercises.
Due to COVID-19, we have temporarily restricted our engagement to online exercises, but CornerStone will soon revert to its offline and online combination.
For CornerStone to really work, we need the CEO, the head of marketing, and at least 1 board member to be present for all sessions.
Their participation is important because they need to be in alignment as we shape the direction of marketing for the brand.
In addition to these 3 key people, you can bring in up to 3 more team members.
Yes, your team has to be the same for all sessions. That’s because we will be building a marketing plan across multiple meetings and sessions through the course of weeks and maybe months.
The sessions will also take each person’s input and offer a chance for it to be incorporated in the marketing plan. Therefore, it is important for the same people to be there for all sessions.
CornerStone has 4 modules that comprise various activities including intuitive exercises, workshops, and in-depth conversations.
1. Discovery
The first module is about deciphering the why, what, and how of your brand through data audit, explore conversations, and peer research.
These kickoff sessions will help us understand your brand, your customers, and your competitors, and lay out the direction of the program.
2. Positioning
In this module, we will define your brand’s long-term goals using imaginative exercises and streamline your offerings with a program portfolio activity.
Segmentation and personification exercises to identify and understand your audience will also help you secure a unique market position.
3. Brand Strategy
This module includes 6 exercises that will help you flesh out your brand’s core values, shape its personality, and define how it is perceived.
These exercises will also help you define your messaging and communication, and evaluate how your brand can position itself against its competition.
4. Go-To-Market
In this module, we will build a marketing strategy that is tailored to your brand’s needs. We will also build detailed buyer journeys and multiple funnels for prospect engagement.
It will also include detailed strategies for acquisition, website, engagement, automation, and analytics.
CornerStone’s goal is to create a marketing foundation. So, by default, CornerStone will not execute the marketing plans.
However, for organizations that work with CornerStone to build their marketing foundations, we are open to executing the marketing campaigns or connecting them with other marketing partners who will handle the execution for them.
When your participation in CornerStone is completed, you will get a documented online marketing plan that you work off online and also print and share with your team offline.
This plan will cover all aspects of your marketing and be comprehensive enough for your execution to be built off it and to be tracked alongside for the future.
If you so desire, 40 Parables will execute the marketing campaign or connect you with other marketing partners who will assist you with the execution.
