Many questions arise when a church decides to do that “social media thing”. Who should your church market to, what platforms are the best, how should they push content, and why should they respond to their audience? These and many other problems can be solved by creating a two-pronged attack plan. This plan should include both social media marketing and social media engagement.
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Tag: Marketing
CWS Podcast – Ep. 46: Landing Pages and Your Church
If you are trying to promote an event at your church, one great tool for this is a landing page. If done correctly, they focus visitors on a much narrower scope and nudge them toward a single decision more quickly. But what do landing pages consist of, and how can my church use them in its overall strategy? Read on my loyal reader while I hopefully answers all these questions and more!
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CWS Podcast – Ep. 44: Using SMS Text Messaging in Ministry
Although Twitter is a major buzzword in short message communication, SMS texting is still a pretty big deal. Worldwide, over 6 trillion text messages were sent in 2010, and estimates for 2011 were 8 trillion. Even better news is that nearly all cell phones, including older flip phones, receive text messages. With this amount of proliferation, why not consider using this form of communication to your church’s advantage?
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Church eCommerce: Automatic Product Suggestions
If you decide to sell items on your church website, there are several e-commerce principles you can apply that do not require much regular intervention. I hope that last week I did not scare you off with the previous article on curated suggestions. Rest easy that these automatic product suggestions are defined once and should run indefinitely with only minimal oversight. I believe they can still generate some serious revenue as you offer product suggestions based on your church’s sales data.
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Church eCommerce: Curated Product Suggestions
By simply showing a link to your online store, you are suggesting they might want to visit and purchase items from it. However you can take this concept of suggesting things to people much further. If done intelligently, it can benefit both the customer and the church. This article will outline curated product suggestions, which are ones that involve manual input and help. Plus many of these principles can be applied to suggesting content to your audiences.
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Church eCommerce: Storefronts and Navigation
How are your products displayed?[/caption]In the previous article I presented the idea that churches may be in the business of selling physical and digital products online. Pastors are writing books, church bands are recording CD’s, and associated groups are producing a wide array of products that customers outside of the church are interested in buying. I laid out the main points of having a good item detail page, but like any good content, how you find it is vastly important. This article outlines the key points you must consider when creating a viable eCommerce storefront and shopping navigation.
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Church eCommerce: Item Information
With more pastors writing books and worship bands recording CD’s, it is becoming more common for churches to feature products on their website they wish to sell. Even smaller churches may want to consider this. As more and more commerce moves to the digital space, why not sell Mother’s Day flowers and tickets to your spaghetti dinner through your church website. Regardless of the approach and services you choose, you should have a top notch item information page.
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CWS Podcast – Ep. 26: Always ask WIFM?
When discerning the future of your church, many people would suggest asking yourself “What Would Jesus Do?” When designing your webs site, you need to consider it from your user’s perspective. One question they are undoubtedly asking is not WWJD, but WIFM?, or “What’s In It For Me?” Constantly asking this question when reviewing new features of your website ads you in communicating the real value that your church and a Christ-centered life can provide them.
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CWS Podcast – Ep. 25: Brochures Vs Websites
In this episode, I will compare and contrast content specific differences you should consider when migrating content from the print world to the digital. The first action many churches take when creating a new website is to examine all of their printed material and simply migrate it to this new electronic format. Please do not make this mistake, as your church website should not be an electronic brochure you can hand people. First, there are many limitations brochures have that websites do not. The way we interact and consume content on the web is far different than a brochure.
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Local Search for your Church
Because churches traditionally have physical locations, the majority of searches for churches have locational context. As search engines have evolved, they realized this key component and integrated it into their search results. The prime example of this is Google’s integration of their search, maps, and location listings. If you execute a search for “pizza”, you will not get a global listing of pizza shops, but (especially if you are on a mobile device) ones closest to your geographical area. Given this illustration, you can see how optimizing and promoting your church for local search is of great importance. Here are three steps for accomplishing this.
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When Vanity is not a Sin: Vanity Address Strategies for Churches
While vanity is one of the seven deadly sins, utilizing vanity addresses is a great tool for your church web strategy. When used in moderation and wisely, they be an effective method of driving traffic to your various web properties. In this article I will describe what they are and some great ways to use them to boost the presence of your church online.
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CWS Podcast – Ep. 6: Stock Vs Custom Photography
When you think about what makes a website look good, fonts, text, and colors are probably not the first things that come to mind. Photographs and images are extremely important and require careful attention. In this episode I will delve into the differences of stock vs custom photography, and some tips on when to use each.
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