Branded Words

On the East Acres Homestead, we have two livestock guardian dogs, Caesar and Augustus (Gus). Caesar and Gus are amazing at their jobs. They do things we haven’t trained them to do like warn our goats about coyotes or chase hawks away from the chickens. That said, Caesar and Gus are still young. Sometimes one of them will get excited and do something against the rules, like chase a chicken (it’s usually Gus 🙄). So we have to yell at them. With just our voices, we’re able to influence their behavior from a distance. Keep in mind that we’ve spent almost no time training them. Yet they stop and sit instantly when we take a stern tone of voice. Here’s the thing: Tone of voice can communicate a lot of information and influence behavior. You probably aren’t yelling at people with a stern voice, but have you thought about what your tone actually is when it comes to your church communications? If you don’t know what your brand’s tone of voice should be, you’re probably not using it effectively.

Marshall McLuhan was a Canadian communication theorist who coined the phrase, “The medium is the message.” In other words: how you choose to say something changes what your audience walks away with. McLuhan’s point was that each medium doesn’t just deliver your message - it shapes it and sends unspoken signals like: The value you place on the relationship How urgent or serious something is How you want to be perceived Let’s look at an example. Sending a text message says, “I want to be quick and efficient.” A phone call says, “This is personal.” The words exchanged can be the same, but the vibe of that medium changes what message actually gets received. Effective branding is effective communication, so it’s important to understand this idea! Here are a few church-specific examples: Animated sermon graphics say, “We care about looking fresh and young.” A church-wide email newsletter says, “We expect our members to stay informed.” Hand-written note cards from a pastor or staff member say, “You are known and cared for.” You have core ideas and feelings about your church that you want your congregation and community to “get.” The medium can either supercharge or neutralize the power of those ideas. If they’re not getting it, you might want to find a different way of presenting it.

Messaging might be the trickiest part of brand-building, but it’s also the most important. While you want to stay consistent over time, there are ways to evaluate, tweak, and test your messaging so that it doesn’t become stale. Today, I want to look at the five steps that branding experts use for messaging refinement and apply it to a church context. By the end, you should have a good idea of how to make messaging adjustments (and if you need to at all). 1. Clarify the Core Ask yourself: “What exactly are our distinctives, and are they stated in a way people actually remember and repeat?” Here’s a practical test: Ask 5-10 people (leaders, members, new attendees) to describe the church’s mission/values in their own words. If responses vary widely or miss the mark, your messaging might lack clarity or memorability. 2. Dual-Audience Check I've written before about how church communication is unique because you have two audiences: a congregation and a community. Because of this, you need a way to evaluate your messaging with each. Congregation Filter: Does our messaging reflect the lived experience of our members? Do they feel seen and represented in our voice and values? Use quick polls, post-service questions, or a digital survey to find out. Community Filter: Would someone unfamiliar with church language understand and connect with this? Use the “Unchurched Neighbor Test”: Could someone not part of the church understand what you’re about from your website, signage, or social media? 3. Content Consistency Audit Review 3 to 5 pieces of existing content you’ve published in the past. These can be things like your website homepage, social media bio, flyer, sermon intro, or email footer. Are our distinctives clearly communicated here? Is the tone consistent and reflective of who we are? Is this memorable, clear, and people-centered… or is it vague and insider-focused? I recommend creating a simple scoring scale (1 - 5) so you can easily compare and evaluate each piece of content. 4. Decide on the Level of Tweak Needed Use this matrix to figure out how much you might need to adjust course with your church's brand messaging: 5. Small-Scale Testing It’s nerve-racking, but there’s no better way than real-world testing to know if you’ve made a meaningful change. Try your adjusted tagline, mission statement phrasing, or value summary in a few formats (social post, bulletin blurb, sermon series). Then, watch for engagement and organic adoption by your congregation. If people start using your new language on their own, you’re on the right track.

Got a website for your church but it’s missing that extra-clean, professional look? I’ve got four tips for you today that are guaranteed to make it better. If you do these things, your web visitors will have an easier time finding what they’re looking for and you’ll have more people walking through your church’s digital front door. 1. Be Selective with Content The more different pieces of content there are on your site, the less likely visitors are to read any of it. Reduce the amount of information you’re presenting and cut any text that isn’t absolutely necessary. Pro tip: write as if you’re explaining your church to a total stranger at a 4th grade reading level. Here are a few practical ways to slice and dice: Headings should be between 1-10 words Paragraphs should be less than 50 words Use bulleted lists instead of sentences with commas 2. Increase Font Sizes If your content has been distilled to follow the word counts above, you’ll be able to bump up the size of your headings and body copy. This makes the site easier to skim, and helps older readers who might struggle with small text. I recommend 20-25px for body text, and 48-72px for your largest heading. 3. Provide a Clear Call to Action If someone happens to land on your website, you want to give them a clear next step, just like you would for a visitor who to your church on Sunday morning. Whether that’s filling out a digital connection card or watching your service livestream, make sure that there is a stand-out action someone can take, and that each button says exactly what it does. Pro tip: Avoid links and buttons that say like “Learn More” or “Click Here.” Instead, use labels that are specific and tell the user what to expect when they click that particular button. 4. Prioritize Menu Items Just like cutting down text, you also want to reduce the number of options you’re presenting to visitors. I’m working on a website refresh right now with an organization whose old website had FIFTY FIVE different links in the main menu. The decision paralysis and brainpower it takes to find what you’re looking for can get overwhelming very fast. Try to limit your main menu to 5 options or less. You can always link to additional pages from one of those main pages, but this approach keeps everything organized and easy to navigate.

I recently had the privilege of meeting Dr. Michael Reeves, Author, Professor, and President at the Union School of Theology in the UK. He had just finished speaking at an event, and I knew I had to ask him for any encouragement or advice he could give to you lovely people in the Tend Your Brand family. He was gracious enough to think my question over and offered an amazing reply. Here’s what he said: Braden: What advice or encouragement can you give to church leaders who are trying to better communicate their vision and galvanize their congregations? Dr. Reeves: I’m reminded of what Jesus said, “Out of the heart the mouth speaks.” If you don’t believe in your vision, your congregation won’t believe in it either. If you’re bored with your message, the people you speak to will sense that lack of conviction. Seek God’s guidance sincerely and ask him for the conviction and resolve to preach your message with full-throated zeal. So there you go. I don’t feel like I can say it any better than he did, so I’ll leave it there. Hopefully his wisdom was encouraging and re-centering for you. P.S. It felt too much like paparazzi at the time, so I didn’t get a photo with him (maybe I should have anyway - ha!).