Branding and marketing for Parable Accounting and Bookkeeping for Churches
This team of financial storytellers helps churches keep every dollar on mission.
By: Amy George | Case Studies
Key Points
- Parable Accounting and Bookkeeping for Churches blends financial expertise with a passion for storytelling, helping churches communicate their mission through their finances.
- ArtSpeak Creative developed a unique brand for Parable that breaks away from traditional accounting stereotypes, focusing on wit, positivity, and an upscale visual identity.
- The collaboration resulted in significant growth for Parable, expanding its reach to over 320 churches nationwide, with ArtSpeak serving as its ongoing creative partner.
An Unconventional Brand for Unconventional Accountants
Parable Accounting and Bookkeeping for Churches is a team of financial storytellers with superpowers in accounting, bookkeeping, and consulting. Before Parable was established, its Chief Visionary Officer, Greg Daley, was a pastor and church planter. His wife Jessica, an accountant, was the founder of an accounting firm she called Xcelerate Business Solutions. With this unique blend of experience, they realized they had a specific vision to help pastors tell the story of what God was doing through their churches through finances.
Creativity Help Wanted
Greg has a heart for pastors and enjoys hanging out with them. He also understands that keeping track of finances and budgets can be challenging, much less helping a congregation understand how their giving fuels Kingdom work.
To Greg and Jessica, finances do more than pay bills; they tell the story of the church’s ministry. They call this financial storytelling.
They wanted to help pastors communicate God’s working through their churches’ finances. While they felt comfortable crunching numbers, branding didn’t feel like it was in their wheelhouse.
They enlisted the help of ArtSpeak Creative to create a brand for Parable accounting and bookkeeping for churches that conveyed their personality and vision for financial storytelling.
Brand Messaging for Not-So-Stuffy Accountants
Even though you might not think of “fun” and “accounting” in the same sentence, these folks do.
They realized other people consider accounting “boring” and “bureaucratic.” They wanted a brand with strategic messaging that would turn that reputation on its head, at least as far as they were concerned, and effectively reach their target audience: pastors.
“Every dollar telling the story of His kingdom.”
ArtSpeak’s team had a discovery call with them and learned their vision for a brand that wasn’t corporate but was more personable. They wanted a touch of wit and positivity to set Parable accounting and bookkeeping for churches apart.
Because pastors are great storytellers, the team wanted Parable’s work to be a kind of storytelling, too. To them, churches’ financial records tell the story of their missions and ministries.
With all of this in mind, ArtSpeak developed a tagline to focus on their message for pastors: “Every dollar on mission” and a brand promise that was motivational and invitational: “Every dollar telling the story of His kingdom.”
In addition to those two elements, we created a core story and value propositions to help them further tell the story of Parable bookkeeping and accounting for churches to their audience.
A Bespoke Visual Identity
Along with the messaging components, ArtSpeak created the visual identity for Parable accounting and bookkeeping for churches. We could tell that the Parable team were fun people. When our team spied a llama pillow in the background in Greg’s office during a video call, an idea was sparked.
They expressed that they didn’t want to use standard, corporate-esque photography. Staged photos weren’t the images they wanted associated with Parable. We chose “extravagance,” “visionary,” “witty,” and “expressive” as some of their pulse words to lend artistic direction to the brand’s look and feel.
ArtSpeak created a color palette and typography reflecting a rugged, outdoorsy motif indicative of adventure and exploration with a touch of classic Americana. But Parable still needed some distinctive imagery and a way to convey its fun side.
Oh, yeah. Back to the llama pillow. It gave us an idea: What if we incorporated llamas and other animal drawings into the visual brand? Not in a cartoonish way, but in something more original. What if that llama became iconic? Literally?
We went to work, and the result was a series of stylized animals (including the llama) used as icons for their brand. Fun, quirky, and definitely not stuffy.
We went to work, and the result was a series of stylized animals (including the llama) used as icons for their brand. Fun, quirky, and definitely not stuffy.
A Website and Social Media Ready for Launch
Parable also needed a web presence for an upcoming conference. ArtSpeak created a website that they were able to unveil and present to pastors, letting them know what Parable accounting and bookkeeping for churches offered and why they were different.
In addition to the site, we worked with them to kickstart their online content plan to reach more pastors. This included writing SEO-focused content for the website, as well as creating their social media presence on Facebook and Instagram.
We love continuing to serve Parable with new content development and ongoing creative support. If you ask Greg, he’ll tell you:
Reaching More Pastors
“When we started working with ArtSpeak, we were at about 100 churches. We’ve [now] got 320 churches around the country.”
When he reflected on where they’ve been, Greg said, “It’s really helped us dial into our target [audience] as churches. By telling our story, it’s streamlined the churches that we get to work with.
“We have seen tremendous growth. I think when we started working with ArtSpeak, we were at about 100 churches. We’ve [now] got 320 churches around the country that we work with.”
“We Get a Creative Team Every Month”
“We have superpowers in accounting and bookkeeping, but ArtSpeak has superpowers in the creative space. So video and marketing and web and social media, all of the things that make a brand and skills we don’t have….we didn’t have the structure to be able to hire a whole creative team. But we get a creative team every month working with us, providing strategy, making sure we’re a cohesive thing that’s coming together. It’s been a fantastic journey.”
“We’re all virtual companies, but now we get together because they’re on mission, too. They want to help the church on mission and help businesses that are on mission. I could not more highly recommend ArtSpeak.”
What’s Your Superpower?
What’s your niche and vision? Schedule a call with us today, and we can start building your brand together.
