Robert Evans

I often wonder how much Churches put into marketing when they design and develop their Church web sites. The strategic plan should not differ much from any other company that is designing their own web site. Often, we see Churches and Ministry web sites ripping off marketing slogans from other nationally known companies. This can be an effective approach, but it still has an underlining feeling that the Church cannot be creative enough to come up with their own slogan. Then there is the flip side that such a slogan reaches those who have one foot in the world and one foot out of the world, or better put, fence-sitters.

Anyways, this isn’t really about slogans, but rather about the effort inbetween the idea of having a web site and the actual finished product. Even before choosing a domain name, marketing must be considered. Questions such as these need to be answered:

Who is your target audience?

What is the purpose of the web site?

These two questions alone can set the focus for the site itself. If your target audience is a mixed audience of the current congregation, prospective visitors and members, and the lost, then the site needs to reflect this. That means material directed to each type of audience needs to be made available and be easy to find.

The biggest turn off for any user viewing a site is not being able to find specific content. Sites that are cluttered, unorganized, or unsure of their target audience often will confuse a user and the user will leave the site, never to return.

The purpose of the site is tightly tied into the Target Audience. It is basically the reason why the Church desires to be online. Answer this question and make sure the site reflects the answer.

An example would be that a Church desires to be online as an outreach tool for the lost. Then there must be material that introduces the lost to Jesus Christ. It must be presented in a way that speaks to the lost. We can learn much from Paul about presenting the Gospel Message. When Paul was with the Jews, he acted like a Jew. When he was with the Gentiles, he acted like a Gentile. This doesn’t mean that Paul acted differently about his faith, but rather acted differently in presenting his faith. The reason, I believe, he did so is because we connect with something that is familiar to us.

Too often Churches go online and they have not done their homework to understand why they are there. As a Christian, we each know that we are to tell others what Jesus Christ has done for us. So, we must ask, what has Jesus done for us. The answer then gives us the content to go forward and tell others. It gives us focus for our message.

That leads me to my final point: Focus. I have seen many Churches, inside and online, and I believe inside the Church has pretty good focus, although it could be improved. Online the Church often has terrible focus. My reason for this claim is that too many Church web sites have too much unorganized material all on one page. The content is fantastic, but the organization is terrible. No matter how good the content is, if the organization is lacking, the user will most likely leave to never come back.

Come up with 5-10 topics that can cover a wide variety of sub topics and organize them accordingly so that the main page only has 5-10 links leading to those sub topic areas. This will not only organize the site, but it will also show the focus of the site. The benefit will be that the users can find what they came to your site to find easily, giving them a good experience.

The Church must remember that even though it is a Church, its competitors are the Netflicks and Newsvines of the internet. This is because users are used to the experiences that they get when they are at those sites. They also expect that at a Church web site.

Before making the jump online, which I highly encourage all Churches who can do it, think about why you are going online and who you are targeting. This will help create the focus of your online outreach. And most importantly of all, pray about it and ask for the Holy Spirit’s guidance!