I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but if you are a pastor in your late 40’s, your opinion of a website aimed at an early 20’s audience really does not matter. Well now that the awkward part of this article is over, I will move on to what really counts; and that is if your church website is meeting the established business goals. In this article I will explore different ways the decision makers can provide good feedback and shape a great experience for your target audience.
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Tag: Marketing
Selling A Subscription
The second article I wrote for this blog had a bold message that churches are in the eCommerce business. You are indeed marketing and selling something. While I maintain that is still true, I did not yet realize the type of sale it was. You are not selling a good, you are selling a subscription.
Write an Effective Tag Line
When someone lands on your web site, you only have a few seconds to grab their attention. This does not mean bright colors or animation, but something easy to spot on the page that answers the question “What’s in it for me?” This should be accomplished with your church name and its tag line.
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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 exactly is a landing page, and how can my church use them? Read on my loyal reader while I hopefully answers all these questions and more!
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3 Tips for SMS Marketing at Your Church
Although Twitter is still a buzz word 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 are 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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Fasting and your Website
Fasting and prayer is the discipline of doing without earthly sustenance and replacing it with God’s. How does this apply to your website? Try replacing something man-made with something that is from God. It is often hard to let go, get out of the way, and let the Lord work. So I challenge you to take a stance with a bold statement. Remove things from your homepage that are “of this world”. Allow people to set their eyes on the person who will ultimately change their life, Jesus.
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Church Websites and Star Wars?
Yes I am writing about Star Wars on my church website blog… trust me, it is relevant! Star Wars is arguably one of the most successful science fiction movie franchises in history. However, the announcement of re-releasing the films in 3D was met with far less excitement. Fans of the originals do not like “their movies” tampered with. How does this tie to your church’s website? Just because a new technology becomes available, does not mean you need to force it into your existing website.
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Get Your Church Known
Just having a church website is not enough today. You need to be proactive in your quest to get your church seen and heard on the internet. So what methods can you use to accomplish this? I propose covering three bases, of search engines, mapping services, and social media. These three are often very entangled, so spearheading efforts on all of them at once is often very easy and can generate awesome synergy in getting your church website known to the rest of the world.
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Let Love Shine on Your Church Web Site
Although the drivers for my ideas and topics for this blog come from secular sources; you must not forget that your church’s website is a marketing tool for the Kingdom of God. Just like how Jesus commanded us to be different from the world, so must your website. E-commerce sites do everything they can to highlight key features a product. One key feature of Christianity is Christ’s love, so show it on your website in as many ways as possible.
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Determining your ROI Part 2: Measuring Returns
In Part 1 of this series I asked you to take a look at what each person in your church brought to the table. I then asked that you compare that to what you spend on getting new members through the door. The greater the difference, the better your return on investment is. One piece I left out was how to measure that gap. Using an analytics tool, you can easily see how users are behaving on your website, and what sources (i.e. your ads) brought them there.
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Effective Site Imagery
The photos on your site do not need to say a thousand words. They do need to speak to your users and align with your business goals. Try to put your written content into the proper context by displaying images that lend and enhance your message and connect with people’s emotions. Use the science of psychology and art of storytelling to show people why your church is so amazing.
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Write Content For Your Users, Not Yourself
Does your site welcome them in, or coldly show them some facts? You may want to talk about theology or the history of your church, but these often do not connect with your users. People come to your church website because they are looking for the solution to a problem. Your primary calls to action should be solutions to those problems.
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