A touchpoint it is any part of your brand which comes into contact with your audience. This can be a printed piece, video, web or any other form of media. The goal of a touchpoint is to have a consistent feel with both message and visuals toward the overall brand of the church. When your media has coherence your brand becomes identifiable and well recognized by your audience. This recognition leads to the growth of your brand in the community.
The branding process is essentially three steps: defining who you are, recognizing touchpoints, and creating media for these touchpoints. To maximize your brand and capture the attention of your community, you want to create as many touchpoints as possible.
Below are the 4 basic print materials which are starting points for creating a consistent touchpoint with your audience. A website is another major touchpoint to implement but we will focus on the printed pieces in this section.
Letterhead
A letterhead is a core part of brand identity. It adds a polished touch to communication. Letterhead are most frequently used for general communication from the church, whether electronic or printed.
The letterhead helps create familiarity in your communications and identifies the message with the organization. A standard design allows for many forms of communication to be branded by simply placing it on this template.
Envelope
The branded envelope may seem like a small item but it makes a large impact. When receiving communications in the mail a person notices the branded envelope and makes a quick decision to open it or not. The envelope establishes your brand as being worthy of the time to open.
The logo on the envelope is a simple way to create a feel of excellence about your church. The small detail makes an impression as people sort through their mailbox.
Business Card
A business card is one of the easiest ways to provide others with basic information. It is a marketing tool that can easily fit in your wallet. Pastors, staff, and members of your church can carry cards with them. Invite cards have a business card shape but has general information about the church allowing anyone to use them.
Any interaction with people in your community is an opportunity to give them all the information they need to connect with the church.
Use a standard-sized business card. Both sides of the card can be utilized to be informational and to establish branding. The text on the front of card should be kept minimal and may include just the logo. The back of the card can hold more information such as the website, service times, and address.
Choose the type of paper for your card carefully. You want it to be good quality and be relatively durable. The colors and typography should be consistent with those used in all your other media and materials. With online printers you can get high quality cards at a low cost.
There are various shapes and sizes available for cards which can help your church stand out by being unique. The drawback is unique sizes may not be as easily kept as a standard sized card which wallets are made to store. However, the impact of a well designed invite may be well worth it.
Brochure
A brochure is provides an informative touchpoint with your audience by placing visual elements and information about the values of the church in the hands of your audience. Graphic elements and photography reveal the mission and personality of the church in a way which is engaging. Use photos of your church which are professionally taken so the design is genuine and not filled with purchased stock photography which may be seen in another brochure in town.
The church brochure should be unique and of a high quality so the vision of the church can be communicated in a way which seems important. A unique shape and a minimum of 8 pages are good starting points to designing an effective church brochure. The standard tri-fold brochure is inherently not interesting because people see them all the time. Online printers allow for costs to be low for producing a more compelling print piece.
Have a professional designer work on the layout using the branding elements of the church to create coherence. A good designer can emphasis the right messaging and add visual components to make the church appealing to your target audience.
A quality brochure communicates the purpose of the church visually making the vision easy to understand. This is a tangible piece people can take with them which represents the church. It compliments the website an other collateral pieces by presenting information in a creative way. It should be one of the cornerstone pieces of your marketing where you put more time and money into its design.
[convertkit form=4831098]
