Branding is much more simple that it sounds, and much more important than most realize. It comes down to these key elements (feel free to fill in with your respective information to create your brand guidelines):

MESSAGE - What key message do you want affiliated with your church? If you search for your church online, is your message consistent and clear? 

FONTS - Select two to three fonts (Maximum) for use in your print and web communications. Please avoid usage of underlining and bolding as a way to grab your readers' attention. Rather, use one font consistently for titles or section names, and another font for body copy. This will draw the reader's eye naturally to each section without distracting or overwhelming him/her. Select a third font when necessary. Use these pages as examples. You will see one font used for body, but all caps used for section titles, and a third option for each page header.

COLORS - Your branding should consist of one to two colors, and ALL print and web materials should make proper use thereof. When at all possible, assure your e-newsletter, print newsletter and web site all contain similar use of logo/crest and colors, fonts and messaging.  Not sure if this is being done? Print one sample of each and lay them side by side. This is the best way to quickly see whether your branding is fluid across all means of your communication.

PLACEMENT - If your contact information is consistently placed, you will have a greater chance of someone finding it, not to mention it makes for a much cleaner template if you are only changing information that NEEDS to change and using the template with the above-mentioned elements consistent throughout. For example, websites typically run the "contact us" section of the website in the upper far right corner. Visit any professional website and this consistent placement of contact information makes finding them much easier. The same is true of your printed materials. It does not matter where you put your contact information --only that you are consistent. If your branding, for example, calls for a left hand column and your contact information rests there, perfect! Perhaps you prefer the back, bottom of your printed materials --great! Just be consistent and assure that ALL printed materials contain these items. Key question to ask here is "If I hand this flyer to a friend, who in turn hands it to another friend who does not know it is from me, will he/she be able to find my information to contact me with questions?"

For more tips on how you might save money on your printed newsletter, feel free to contact me directly at klopez@dncweb.org or by phone to 916.442.6918 x23.