Nov
28
Writing Rockin’ Content for Your Church Website
ByWriting effectively for your rockin’ church website is drastically different than writing for printed publications.
Here are some tips for producing effective web text:
- Avoid Christian-ese – Remembering that your primary audience is first-time guests, you should assume that do not know the lingo of Christians. When writing for the web, think of an unsaved friend or neighbor with no attachment to a church. Write in a way that will communicate with them. Assume they know nothing, without talking down to them!
- Avoid marketing-ese – Don’t sell, tell. This means taking out most adjectives like “great.” Website research tells us that Internet users are often turned off by promotional language. Try to keep it factual. Think about it … ever been to a commercial website and felt the words oozed of a common sales pitch?
- First things first – Write in “inverted pyramid” style of many newspapers: Put the most important information at the first part of the article. The “who, what, when, where, why and how.”
- Use short sentences and paragraphs – Pages that have sentences and paragraphs that run together and look like one long essay or treatise kills the experience for the guest. They won’t even bother reading your text. Think short and concise without sacrificing content and message.
- Write headlines with gravitational pull – In other words, write headlines that not only describe the content adequately, but pull the reader into the text.
- Break up long articles – Use subheads and bulletin points whenever possible to give the web reader breaks.
- Spotlight key words and phrases – Experts says that most web readers scan pages instead of reading them word-by-word like most print readers do. To maximize readability, bold key words and phrases sparingly to catch their attention.
- Scrub your copy clean – This means use spellcheck at a minimum before posting a page! If your website is laden with errors and misspellings, the reader will deem it untrustworthy and a waste of time.
See all the posts in the Building Rockin’ Church Websites series here.
While I agree that we should avoid Christianese (there are even denominational dialects!), I’m not sure that our primary audience is, or should be, first-time guests. Many of the people you interviewed, when asked the purpose of their sites, gave answers that reflected a community-focus.
Our church’s site is at least as much about retention and community building than acquisition.
That said, the site does need to be friendly to first-time guests, too.
Jeremy, are you talking about community in the sense of the surrounding city or town or geographical area? If so, I would include that in the audience of guests.
Here’s why … I say “guests” in the sense of all prospective guests.
And prospective would include those in the geographical area around a local church.
I try to be diligent and think about who is living around our church. For instance, we are a bustling suburb … but also have a big population of single adults (apartment dwellers, etc.) and also have several senior adult communities.
Agree or disagree?
“…I’m not sure that our primary audience is, or should be, first-time guests.”
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…generally speaking, I think the majority of web sites can list ‘first-time’ user as a primary audience type. They are either trying to get you to buy, join, read, subscribe, etc. This is why being specific about your primary audience is important, otherwise you would have to cater to all user goals, style preference, etc.
The other extreme is being too specific, and over designing for a single audience type without leaving room for any other. There are exceptions to these rules (usually sites/applications with a specific goal – E.g. documents shares, time tracking, etc), but these exceptions are usually part of a larger system that built around catering to an audience.
I can’t say for sure where to draw the line for a church, only that you have to draw it. I don’t see very many 20 somethings shopping at Macy’s for their clothes, nor many 50 somethings inside of an OldNavy.
Our site is designed primarily for existing church members, but is friendly to prospective members. This was done with a lot of forethought.
Church members are the primary audience because the site seeks to build community and fellowship. It seeks to retain existing members and keep them involved in the church family and to grow as Christians.
Experience tells us that our prospects first are members of the denomination who move into the area or transfers from other local churches. These visitors are comfortable with the church environment. Our last, but obviously very important, audience is the “unchurched” prospect. We have found the best way to reach these people is with direct face-to-face contact (friends, neighbors). The website then serves as a safe place for these people to get an accurate feel of what our church is like–the types of sermons, members, tone, etc.
I realize this philosophy runs contrary to what many of in church web ministry believe, but it seems to be the most effective model for us. Check out our site at http://www.theplacechurch.com to see how we’re addressing all these prospective audiences–I’m curious to see what everyone thinks.
God bless,
jb