Church Marketing can seem like a daunting subject to approach. There should be a marketing strategy for your physical church, both inside and outside the walls of the building, and a marketing strategy for the online community as well.
Your brand is how people recognize your church, and it can stir up great memories for people whenever they see it. Your brand can also be something people are proud to see and show to others. What’s important to remember when branding is to ensure that whatever you are marketing creates a sense of unity within your church. Doing this creates unity within your staff, volunteers, and the people who call your church their home. With the proper marketing and branding strategies, you can bring everyone together and communicate to your local community and city that your church is one church setting out to accomplish one mission. With this in mind, here are 3 Ways Branding Can Unite Your Church (Not Just Promote It).
A Branded Church vs. A Church of Brands
Many churches adopt the “Church of Brands” strategy for marketing and branding. A “Church of Brands” is a church with multiple names and brands for their different areas of ministry. For example, the church is called “Journey Church,” but their kids’ ministry is called “Movement Kids,” their youth ministry is called “Ignite Youth Ministry,” and their small groups are called “Squads.” With a “Church of Brands” approach, each area has a different brand, color palette, and promotional strategy. Each area has a social media account that looks and feels different, unique merch with its name and brand, and an individual way of operating that differs from every other area. Many churches like this strategy because it allows every area the freedom to create their own world.
The big problem with having a Church of Brands approach is that it creates a disjointed and confusing community. People who attend your church and people from your local community may not know that your youth ministry belongs to your church. The individual groups in your church may be viewed as separate entities because of their unique name and look. Having many brands under one church creates unnecessary competition, tension, and confusion. Everything must be unified and consistent to achieve effectiveness in your marketing and branding.
What is a Branded Church?
You should adopt a “Branded Church” strategy within your church. Instead of having different names for every ministry area, use your church name followed by the ministry area. For example, if your church is called “Journey Church,” your youth ministry would be called “Journey Youth,” your kids’ ministry would be called “Journey Kids,” and your small groups would be called “Journey Groups.” By adopting this strategy, all areas of your church carry the church’s name and communicate to the community that you are one church.
When your youth ministry does any events outside your church, people in your local community will know it’s your church. When you use any promotional strategies, regardless of the area of ministry you are promoting, everyone will know that it’s your church. This unifies your entire congregation under one name and one banner. Choosing to be a Branded Church instead of a Church of Brands can significantly impact your church.
Logo, Color Palette, and Aesthetic
Your logo, color palette, and overall church aesthetic can demonstrate who you are as a church. Many churches give the creative freedom to brand each ministry area to their preference, creating multiple logos, color choices, and overall look. Your kid ministry may have a logo that looks nothing like your primary church logo. Your missions team may have promotional materials that significantly differ from the main church’s colors and aesthetic. Even though this may seem like a great way to empower each area, it’s creating a disjointed church branding that causes a sense of ambiguity as to who the church is.
Each area of ministry in your church should utilize the primary logo, stay within the church’s brand guide and color palette, and have a similar overall aesthetic. This doesn’t mean everything has to look exactly the same. How you apply the logo and colors may differ from area to area. The goal is to have a consistent look and feel from one area to another. The youth merch may have its own feel, but the logo and branding shouldn’t be so different that people don’t know it belongs to your church. The same concept applies to all other ministries within your church.
When people see each department’s branding, they should see the church first, followed by that area’s unique qualities. This is where having a branding guide can come in handy. Branding guides help direct each area in how to apply the church brand, colors, aesthetics, and even the type of fonts the church uses. If you do not have a branding guide, consider spending resources on getting one. This will help keep your church unified and on-brand at all times.
Merch
Your church merch is another fun marketing strategy that can utilize your branding to unite your church. When congregants from your church community wear your merch out in public, they proudly let people know they are a part of your church. Wearing merch in public or displaying merch on their cars (decals) and in their homes (fridge magnets) should not be taken lightly. This means people really identify with your church and want others to know about your church community. This is why your merch branding should look great.
Don’t just limit your merchandise to t-shirts. Create clothing lines that include sweatshirts, long sleeves, baseball caps, beanies, and sweatpants. You can also create car decals, refrigerator magnets, stickers, pens, and coffee mugs. You can provide different collections throughout the year based on the season or even generate a merch line around an impactful series your church is doing. Having merch available weekly for your churchgoers is an easy way to create a sense of unity within your community while letting your city and area know who you are. Develop a merch strategy to incorporate your branding so your church community can proudly display their love for your church everywhere they go.
To succeed with your church branding, you must be intentional with how and where you use it. Don’t just try to slap your logo on everything; take the time to think about how your brand should look and the emotions you want to communicate. Brands are a great way to share your church’s story and what you are all about. Use these branding strategies above and watch as your church comes together as one unified place looking to impact the world around them.
