For years, experts have drawn parallels between organized religion and modern brands. While the comparison may sound offensive to some, the fact remains that practices to gain devoted religious followers and enthusiastic brand loyalists are interestingly similar. Therefore, it makes sense, that if you are running a for-profit venture under a religious or spiritual organization, you use all the modern technological and commercial means available to make your venture a success.
Religious tourism is the most popular example of a for-profit religious business. Other commercial areas where we see a strong influence of religion or spirituality include religious schools, spiritual healing centers, and yoga studios, among others.
So let’s find out what are the top 8 tips to brand your religious or spiritual business so it can run its campaigns and operations most effectively.
Context
- 8 Tips to Brand Your Religious or Spiritual Business Right
- Religion vs. Spirituality
- Choosing The Right Visual Details
- Your Core Beliefs And Values
- Your Religious Brand Slogan
- Tell Your Story
- Build Your Community On And Off The Internet
- Create Consistent Brand Experiences
- Market Your Healing Brand
- Conclusion
8 Tips to Brand Your Religious or Spiritual Business Right
1. Religion vs. Spirituality
For the best branding strategy, make clear distinctions
about your brand. Keeping in mind that religion is fundamentally different from spirituality the way you brand your business is going to
reflect that.
Religion is more organized and follows a set path. Every
major religion bows to a supreme deity and has established codes of religious,
moral, and social conduct to follow. Clear concepts regarding rewards, sinful
behavior, paradise, and such exist. Religions encourage group participation and
value community.
Spirituality, on the other hand, is more fluid. It
emphasizes individuality as compared to group phenomena. Those who practice
spirituality often go this way to find a personal sense of purpose, peace, and
healing. You can practice spirituality even if you are not religious. It
encourages a unique connection with nature and divine energy.
It’s important to remember, though, that spirituality is a
part of every religion. Yet, to be spiritual, you don’t need to be religious.
If your business is based on principles of spirituality,
make sure to keep any religious leanings away from it. The majority of people
who seek spiritual connections are not looking for religious discussions. Conversely,
if yours is a religious business, it is necessary to brand and promote it as
such to ensure transparency, authentic consumer connections, and attract
like-minded individuals.
2. Choose the Right Visual Details
Once you have distinguished your brand as religious or
spiritual, it’s time to create its visual identity that reflects its true
nature and character. As mentioned earlier, religion follows an established set
of rules. There are symbols, signs, and emblems associated with each religion
that its followers use for identity and social connection.
Christianity has its Cross; Judaism, its Star of David; and
Islam, its crescent or Hilaal (in Arabic).
Other religions, such as Hinduism, Jainism, and Buddhism,
etc. also have symbols that are recognized by their followers all around the
globe.
When you are designing your religious or spiritual logo, conduct thorough research to make sure
you are choosing the right symbols, colors, and other details. The color green
with a crescent logo will make your logo appear Islamic. So if you are a Hindu
business using the crescent symbol (symbol of god Shiva), perhaps avoid using
it in conjunction with green. Rust or red color may be more suitable choices.
Pay the same attention to detail in choosing spiritual
symbols. The lotus flower, yin, and yang, as well as the Om symbol, are popular
visuals of the spiritual realm. Chakra logos and mandala designs are also used
to create visual identities for spiritual ventures.
While color choices for religious logos can be diverse –
from bold to pastels – spiritual business logos always favor simpler and serene
designs.
Related: Top 10 Best Designed Website to Inspire You
3. Your Core Beliefs and Values
The way you design your logo, website, social media, and the
overall outward presence of your brand needs to be aligned with your religious
and spiritual beliefs. This is important not only for a transparent and
truthful brand identity but also to ensure that your business can cultivate a loyal following of people who share those inherent beliefs with you.
While most major
religions believe in fundamental concepts like a divine deity, helping the
poor, and doing no harm, etc., it is important to clearly communicate your
religious ideas to your audience so you can distinguish yourself from similar
businesses in the market.
For example, if you are a Christian school, what core values
do you believe in that makes you different from others like you? What is it that
you have that makes you a better candidate than all the rest for imparting
great education along with religious teachings?
If you are a spiritual healing entrepreneur, what do you
offer your clients that most others are not offering? In a nutshell: why you
and not your competitor?
To answer this question most clearly and concisely, you’ll
need to understand your religious/spiritual brand at a molecular level so you
have simple answers to these critical questions.
Once you can distinguish yourself from your competition and
establish a clear set of values that make you worthy than all the rest of them,
creating a loyal audience will come easy.
4. Your Religious Brand Slogan
This is a brand strategy that involves effective
communication. Your brand slogan is a verbal and vocal way to declare your
brand message. The answer to all the questions we’ve asked in the previous
section shall be communicated here.
Coming up with a strong brand slogan is not an easy feat.
“Just Do It’ may sound like a simple phrase but it packs a whole depth of
meaning in these few letters and gives Nike not only its purpose and drive but
vision too.
Your religious/spiritual brand slogan needs to be equally
representative of what your brand is at its core. Pick a brand characteristic
or goal that encompasses most of your brand traits or one that you value above
all others and create a simple, short, and clever slogan.
Why short, clever, and simple? So it’s easy to remember,
recall, and say. “Just Do It” is not only popular because it is meaningful but
also because it is so easy and like an everyday phrase you’d use in your
conversations.
Related: Top 10 Best Free Video Editing Software for Marketers
5. Tell Your Story
Storytelling, human history, and evolution are interlinked
concepts. These connections have endured for thousands of years and
evolutionary scientists have even unearthed evidence that links storytelling to human survival and development.
Organized religion understands the need humans have for
great stories. That is why we have epic religious tales of good overcoming evil
against great odds; of lone heroes fighting for the salvation of humans against
ungodly forces of vile corruption.
From Christianity to Islam and from Judaism to Buddhism,
spirituality and religion thrive on storytelling. Brands understand this, and
so should you.
It is the power of telling great stories through effective
marketing campaigns that have given the late Steve Jobs a god-like stature in
modern culture.
If you want to recreate such an effect for your religious or
spiritual business too, tell people your story. Share the origin of your idea,
how it took root, and what odds you overcame to be where you are today. Tell
them your goals and let them cheer for you.
Opening up to your audience will allow them to see you as
more than a brand – you’ll become more real, more endearing. If they can
connect with your story, they will even participate in different ways to make
your business dream become a resounding and real success.
6. Build Your Community on and off the Internet
As we keep moving ahead, effective communication will become
increasingly central to your branding efforts. Communicating your brand to your
audience will require building a strong community of your brand enthusiasts.
These are the people who are your most loyal followers and act as unofficial
brand ambassadors because they believe in what you believe and practice.
To grow this community of loyal customers, you’ll need to be
active on and off the Internet. Offline activities will include creating
activities that bring the community together. Starting Covid-19 vaccine drives,
delivering hot meals to those in your community who cannot afford them, and
establishing mentor programs for kids in need are some ideas that have proven
successful.
As a spiritual brand, you can blog about the latest in
spiritual life coaching, holistic nutrition, and meditation coaching services.
You can also stream your daily or weekly meditation routines. In fact, if you
are a community church or a similar organization, live
streaming your church services may be a great way to bring together your
community online and enjoy bonding through your brand.
Related: Top 10 Best Laptop For Live Streaming Church Service
7. Create Consistent Brand Experiences
Branding is all about consistency. A successful brand will
be able to provide you an experience that’s true to the brand promise
regardless of how you have accessed the brand and which of its many areas
you’re dealing with right now.
Brand consistency is why Coca-Cola tastes the same whether
you are in the USA or the Middle East, and why Dove has a sense of serenity
whether you go to its website, social media, or view any of its ads.
Creating a consistent brand experience comes with time. The
more you talk to your consumers, and the more communication outlets you choose,
the more opportunities you have to create consistency across these
communications.
A few ways you can ensure that it doesn’t go wrong:
- Create and confirm a brand color palette that you will use in your logo, website, staff uniforms, marketing material, and every other place that needs it.
- Understand your religious/spiritual brand and give it a voice and a tone. Are you a traditional brand or approach spirituality with a quirky attitude? Are you friendly or prefer a more formal tone to speak to your customers? Decide now and train your staff accordingly so this voice and tone remain the same whether you are communicating through phone, chat, or email.
- If you have physical locations for your brand, make sure the style, interiors, and décor remain the same across locations. Sure, you can infuse some individuality depending on the local culture, but make sure it doesn’t override the real personality of the brand.
As your business grows, you’ll be able to have clearer ideas
on how to communicate your brand more effectively and consistently.
8. Market Your Healing Brand
This is where you hire a marketing team or create an
in-house marketing strategy to promote your religious/spiritual brand.
Depending on whether you are a religious brand or a
spiritual one, your marketing approach will be different. The tone of your
copy, visuals of your ads, the stories you share through your campaigns will
distinguish your religious brand from a spiritual one, and vice-versa.
These differences will also apply to the marketing channels
you’ll opt for. As a religious brand, you’ll mostly partner with other
religious entrepreneurs to create common campaign goals. Spiritual business
owners will likely seek their own peers to discuss affiliations and
partnerships.
Some popular marketing strategies that can help you get your
religious/spiritual brand off the ground include:
A visible brand presence on major social media channels like
Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter, etc.
- Use hashtags whenever you publish a post on your brand’s social media.
- Partner with micro-influencers to get to your niche audience.
- Create and post videos regularly as they are the most engaging form of content and most share-worthy.
- Answer queries on Facebook groups and other online forums to gain authority status.
- Keep your website updated.
- Invest in local SEO and focus on keywords that your community is using to find businesses like you.
Conclusion
If you are successful at implementing these 8 tips when establishing your religious or spiritual brand, you’ll be giving it a winning edge against all its rivals. However, the results of these strategies will only come when you are consistent with your efforts as none of these plans are shortcuts to success. With continuous grit and perseverance, however, you’ll be able to see the success that is stronger and more enduring.