Media Outreach

Happy day after the 4th of July! We hope you enjoyed time with your family this weekend!

In case you missed them…here are our top blog posts from the month of June are…

1. Greatest Way to Reach the Unchurched Online
2. 6 Tips for Successful Internal Communication with your Staff
3. 10 Things a Bad Church Website Will not do for You
4. Summertime Outreach
5. Why a Logo is Not a Brand
6. You have a website, now what? (Re-post)
7. E-invite Could be the Best Tool for Tentmakers
8. Loving with Our Gifts-Thoughts from a Mission trip to Haiti
9. How much Time should Churches Spend on Social Media
10. 5 Things I’ve learned in the Production of a Website

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Happy day after the 4th of July! We hope you enjoyed time with your family this weekend!

In case you missed them…here are our top blog posts from the month of June are…

1. Greatest Way to Reach the Unchurched Online
2. 6 Tips for Successful Internal Communication with your Staff
3. 10 Things a Bad Church Website Will not do for You
4. Summertime Outreach
5. Why a Logo is Not a Brand
6. You have a website, now what? (Re-post)
7. E-invite Could be the Best Tool for Tentmakers
8. Loving with Our Gifts-Thoughts from a Mission trip to Haiti
9. How much Time should Churches Spend on Social Media
10. 5 Things I’ve learned in the Production of a Website

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Have you ever considered utilizing Facebook as more than just a place to connect and build relationships with current attendees and recent visitors? Facebook has created an easy way to target your ideal church demographics, while pacing the advertising at your budget.

Choose who you will advertise to based on age, gender, city, state, country, interests, connections and friends. This sort of targeting allows you to really hone in on your audience.

The Cost Per Click method of advertising allows you to decide what your monthly budget is and work from there. With the robust analytics, you can start out small and grow and adjust your campaign and demographics accordingly.

Here are the steps to create an advertising campaign on Facebook.

1. Create a new Advertising Campaign: http://www.facebook.com/ads/create/

2. Upload Destination URL (church web address or dedicated campaign landing page)

3. Enter Title and Body

4. Upload Campaign Image or Logo

5. Select your Location and Target Demographic

6. Type in an Interest (this serves as a keyword to narrow your audience)

7. Select your Campaign Daily Budget

8. Set your Cost Per Click Max Bid estimate (it is suggested to fall in the between the suggested high and low bid for your audience, otherwise your ads may not be viewed)

One important thing to consider is where you will point your user click throughs. Some choose to lead them to the homepage of the website, while others choose to create a dedicated landing page. In advertising, generally a custom landing page is created to send all campaign traffic to. This allows you to more highly control the desired action of your user. With a landing page, you can reduce the number of click “options” on the page, forcing them to pick from one or two actions. For example, a homepage gives you the option to select from multiple main navigation items as well as various other graphic navigation buttons.

But, a landing page can offer a reduced number of selections such as “Sign up for a small group today” or “Email the pastor today to learn more about Main Street Church”. Removing the options makes it easier for your goal to be understood and met by the user.

With over 500 million users on Facebook, there is no question that our culture finds it relevant to their lives. Now we just have to decide how we can best use it to build the Kingdom together. Have further questions about advertising on Facebook? Let us know. We’d be happy to help.

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We talk a lot about building your brand, whether you’re a business, church or just a person. If you have a place of business, you probably have a brand, whether you like it or not. Your brand, however, isn’t your logo. You can get 10 new logos a year and still have the same brand. (side note: I don’t recommend getting 10 new logos a year!)  Your logo is what triggers people to recognize your company.

Dan Pallotta made some great points in his post on the Harvard Business Review blog, “A Logo is Not a Brand.”

Here is a summarization of how your brand is built:

1. Brand is your strategy
2. Brand is your calls to action
3. Brand is the way you speak
4. Brand is your customer service
5. Brand is the whole array of your communication tools.
6. Brand is your people
7. Brand is your facilities
8. Brand is your logo and visuals, too

The information you send out from your company will be interpreted in people’s minds. Make sure the message is clear for interpretation and that your message is consistent on all your channels.

*photo by Guidosportaal

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Yay! You have a website! It has amazing graphics, awesome features and, after pain-staking hours of labor, great content.

But…now what?  Are people coming to your site? Has it become the main hub of activity for your church or organization?

One very important step in setting up a new website is in regard to site traffic and statistics.  If you can’t tell what tools and pages people are utilizing, you’ll never know what ways to continue improving your site. Here are a few things to check for on your website analytics.

1. Check unique visitors. While page views are great, they aren’t nearly as important as the number of unique visitors.  You can have 35 page views from one person – and that person could be YOU.  If your site has a low number of unique visitors, focus on promoting the site through the methods listed later in the post.
2. Notice bounce rate. Bounce rate is the “percentage of single-page visits” and “generally indicates that site entrance pages aren’t relevant to your visitors” (according to Google Analytics).  With a high bounce rate (anything over 70%), you know that your audience is not finding your home page relevant.  Make sure there are moving, interactive elements, coupled with appropriate, updated design and information.
3. Ensure that the top visited pages are those that help “funnel” someone through your website. If you notice that your About Us page has a lot of traffic, place links to other pages within the website, keeping in mind that this is a page your visitors will frequent. Consider having links to an FAQ page or the ministries pages.  In the event you aren’t receiving traffic to the pages you assumed to be highly trafficked, it may be time to restructure the navigation or the actual content itself to make it more intuitive to your readership.

For some churches, there is little trouble attracting attention to their website.  If the main audience is students or young adults, the website will be the first place people seek information (this is a growing trend for sure).

Sometimes though, it requires some training.  Building up a recurring audience will take continual promotion, so here are some great ways to keep traffic returning.

1. Print out business cards that simply have the church logo and web address to empower your members to spread the word.
2. Place the website address on every mailer, bulletin and print piece you release.
3. Purchase 2’x8’ banner stands to place in the entryway of the church to remind your people of the great tool you have.
4. Consider removing some traditional print pieces, encouraging them to turn to the website, while saving you money!!
5. Request feedback. One of the best ways to get your organizations using the website is if they have ownership over it.  Consider passing out a small feedback card, asking them to get online and offer their feedback about the new site.
6. If you have the budget, outdoor marketing is a great way to promote your website. A billboard or outdoor signage with your website address could be all your audience needs to pique their interest. After all, 85% of people attend a church after first visiting the website!!
7. Tell them!! If you are excited about your website tell them and then tell them again!  Whether it is on Sunday mornings (for several weeks in a row) or from your Facebook/Twitter account, passion and energy begets passion and energy.

A website is an exciting tool and can be used to grow your organization and spread the Good News.  Let’s make sure we’re giving our websites the attention needed to be a relevant voice in the Technology Age.  Please share the creative ways you have promoted your website to your audience. We’re all ears!!

Photo By: Ivan Walsh

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