Using Your Church Website to Promote Your Brand

Bad News, Good News

Bad news: The amount of time spent by visitors on your church website can be measured in a few short minutes. And because of the modern Web-surfer's short attention span, it has become critical for ministries to focus more on building and maintaining a brand to keep visitors on and returning to your website.

Good news: iMinistries' Skin feature makes developing and maintaining a brand on your website a few easy clicks away.

To a ministry or church, branding can seem overwhelming or even unnecessary. But think of it in these terms: developing and maintaining a brand can help you determine your mission and is a strategy to communicate what you are and what you stand for.

Your website is often your bridge to prospective attendees, volunteers, or donors and is your best way to broadcast your vision and how you go about achieving it.

You want people to know what you're all about from the moment they see your homepage and to remember your site long after they’ve left. To accomplish this, you have to first establish a brand identity.

Establishing Brand Identity on Your Website

1. Logo and Colors
Think of your ministry’s focus. Think of the words, phrases, visuals, and colors to help convey this theme. Create or use your existing logo as a symbol for your ministry's mission.

Keep these colors and themes in mind when selecting an iMinistries skin (our free skins can be found here) or when developing a custom skin for your site.


2. Logo Use: Size and Position
Now that you have a logo to represent your ministry, it should be the first thing users see when they visit your homepage. Display the logo large and prominent, usually in the top left corner of your homepage and continue that pattern on each page of your site.

With iMinistries' Skin feature, the majority of the work is already done for you. You can add your own header, and inside of it you can place your logo so that it appears on each page.


3. Consistency
Use your logo, colors, and visuals to envelop your site with your mission. Use the same fonts, graphics, relative positions, and proportions for each web page on your site. A uniform navigation scheme coupled with a good color scheme can also help reinforce your brand image.
Pick a style and go with it. Be consistent in your content voice and style.

The use of Headers, Ads, and Thumbnails can help to achieve stylistic consistency. All of these features are included when you choose iMinistries for your website needs.

OneVerse, an association of artists committed to Bible translation, displayed their logo in Headers, bright greens and blues and decorative graphics in their page bodies, and colorful Thumbnail photos of their artists across each of their website's pages. By using a custom or free iMinistries skin, achieving uniformity and consistency is easy.

Sources for this Article/Other Resources Regarding Branding:

The Significance of Establishing a Prominent Brand Identity for Your Website: OneExtraPixel
Find Your Church's Brand Identity: Church Solutions
Discovering Your Brand: Church Relevance