"After purchasing several commercials and running them hundreds of times in March and April, we had our highest attendance ever during April. I believe it was a result of my congregation becoming more excited about what is going on at the church because they are seeing the commercial themselves." - First Church of the Open Bible
Excerpt taken from the eBook "Creating a Good Website: A Guide to Achieving Outreach Objectives Online."
“It’s not about how many hits you get on your website, it’s about how long people stay. If visitors remain on your site long enough to get your marketing message, then you must have said something worth listening to; and if visitors get the message, your site has done its job.” Jerry Bader made this a major point in the article 18 Web-Marketing Concepts That Make a Difference. For a Christian organization, a website’s purpose is to serve as a tool to aid in the success of the organization. For a church or ministry to be successful, it must convey to both nonbelievers and churchgoers that the organization is honest and relevant.
While much of this can be achieved from the pulpit and through multiple age and life stage targeted groups, church leadership must accept that before they get the chance to meet visitors and convey their beliefs, they must first get them to walk through the doors of the church. While this once was an element taken for granted, today’s society does not automatically promote regular church attendance. More and more people do not consider the traditional church building as a place for their Spiritual growth. If, however, they do find themselves looking for a church home, most individuals these days will look online.
As the use of websites in the non-secular market becomes more popular with each passing day, it has become clear that having a static, uninteresting website is no longer sufficient. Churches must convey their ministry’s image in an appealing way through their website. Before exploring more on why a good website is vital to ministry, it is important to understand what good entails.
There are five major elements in every website. When utilized correctly, these elements create great websites: visual design, structure and navigation, interactivity, functionality, and content.
