Drive around the streets of your town near your church. There are signs everywhere. Seriously, everywhere. If you’re looking you’ll see them but for the most part you’ll stop remembering most of them. We live in a loud, marketing-saturated world.
Your church needs to have a sign that stands out and is remembered. For the right reasons.
Here are 4 ways that most Church signs don’t help the local church:
- It only says you’re a Church. Well, I certainly hope that it says you’re a church. But remember it’s in front of a building that most can identify as a church. It’s like a Target store with a sign that proudly only says “Department Store”. If someone doesn’t need a department store the sign would be ignored. Over a third of the people in your neighborhood don’t want a church. If you’re not building a great church brand — what you’re known for as a benefit — you’re not helping attract community members who’ve never considered their need of a church. You’re convincing them to not attend.
- It looks archaic and stereotypical. Many who are aware of the church world, but don’t attend it, they think church is old-school and irrelevant. Many church signs reinforce that belief. Make sure your sign represents your church. Make it professional, up-to-date, and attractive to your congregation and community. Make it have the same quality as other professional signs near your building.
- It doesn’t have a thread. Your church needs an outwardly focused brand that’s stated as a thread. That’s a simple-to-remember, 3-5 word tagline (positioning statement) that gives a benefit of attending. It needs to correspond to a predominant pain or concern that your community experiences. This thread then needs to weave itself through your website, your facilities, and every one of your ministries. Part of building a solid church brand, you’ll need a simple, unique, and easy-to-remember logo, as well as a restrictive color and font palette that’s recognized in your community as your “church” look.
- It has too much information. Often churches try to tell a greater message and many details that don’t matter to the community (let alone the congregation)! The Target store doesn’t list all of their sub-brands, departments, sale promotions, or manager names on their signs. The church needs to remove these too. Rarely will anyone recognize or be drawn to a Pastor’s name or a sermon title. It will rarely be a reason for someone to attend. Service times are probably all the extra information you need (other than your logo and thread). Even your website URL isn’t needed now that most people simply google the church’s name. Make sure your church is the number one search result!
What’s your church sign for then? To attract people to your location and give them a reason to consider you as a relevant and beneficial option. Keep it simple, understated, and something that people can proudly declare “I’ve been thinking about going to a church like that”. In other words: make it branded, believable and attractional. Drop everything else.
