A four-part series on church web sites by Kevin D. Hendricks

I’ve talked about communicating where people are listening (use the Internet!), I gave some specific ways to communicate and I emphasized that communication doesn’t have to be written. But none of those strategies are any good if people can’t find your content.

Search Box
Earlier this year I tried to find information about the presidential candidates and I was shocked to discover that Barack Obama’s web site had no search box. Right now it’s a week before the election and his site still doesn’t have one. I’m losing hope.

Make sure your web site is searchable and that the results are helpful. Even if you’re not a techie, Google offers a free and easy search you can add to your site. Help people find what they’re looking for.

Archives
If you offer any kind of updateable content you should be archiving it and keeping it available, no matter how old it is. Yes, your pastor’s May 2005 letter to the congregation is outdated. But hopefully the spiritual concepts illustrated in that letter are timeless. Keep it online.

Navigation
In order for a site full of content to be useful, it has to be well organized. Make sure your site has a well-structured menu and navigation. It should be easy to get around and easy to figure out where you are in the site. It should be obvious where I’d go to find that May 2005 letter.

Highlight
The final key to making content easy to find is to highlight the good stuff. With so much information coming and going it’s easy to miss something. So be sure you’re pulling out the gems and pointing people to them. This might mean highlighting last week’s sermon and it might mean pulling out that timeless lesson from your pastor’s May 2005 letter.

Just because you built it doesn’t mean they’ll find it. Put in the extra effort to make sure people find your content.

Kevin D. Hendricks is the editor of Church Marketing Sucks and runs his own freelance writing and editing company, Monkey Outta Nowhere, where he helps organizations communicate.

A four-part series on church web sites by Kevin D. Hendricks

You can’t just dump content online and expect people to be transformed. It can happen, but you need to do a little more work.

You need to find ways to connect. Here are three suggestions:

Be Current
Our culture is obsessed with the current. Often with good reason. We’re concerned with what’s happening here and now. If your message is going to have any impact, it has to be current. Find ways to connect your message to what people are worried about. Today that’s a no-brainer: What does Jesus have to say about the economy?

Tell Stories
You can’t just write copy and hope to connect with people. Try telling stories about real people. It’s likely a few folks in your congregation have weathered the greatest economic collapse this country has ever faced. What’s their story?

Answer Questions
A third way to connect with people is by answering their questions. What burning questions do people have about your church or specific doctrines? Answer them.

Church web sites don’t have to be limited to potlucks and sermons. Try offering content that’s more likely to connect with people.

Kevin D. Hendricks is the editor of Church Marketing Sucks and runs his own freelance writing and editing company, Monkey Outta Nowhere, where he helps organizations communicate.

A four-part series on church web sites by Kevin D. Hendricks

Christians have a strong preference for the written word, but the Bible never says we can only communicate our faith in writing. As your church branches out on the Internet and finds ways to connect, don’t be limited by text.

Video
The most obvious format is video. Consider telling stories and answering questions with video. Keep it simple and short.

Audio
A podcast might be another way to tell your church’s story. Convince the old timers it’s a radio show. With Sunday morning worship music as transitions and nuggets from the sermon, half the work is already done.

Photos
Pictures are worth a thousand words. Load up on photos and let the smiling faces, the hands raised in worship, the tears of confession tell your church’s story.

Your pastor may like to sit at the computer and write sermons and newsletters, but that doesn’t mean your web site has to be all text. Branch out with some new media.

Kevin D. Hendricks is the editor of Church Marketing Sucks and runs his own freelance writing and editing company, Monkey Outta Nowhere, where he helps organizations communicate.

A four-part series on church web sites by Kevin D. Hendricks

Churches have the greatest story ever told. But we’re not giving that message of hope to the people who need to hear it. Churches have a communications problem.

Churches can barely manage to communicate next week’s potluck, never mind communicating something as life-changing as the idea that our security rests not in the stock market or the economy, but in the grace of God. There’s an idea worth communicating. But how many churches have been able to get that message past the last pew? And if you’re only reaching the folks in the pews, you’re preaching to the choir (so to speak).

Here’s a free tip: communicate online.

Thanks to the Internet, it’s very easy and very cheap to get your message out there where people are listening. So why don’t churches do it?

Step one is to start communicating. Get your church’s information out there. Make sure your web site had a news section, a calendar, a blog, a place where you can load up lots of content and it’s easy to find and search through.

Granted, it’s not easy. It takes time, effort and money (though less than you’d think), and you have to compete with an increasingly crowded market. But there are also people searching for information, yearning for hope. If you offer it—someone will eventually find it (you’d be amazed at the inane information that’s perennially popular on my personal blog).

But if you’re not communicating your message, then don’t be surprised when no one hears it.

Kevin D. Hendricks is the editor of Church Marketing Sucks and runs his own freelance writing and editing company, Monkey Outta Nowhere, where he helps organizations communicate.