This is our first ChurchMag Foundry—and we’re super excited!
We received a number of applications when we announced the Foundry a few months ago, and decided we would kick it off with Sam Arthur from Second Baptist Church. The area of help that Sam was looking to get from Kenny Jahng, was with a content redesign to make the church website look nicer, work better, and require less time to manage.
Let’s jump in!
As outlined before, the ChurchMag Foundry is a video recording of our Google Hangout, so please excuse some of the audio sync issues and video quality. The content, however, is amazing. Following the video, I’ve organized some of the high points and notes to help you glean the most from this Foundry. If you have anything to add, comments, or questions, please leave them in the comments following the post.
ChurchMag Foundry #1
I love what Kenny has to say about technology and how it relates to human interaction (let me paraphrase): Don’t use technology to replace human interaction and personal relationships, but use it to scale them. That’s a huge key as it relates to social media and website content, but it also applies to teamwork and project management. Keeping that foundation in mind, here are the high points Kenny tackles as it relates to streamlining Sam’s content curation:
- Harness a volunteer team or increase the size of your current team. Volunteers are key!
- Build-up your processes. Content creation, curation and publishing is prime for setting up strong procedures and processes. Try using SweetProcess (or some other system) to document how to do your job/tasks. Creating checklists creates consistency across the board, no matter who is ‘piloting’ your tech team.
- To gather content, plan and collaborate great content, you may want to try GatherContent (or some other system of content collaboration and planning) — before loading anything into your church blog.
Now Kenny begins to dig into the church’s website design:
What is your church website’s primary objective?
Keep in mind that the answer to this question will vary from church to church. Sam would like the new website design to:
- Remove fluff.
- Let the user experience the website, instead of the website cramming everything on one page.
- Make it more friendly.
- Engage more guests.
Here’s Kenny’s points in reply:
- Is it clear to you or your team who the primary audience is?
- Is it the new visitor? If so, reimagine the website through that lens.
- Have you looked at your website analytics to see what’s being used the most on your website?
He then goes on to point out that if you truly want to be missional, then you need to get out of the old ABC mindset: Attractional, Be the Building and Cash – give me money, money, money… Sam had mentioned before that the pastor’s blog had high traffic. Kenny points out that most church websites most busy page is the pastor’s bio page, and that today, the bio page has been replaced by a pastor’s blog. A pastor’s blog can be even a greater personal glimpse of who the pastor is.
Repurposing Sunday Sermons
I found Kenny’s ideas on this really cool. While simply posting full length sermon videos and podcasts can or could be your baseline effort, there are more creative things you can do in repurposing your content. There’s no need to create something new from scratch—first start with the content you already have! If you’ve been archiving sermons, you have hours and hours of content to draw from. Also, transcribing sermons? Who knew!?!
Has your church considered email marketing?
MailChimp is an excellent tool to use to get started with email marketing (we use it for ChurchMag) and Kenny explains the importance of building an email list in a most excellent way. I would imagine that most churches overlook email marketing, and as Kenny points out, this doesn’t require you to create more/new content, be reuse the content that you already have, and even setting up some powerful automation. Again, not making your communication impersonal, but scaling your interaction with people.
S.W.A.T.
“The church website is no longer a brochure, but a conversation you’re having with people.”
Kenny steps us through a formula he’s been using for 15-years for messaging communication. Here’s how SWAT breaks down:
- Sub-audience — You need to drill down to find your audience. Think of one person or couple of who you are talking to and trying to reach. This needs to be laser accurate. Who in your community are you trying to reach?
- #WIN — What is the #WIN for your sub-audience? We succeed by providing what they need, not providing what we need.
- Activities — What activities are you going to do to fulfill the #WIN? Does your planning fit with your Sub-audience?
- Tactics and Technology — Once you have the previous defined, figure out your blog content and resources on your church website.
This concept can be applied at multiple layers: Sermons, website design, content, YouTube videos, etc… Far too often we lead with technology, when in actuality, that’s the final line of execution. We must define these other steps first!
The New Front Door
“Your website is the new front door to your church.”
So what would happen if website visitors recognized and were familiar with church staff and pastors before ever walking through the front door of your church? Huge, right! Think past the church blog, and start thinking about photos and videos. Kenny provides a lot of cool ideas:
- Church video and photo tours.
- How to check kids in for Sunday School.
- Where do take your newborn when they are crying?
- Introduce your kid ministry teaching staff, pastors, youth leaders, etc…
A lot of these content ideas can be created by going through Kenny’s FAQ development as he outlined.
Your church website doesn’t have to be about technology and the church tech guy/team. The church website can—and should—involve many different ministries and a great way to highlight and recognize awesome volunteers, just as Kenny points out.
Conclusion
Church website content needs to radically change for the purpose of church websites to reach its full potential. As I said at the end of the Foundry, I love the answer to Sam’s question. The answer to a good church website design has far more to do with content and information than it does the design layouts. It’s not enough for your church website to look good, use HTML5, and have a MailChimp subscription box.
A good church website will reach far beyond just an interactive brochure and become a living extension of your church community.
Questions? Comments? Please discuss…
If you would like to be considered for a future ChurchMag Foundry, submit your request here.
[Welcome image via chrisinplymouth via Compfight cc]
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