The Digital Genesis for Your Church

I have always enjoyed building websites for churches and ministries. It’s a completely different type of project when compared to a commercial or service related website in that churches have so much more to offer online than a typical company does, and it still shocks me that some do not capitalize on the massive opportunity that’s in front of them to reach out and connect to more people.

We have many clients — mostly small to medium-sized businesses — that are service related such as lawn care, heating and air repair, plumbing, auto windshield repair, etc. When integrating social media campaigns for these clients, it takes some research, thought, and creativity to find something…some kind of niche that makes them unique and sets them apart so their website can be used as a tool for customers instead of just way to get the company’s phone number.

However, when building a new website, giving a website a face-lift, or executing a social media marketing campaign for a church, the solution is often staring you right in the face. There is less focus on the what and more time and energy is spent on the how. Churches are like fingerprints; there’s a bunch of them, and each ministry or church is unique in its own way. This article contains some methods and ideas I have seen over the years that began as cutting edge ideas, but are now commonplace and easy to implement on church or ministry websites (you should be doing them).

Don’t Be a Flip-Phone

Using your church’s website as a communication tool that creates an online community of followers is not just trendy; it’s just smart. Many people (including myself) would rather order online than talk to a person, or fill out a form instead of making a phone call. I believe this is happening because of the onset with social media and the convenience that it provides to stay in touch with so many more people at the same time. I also believe that it is because we are so much busier than we ever have been before.

Remember when a cell phone was supposed to make your life easier? And now many people wouldn’t dare leave the house without their cell phone; not because it makes their life easier, but because it allows them to do so much more at once. Your organization’s website is similar to a cell phone. Maybe you originally built your website to provide some information about your church or ministry, what you believe doctrinally, or to list some upcoming events. However, if you are still using your website as a “brochure” for your ministry, you’re like the guy that still has the flip phone. It’s not totally weird because you can still make calls on it, but everyone is looking at you wondering what you are going to do if it breaks because we all know that your carrier won’t replace that phone anymore. Don’t be “that guy.”

Your website must continually evolve as a communication tool that people use as a resource to save them time, energy, money, etc.

A Few Ideas

I tend to look at my website in how it can free up my time to do other things, and you should do the same. Your website never sleeps (unless your web host isn’t doing its job), so take advantage of it’s visibility and availability by implementing some features on your website that have proven over the years to keep them coming back for more.

Tell Everyone

Never assume that the people who frequent the doors of your church have visited your church’s website. One church I know of made a smart move. They wanted to cut their recurring expenses, so they made an announcement that in 90 days they were going completely digital. They stopped printing a weekly bulletin and put it on the website each week instead. No more printed sermon notes; church members can now download them directly onto whatever mobile device they have on hand during service and follow along — that’s if they didn’t receive the sermon notes ahead of time in the weekly e-newsletter blast that went out containing them. The change was well accepted and streamlined many of the recurring processes and expenses of the church staff. I believe the key to success in this move were the constant reminders to church members about visiting the website, and then actually providing good tools on the church’s website that were simple and effective replacements for the old way of doing things.

It’s important to constantly promote your website to your church audience. They need to see and hear that you believe that your website is the best place to go to stay current and connected to your congregation’s church family. The Internet is on its way to becoming a social web experience for all users. You won’t be able to ignore the trends online for much longer without being forced to make your website a priority later. With that being said, take every opportunity to send people to your website for what they need.

Will some people get left behind? Yes, of course. Will some people not like the decision? Absolutely. But consider this: Jesus ministered to the masses, but He did so in a way that was on their level and in a way they could grasp the truth He was speaking if their hearts were open and receptive. Did some not understand? Did some not accept His truth? Of course, but those people didn’t want to accept Him or His message no matter how He delivered it. If it wasn’t one excuse, it would have been another that would have been in the way for them to hear.

Will a digital change like this work for every church? Most likely not, but keep in mind that the increasing trend in mobile device usage and our society’s reliance upon the Internet isn’t a church trend – we are talking about billions of people that make up this demographic of users.

Use Your Website for Classes, Events, and Conference Registration

Website forms are simple to create, and there are hundreds of different ways to create them. Having the results of a registration form emailed to you or a member of your staff does provide a convenience for your website traffic, but if you really want your website to do the heavy lifting, you could create a small database that those form results are sent to that puts each piece of information into the proper place so that all you have to do is download the spreadsheet containing registration information for everyone that has registered. How many hours of data entry and office work would this save you and members of your staff each time you have a class or event?

To Paypal or Not to Paypal?

There will be some controversy on this topic depending on who you talk to, because it seems everyone has their Paypal horror story. I realize that Paypal isn’t everyone’s favorite, and it did have a rocky start, but I’ve had major problems with several other merchants before, so you won’t find a credit card merchant that is void from making an error. Everyone makes mistakes, but if it’s evident that a company’s future is paved with good ideas and customer support, it’s not a good idea to turn a cold shoulder to it. In Website Magazine’s December 2010 issue, their article, Why the Smart Money is On Paypal states that, “each of the aforementioned companies [Google, Facebook, and Amazon] are either forging new relationships with PayPal or sweating the possibility of competing with it in the future.”

Among the many reasons, we (Tulsa Web Design Firm) use Paypal for website projects because it helps keep costs down for our clients. Paypal is one of the few reputable credit card merchants that do not charge a monthly service fee on top of the 2% transaction fee (available on Paypal Payments Standard only). Most merchants charge between $20 – $40 plus a transaction fee. I think using Paypal is a way for churches to be good stewards with their money by not having to pay hundreds of dollars a year to a credit card merchant regardless if there were any online transactions or not.

Paypal is a convenient (and inexpensive) tool to provide a way for your members to register and pay for events on your website. It’s good if they can register online, but if they still have to send in payment or stop by the church office and pay because you can’t take payments online, your website isn’t saving you, your office staff, or your church members any time when it easily could.

Build a Mobile Version of Your Website for Digital Offerings

Creating a way for members to give their tithes and offerings online during service is a fantastic way to get church members to interact with your website each week, as well as helping to automate some of the office work that is associated with receiving and counting tithes and offerings.

Even better than that would be to provide a member login for those that do want to give online that allows them access to their giving transactions and details. If done right, this could benefit your church members as well as your office staff by creating an automated process that streamlines the giving process.

When the time comes to take up the offering during service, just keep business as usual, but put the website URL to the giving page on the screen and mention about giving online right in their seat with their mobile device. They already have them out checking football scores and posting on Facebook while the announcements are being read anyway.

A Blog is Your #1 Communication Outlet

Every time I get a chance to consult on Search Engine Optimization and Internet marketing, this is the first topic of discussion. Websites need new content that is constantly being added for two reasons:

1. You need content for the search engines. People won’t find you in search results (local or national) if you don’t add engaging content to your website on a regular basis.

2. You need engaging content for your church members and website visitors. Your church members want to hear what you have to say, pastor. Give them a reason each week to visit the website by offering your insights and counsel on a blog they can subscribe to. (If you aren’t sure how to install a blog on your website, feel free to contact Innovated Media using the form below.)

So let’s get practical — I mentioned earlier that we (well, most of us) live busier lives now, and pastors are certainly no exception. Pastors are some of the busiest people I know. How and when could they find time to blog every week? The answer is they won’t! Over the years, I’ve seen many pastors with good intentions thinking they were going to blog about weekly sermons and post articles, but let’s be realistic. When times are too busy, it’s usually the first thing to get neglected.

Find someone on staff or a volunteer in the church (make sure they are a good writer!) that can write a blog post from your sermon every week; this helps especially if you are working on a series. Do you have small group / home group leaders in your church? If so, I bet there is a handful of them that would be more than willing to provide some written content about the lesson(s) they are teaching in their group.

E-Mail Blasts

E-mail blasts are becoming more standard these days, and for good reason. The cost to produce and send them out is low, and they do not require a lot of technical knowledge to produce. With services like iContact.com and Constant Contact, it’s a relatively simple process to convert your snail mail correspondence into e-mail blasts.

E-mail blasts are good for time sensitive information regarding events, bulletins, and service cancellations due to inclement weather, while keeping your church members’ attention focused on the communication that they receive from your church instead of their friends. It’s always best to get information straight from the horse’s mouth, so to speak.

Don’t Bite Off More than You Can Chew

Stepping into these new areas of digital communication may seem overwhelming at first, and they do take some work to be setup properly, but nearly all of them can be done by doing a little research by someone that’s good on a computer. The alternative is to hire a professional Internet marketing company to do the work if you do not have anyone on staff that specializes in all things Internet.