7 Steps to Building Your Church Brand

Laura Ries, author of the excellent books The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding and The Fall of Advertising and the Rise of PR, wrote an excellent article titled “7 Steps to Building Your Nonprofit Brand” over at MarketingProfs — most of which can be applied to your church’s branding efforts.
My two favorite tips are: Creating a signature event and the use of color in your logo.

First, let’s talk about creating the “signature event.”

She suggests producing some sort of annual event, like Jerry Lewis’ MDA Telethon, that you could produce every year and in effect “own” in the minds of your audience.

She’s not talking about your annual Christmas musical, or Easter play. This is about differentiating yourself in the community. Be creative. Think outside the box.

Ask: What service could you perform for the community?

What about an annual awards banquet for the “most outstanding” fireman and policeman in your community? Take nominations on your church website. Then treat them to some nice gift that rewards them for their sacrificial service to the community.

Second, let’s talk about the use of color in your logo.

Ries gives the examples of Lance Armstrong’s “Live Strong” yellow armbands that are inspired by the Tour de France yellow leader jersey he wore so often. Or the color pink in association with breast cancer awareness.

She suggests using a “strong, singular color they can own in the mind.”

Using and owning one strong color helps differentiate you. For instance, I decided to brand this site with the color blue because the other major blog site talking about church marketing is branded with red.

I wanted to have my own identity and “be different.”

Pick a color that matches the personality of your church and “own it.”

See also: My recommended books for church marketing and branding in the CCP Bookstore.

December 8, 2006 · Filed Under Church Branding, Church Marketing

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Comments

2 Responses to “7 Steps to Building Your Church Brand”

  1. Rich Schmidt on December 8th, 2006 2:55 pm

    Thanks! I’m getting a couple of good ideas from the article for our church…

  2. matt on December 10th, 2006 8:34 am

    i think one of the biggest tips for building a brand (any brand) is consistency. Setting up a banding guideline book for all staff & volunteers to rely on is a must. What good is it to choose that perfect color, font and icon, if your own team is going to randomly pick the closest red, their favorite font, and copy and paste a low res version of the logo on the next marketing piece?

    Establish firm do’s and dont’s, pick a color, and define its color in CMYK, RGB, PMS, and Web Hex. Make it easy for your staff and team to follow these guides.

    In the past we have set up internal websites for staff & volunteers to log on to, download logos, color pallets, fonts, and even guidelines on text formating. This has really brought the churches marketing to a whole new level. After all, brand is all about the total experience for the viewer. Keep all communications with current and possible new church members at their highest quality.

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