At the time of this writing, our annual celebration of Easter is still fresh in our rearview mirrors. Did the early occurrence of this holiday catch your website off guard? Instead of letting important holidays like Easter and Christmas creep up on you and your web team; create a website maintenance calendar for regular reviews and content creation pushes to capitalize on these large events.
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Tag: Off-Line Projects
You Are Unique, Just Like Everyone Else
Simply running down the list of beliefs and a few pictures of volunteering at a soup kitchen is not enough to get new members into your church. Just like an eCommerce site, you need to establish yourself as a leader in a particular area. What makes you special? If you give your visitors an honest reason why they need to try your church out, you will distinguish yourself online and attract new members.
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Leaving a Digital Legacy
Often churches take donations to purchase flowers for the altar; and a dedication is mentioned in the bulletin that week. Other churches may have a fundraiser where members purchase a brick that is inscribed with a loved one’s name. Tributes and memorials are way to honor and remember important people in our lives. Why not tie in your website so that memorials also live in the digital space.
Getting Your Content Out There
The primary motivation for viewing a website is to consume content. That content may exist to inform, persuade, or compare; but it should have a purpose that is aligned with your overall web strategy. Yet regardless of your intent or your audience not everyone will wish to consume this content on your website. By providing multiple mechanisms to view it, you maximize your audience exposure and increase the odds of adding new members to your church.
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Equip Your Members and Engage the World
The first time I tried to take the Gospel into the world was very scary. I was in my early teens and was handing out flyers for my church’s Vacation Bible School. We decided to target our surrounding neighborhood, going door-to-door with small pamphlets. I recall only one feeling, fear. What if they want to talk to me? What do I say? I was ill prepared to say the least. My hope is that you utilize your church’s website to better prepare your members for engaging the world in a discussion about Jesus.
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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Safety Net for Suffering
God does not let people suffer right? Consider the life of Job, the persecution of Paul, and the betrayal of Jesus. Honestly, it is a difficult sales pitch to convince someone to convert to Christianity and enjoy an eternal life in heaven, at the expense of the possibility of more suffering in this life on earth. So how can we show our support on our websites?
Advancing your Website without a Pastor
In recent months I have had the unfortunate opportunity to speak with churches that are between pastors. It is tough to watch them advance the Kingdom so slowly and cautiously. Many of their ministries freeze, including anything dealing with the web. If you are a church elder, or committee leader in your church; fret not. I will give you a few tips to keep advancing your online presence and continue to get people from clicking on your site to sitting in your seats.
Church Brochures Vs. Church Websites
If you are a church that was founded before the late 90’s, you probably have some printed material that you wanted to move to a website. However, your church website is not just an electronic brochure you can hand people. As many studies have suggested, the majority of website content is skimmed, not read. Because of this, the content you may have developed for a printed brochure is not suitable to copy and paste to your website. Plus there are many limitations brochures have that websites do not. In this article, I will compare and contrast content strategies for both mediums.
Documenting Your Church’s History
As your church moves on through history, what records are you keeping? What will the next generation read about your church’s journey? In this digital age, keeping records is easier than ever. Much like any other culture, churches are proud of their history. Although many families move frequently, some do stay in the cities they grew up in. Plus many people may come back to the city they were raised to research their family history. It would be great for them to see that information through the lens of your church.