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Have you ever tried growing a garden? My wife and I have tried many times. Last spring, we thought "This year will be the year." But what happened? We forgot to tend it. Sure enough, we walked outside one morning and realize "Oh... we haven't checked on the garden in 3 weeks." We tried to save it by dousing everything with the garden hose, hoping something would survive and "catch up" on its water needs. Even if you don't have gardening experience, you can probably guess that we didn't see a crop last year. You can't water once a month with gallons at a time! Just like cultivating a garden, building a healthy brand takes small investments of purposeful attention on a regular basis. Your brand requires tending. With patience and intentionality, eventually you will see progress. People will start to identify with your brand because it signfies their shared history, values, and purpose. When people see your logo and colors used consistently on their church bulletin, you're watering. When you review the tone of voice in your website copy, you're adding fertilizer to the soil. I don't want to push the analogy too far, so I'll stop there :) But that kind of patient consistency goes a long way toward building up familiarity, then trust, then action. Just for fun, here's a relevant quote from Michael Scott and Dwight Schrute. Michael: What is that thing that Dwight always says? Paper is the soil in which the seeds of business grow? Dwight: It’s not the soil! It’s the manure! Paper is the manure! On-time delivery is the soil! Aah! [runs into office]

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.

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.

Today I want to exhort you. Keep up the good work! I’m encouraged to keep pressing on when I hear stories or see online that you’re tending your church brand. Here’s how I’m trying to follow suit! Writing Daily I’ve been a lot more intentional about this, and people are noticing. Writing daily has helped me collect lessons learned in my work and articulate my unique philosophy around church branding. This has also given me content to pull from for social media posts. I’ve been able to easily share a combination of quick quotes from this newsletter and finished rebrands without having to switch into writing mode for every post. Understanding My Audience I’ve started paying attention to which of my brand’s touch points are having the biggest impact. To do this I have some website analytics running and some questions I ask now on introduction calls. This helps me focus my writing and website copy on what’s relevant and engaging for my audience and clients. Community Participation This year I’ve made it a goal to give back to pastors and churches wherever I can. Part of that effort has been interacting and responding to posts in a Facebook group called Church Creatives. This is a wonderful community of 80,000+ pastors and church staff who appreciate the value of creativity/ design for churches and ministries. The second thing I’m doing is distilling my branding experience into free resources that pastors can use to align their branding with their vision, prepare for a rebrand, and make a bigger impact. More on these in the near future. That all seems like a lot, but what’s made it manageable is a daily cadence and habit of tending my brand, even if it’s just 10 minutes of jotting down some notes or reacting to a Facebook post. So take it as an encouragement: You can do it too!