messaging

Last year, my wife started selling old-fashioned lye soaps and shampoos made from goats milk. To distribute and label them, she had to make some decisions about packaging. Clear plastic shrink wrap is easy and practical. It turns each bar of soap into a self-contained unit that wont get damaged or worn, shows the entire bar, and makes shipping so much easier. Makes perfect sense, right? After selling countless bars and getting a lot of customer feedback, she realized that her packaging was actually working against her. People were buying her soap because they wanted a more home-grown, organic, less commercialized experience. She was using packaging that was plastic, shiny, and sterile. It was communicating the opposite of her brand! When she made the switch to brown craft paper, she immediately saw a positive response from our customers. “It looks so eco-friendly!” “I love that I can smell it in the store!” Is there anything you’re doing that’s unintentionally sending the wrong message?

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.

People attend your church for a reason. Don’t be afraid to ask your congregation what that reason is. I grew up in the church, but it wasn’t until adulthood that I realized how significant the local church is in God’s plan for his kingdom. Christ meets the spiritual needs of his Church generally, but he also meets our individual needs through individual, unique, local churches with unique identities. Maybe you’re the only reformed church within driving distance. Maybe you’re the most hospitable church with young families. Whatever the reason is, there’s a need that your church uniquely meets for your members. Identify that, and you have the foundation for a galvanizing brand.

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 watched the movie Imitation Game with Benedict Cumberbatch. It chronicles the genius work of Alan Turing to crack the Enigma cypher during WWII. Germany was using encrypted messages to send critical instructions to its ships and submarines via radio. The Americans could intercept the messages, but couldn’t decode them fast enough. The Germans knew that a message is useless if it can’t be understood by its recipient. When you’re crafting your vision, mission, and brand, how often do you evaluate if it will be understood by your audience? Are you putting it in language they’re familiar with? Does your logo capture something they resonate with?

Church road signs are notorious for being clever instead of clear. The thing is, people only remember a message if they understand it. Unless you’re G.K. Chesterton or Mark Twain, you’re probably confusing people with clever puns, double entendres, and wordplay. The same goes for your branding. Is it easily understood? Does it connect with a deeper meaning? Does it point to your story? Strong brands prioritize clarity.

Recently I’ve been watching a sci-fi TV show called “Severance.” The show follows “severed” office workers at a large corporation who have had surgery to divide their memories between their work and personal lives. Believe it or not, I think there’s a hidden gem in this idea that applies to church branding. Hear me out. Think about the average member of your church congregation. Does he ever consider his belonging to your collective body Monday through Saturday? Are your shared beliefs on the tip of his tongue during the week, outside the walls of your church building? If not, then you might have a church of “severed” members. This naturally occurs in modern life, but it’s something we can and should counteract. In the TV show, severed employees can unify their two identities through a process called “reintegration.” The good news is, there’s a way to “reintegrate” the identity your people have at church with their identity outside your walls. The way to do this is by cultivating a healthy brand. A church brand that is sticky and memorable can remind your average member of his belonging to a local church body, even as he goes about his rhythms of daily life. What are you doing to help your members avoid being “severed?”

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.

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!).

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.