marketing

One of the main points of confusion I see in churches is thinking that marketing problems are actually branding problems (and vice versa). "Church members glaze over when I explain our purposes." (Branding Problem) "People in the community don't know we exist." (Marketing Problem) "We don't have enough visitors coming in the door." (Could be both, or neither!) Today I want to clear up the difference with a bite-sized explanation that makes it easy to remember. Branding = Who You Are Branding defines your church's identity through logo, colors, messaging, and overall vibe. It shapes how people feel about your church. A strong church brand has a clear message and consistent visuals that attract people and give them a sense of belonging. Marketing = How You Promote Marketing is different because it promotes your church brand through advertising, social media, and outreach. It focuses on getting attention and driving action. Effective church marketing uses social media, emails, and videos to reach new visitors. How They Work Together Strong branding must come before marketing. Marketing helps spread the word, while branding determines what that word is. Think of branding as the roots and marketing as the branches of a tree—you need strong roots first. This is why I called the blog Tend Your Brand — it's my goal to help you cultivate those roots so they grow deep and wide in the hearts of your people.

In the design world, something people often forget (or don’t realize) is that a church brand has to speak to two audiences instead of one. Unlike most businesses, a church doesn’t just have “customers.” It has a congregation and a community. You can think of these as internal and external audiences. Without a balanced approach that considers both audiences, you can end up speaking to only one. Some churches only do branding inwardly with their congregation. Others only speak to their community. This reality makes it all the more important that you have a timeless brand designed to work in both contexts. Churches need a brand designed to resonate with the people they’re trying to reach (community), and the people they want to inspire (congregation). Without a healthy balance, you’re probably not reminding your community THAT you exist and your congregation WHY you exist.

Your brand can have a smell. My in-laws live in a Hawaii and only make their way to the US mainland once a year. Something I take for granted here is Chick Fil A, but they don’t have one on the big island. When they do come to visit, we eat Chick Fil A nearly every day. What’s the big deal? They have fried chicken in Hawaii. But the experience of walking into that brick building with the red accent colors, savory smells, and friendly staff saying “My pleasure” can’t be replicated. The tastes, smells, language, and visuals all work together to create a truly iconic brand, which is why Chick Fil A has been so successful and received so much praise. Here’s the point: Your church brand shouldn’t just be visual.

I recently heard a pastor make the statement, “the Gospel doesn’t need marketing and branding.” It’s a legitimate criticism. Are churches who spend time, money, and effort on their branding just trying to “market Jesus?” Here’s my response: Some are to be sure… but most are not. Christ-centered branding is about reflecting God’s character, creativity, and what he is already doing in your local church body. It’s easy to see how this is different from just trying to be winsome, seeker-sensitive, and trendy. In fact, I’m staunchly against “winsomeness” as it’s been defined by evangelical leaders in the last 10 years. Their idea of winsomeness smuggles in self-censorship and compromise. I’m also against churches trying to make Christianity seem cool and trendy by mimicking our rebellious secular culture. Christ-centered church branding doesn’t reduce or dilute the gospel message, it makes visible the unique identity of each local church. It doesn’t copy from the world, it argues that beautiful visuals and communication strategies actually belong to Christ. God is a designer, after all!

Every church does some printing in house, but who do you pick for professional printing services? I’m a big proponent of using a local vendor, but not just for the typical “shop local” reasons. This will save your church time and money and give you better results. So, here are my top three reasons to choose a local vendor: 1. The Value of Physical Proofs In my years as a graphic designer and art director, the importance of getting a physical printed proof from a vendor has become more and more apparent to me. If you’re printing anything with brand colors or photography, you have a lot riding on color accuracy. Here are the cases I recommend asking for a printed proof (sometimes called a “match print”): Prominent interior displays Something you’re printing a lot of Semi-permanent banners or signs 2. Access to Experience If someone is running a successful print shop, you can bet they have technical knowledge of how to get their customers the best results. What type of paper to print your bulletin on, how to set up your artwork for a vinyl banner, or which bumper stickers are the easiest to apply? Most local print shops will be more than happy to answer your questions, if you just ask! 3. Cost Savings VistaPrint and other online print services may be easy to use, but they charge a premium price for that convenience. Between shipping costs and upcharges for every add-on, they’re often the more expensive option for churches looking to print materials on a budget. These are just three of the reasons I recommend churches use a local print shop whenever possible. If those weren’t enough, other reasons include investing in your community, getting consistent quality, maintaining a relationship with a local business, and having someone who can help if a print job goes wrong.

Advertisers are always looking for a way to get you to buy a product. To do that, sometimes they’ll parody or copy each other to make their message more memorable. It’s amazing how well this strategy works, but does it have a place in church branding? No. Copying another church’s messaging, branding, or marketing might look nice. It might even get more traction at first. In the long run, this approach is deadly. The first reason is that you could open yourself up to legal action. Many churches trademark their branding, which means you can easily break the law if you’re directly copying their image. Even if you don’t get sued, there’s a second and even worse outcome. Many people already think of churches (especially in heavily churched areas) like desperate credit card companies: always offering new incentives for people to switch churches. I’ve heard it called “sheep stealing,” “member trading,” and “transfer growth.” While it’s not always the intention of the leaders at one church to steal sheep, it would be wrong to encourage “church hopping” for such superficial reasons as slick branding. The solution Build your church brand around your unique story and vision. It’s that simple. But wait, is it ever okay to copy? Where is the line between taking inspiration and being a copycat? That’s what I’ll cover tomorrow.

Having visuals and event graphics is great, but not just because those things make it easier to do promotion. The ultimate goal of an event brand is to make the experience “sticky” and memorable. To maximize that memorability, you’ll want to approach different types of events differently. There are tons of ways to categorize church events, but the one that matters for design and branding is timing. That said, here are the three different types of events (by timing) and how you can approach branding for each. Series Ongoing regular events in the life of your church that happen with a faster cadence (e.g. monthly or quarterly). For these, a new set of visuals for every event would almost definitely be overkill. However, there’s an opportunity for creativity. Instead of branding each event, consider giving the series a brand that persists throughout the year. If you need some variation to distinguish these regular events from one another, change something minor like a background color or a photo for each occurrence, keeping the design the same. Annual Annual events offer more flexibility and room to experiment with the unique event visuals. A lot of churches will approach annual events with an entirely new set of visuals each year, which is totally fine! As long as certain things about the event are consistent year to year, it can even become a beloved part of your church’s overall brand. Here’s what should stay the same for that to work: The event name Who the event is for What happens at the event (although there’s room to adjust this as well) You can also choose to treat Annual events in a similar way to Series events, keeping the core visuals the same and making minor tweaks. One-Off Do whatever feels right! One-Off events are an opportunity to go wild, but they’re also a chance to rely on the branding you use for everything else. If it’s an event you might eventually turn into a regular thing, then consider designing something simple to make it easier for people to remember. The goal of all event branding is to be memorable. If you don’t remember an event, it probably didn’t have an impact.