Media Outreach

If you have decided to utilize a website as part of your ministry, then you have done so because you believe it will be an asset to achieving your goals.

One thing that will help is to identify what those goals are: are you trying to?

1. Attract new visitors to the church to help grow your Church
2. Trying better communicate with your current membership
3. Giving your membership tools to reach outward

Either way you are counting on your website assisting with reaching your goals. However, a website, in and of itself, will not achieve your goals. We, here at faithHighway, have spent time talking with pastors and ministry leaders to discover what kinds of goals they have for their website and what is or isn’t working. Over the next few months, we want to share these insights with you.

Before we can talk about the specific objectives many churches have and how to see that fulfilled in your online ministry, we want to share with you some of things you can do to make your site appealing and noticed, no matter what your final goals may be. In the article 18 Web-Marketing Concepts That Make a Difference, Jerry Bader made this point:

“It’s not about how many hits you get on your website, it’s about how long people stay. If visitors remain on your site long enough to get your marketing message, then you must have said something worth listening to; and if visitors get the message, your site has done its job.”

This applies in the church world as well. You want to create a website that appeals to your visitors and encourages them to stick around long enough to hear what you are trying to say.

Most likely you have strategies on Sunday morning to ensure that members and visitors hear the morning sermon.

1. You have reserved visitor parking to alleviate that stress
2. You have greeters at the door to make people feel welcome
3. You have meet and greet time to help people connect
4. And when the service is over, especially at a larger church, you have someone to help direct traffic.

All of these are strategies for making the church experience pleasant so that the sermon does not fall on ears still thinking about having to park in a fire lane or that no one has even said hello. Just like these Sunday morning strategies, there are strategies for getting your message heard online.

We have more that we would like to share….but first. What are your thoughts?