Magnetize Your Church's Web Site

Written by Jesse Palmer

OK. Your church has a Web site. Do you want to make it THE place where the present and future members of your church family come for information and interaction? You can compete with the best of them. Consider these ways to turn your Web site into one mighty magnet.

1. Give people a reason to come back.
Good design and promotion may get someone to visit your Web site once, maybe twice. But quality content, always fresh, keeps them coming back time and time again.

Provide ways that users can tailor your Web site to meet their needs and interests, preferences, and purposes.
Give users plenty of ways to respond, such as forms for registration, suggestions, requests for more information and submitting concerns.
Set up features for interaction. Weigh the merits of a chat room, forum, bulletin board and survey.
Include enterprise capabilities in your Web site. Consider allowing users to give their tithes and offerings online, make payments of registration fees, or purchase sermon tapes and other resources. You might even want to set up affiliate relationships with online retailers such as LifeWay Christian Resources.
Use media. While video over the Internet is still getting better all the time, audio is great. Sermons provide great content for church Web sites.
Improve the user interface and structure. Your Web site's ease of navigation and visual attractiveness help create a pleasant experience for the user.
Change the look of your Web site periodically. The change doesn't always have to be radical. Sometimes changing the color palette is enough.
Provide shortcuts to content. Setting up your Web site to accept "quick-find" numbers that are inserted at key places in printed content encourages Web site use. (It's a bit like the reader response cards in magazines that let you request information by circling the number that matches the product or advertiser.)

2. Employ technology wisely.
Since I'm writing this article months before you'll read it, I won't waste your time being specific because today's technology is yesterday's technology tomorrow!

Tap talent within your congregation. Laypersons with expertise in Internet-related technologies are probably most helpful in short-term projects and in providing consultation (not in keeping up the site).
Take advantage of the power of "merging." In this technology, Web pages are programmed with instructions that call for content that has been stored in a database. (The process is much like setting up and merging a form letter that calls for specific information from a database.) Data can be used in multiple places and be kept up to date through a simple form. Initial development is challenging, but keeping the site up to date is a cinch.
Watch out for plug-ins. Many users will not take the time to download and install a plug-in for some special effect in a Web site. If you do use special features that require plug-ins (and more and more don't require them), make it easy for users to either get the plug-in or easily bypass the feature.
Stay informed about technology. Read printed magazines and online resources. Talk with professionals in the field. Make friends with Internet gurus and geeks. Visit other Web sites, but not just church Web sites.

3. Make your Web site a priority.
With adequate support and investment, your church's Web site can become a magnet site.

Devote necessary resources. Time, money, and personnel are absolutely essential for quality Web sites. Your Web site can't be "just one more thing" that someone has to do.
Stress "buy in" at all levels. Church Web sites are most successful when those in leadership, especially the pastor, give the Web site wholehearted support and use it themselves.
Plan ahead. While the Internet is the definition of instant, "magnetized" Web sites require planning and preparation. Chart a continuing course and allow ample lead-time.
Make the Web site an integral experience of church life. Your church's Web site has the potential to dramatically improve communication internally and externally and increase participation and support of all areas of church life. At the same time, it can prove a valuable partner of good stewardship: Think of the savings in time and money that are spent on producing and mailing promotional materials.

4. Add specialty and targeted sites.
Why settle for one Web site when you can have all you want? Increasingly churches are going to discover the value of having sites for specific purposes and for targeted groups. These sites can be as few or as many pages as needed. Their setup and maintenance can be assigned to those most closely related to them.

Set up an online welcome center for first-time inquiries. In your advertising and other promotion, direct people here first. Provide links to specific content in your main Web site.
Focus on special events and emphases. Christmas programs, conferences and stewardship and attendance emphases will benefit from having their own Web sites. Coordinating the look and theme strengthens your promotion.
Get ministries and groups online. Imagine the possibilities of ministries and groups having sites targeted to their constituents. (The Church at Brook Hills, Birmingham, Ala., where I am a member, deployed more than 50 small sites for ministries and groups.)
Target additional sites to persons with special needs. If your church reaches or wants to reach Hispanics, for instance, why not set up a site geared toward their specific needs and interests in their language?

5. Get the World Wide Word out.
Too many church Web sites suffer from anonymity. (Some are better left unknown!) Organizations with successful, popular Web sites use every opportunity--and pay big bucks for some of those--to get people to visit their sites.

Include a Web site reference in all your printed materials. Make sure your Web address is on your letterhead, business cards, newsletters, brochures, bulletins--everything.
Publish online newsletters. One of the best ways to get people back to your Web site is to send them periodic newsletters via e-mail. Highlight new and featured content in the Web site, and provide "clickable" links to the related content. These online newsletters can be targeted to different groups.
Make your Web address prominent in advertising. Whether in the newspaper, on television or radio, in billboard ads, direct mail, bumper stickers or any other marketing medium, make sure that your Web address is easily seen. You might consider registering Web addresses to fit the message of your advertising.
Trade links with other Web sites. There are endless possibilities for links to and from your Web site. Choose wisely. (Out of courtesy, at least, ask permission before you link to another site.)
Register your Web site with the search engines. People are literally searching the Internet for churches. Make sure your church can be found.

Need help? Want to know more? You'll find helpful resources and fresh ideas for "magnetizing" your church's Web site at LifeWayLINK.

Jesse Palmer is founder of Details Communications, Inc., Birmingham, Ala. Adapted from a previously published article. Used by Permission.

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