The Marketed Church

Church Marketing: Free Ride to Church!

smiley — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 00:38:00 -0400

As I was driving around today, I noticed a hand-made poster sign stuck in the ground beside the road that read something like, "Free Ride to Church. We'll Pick You Up." And, the poster listed a telephone number to call for a ride.

This is a simple, yet incredibly effective marketing iniative. By offering free rides with the increase in gas prices, you are eliminating another excuse for lack of attendance. Also, some individuals/families might not even have transportation. This is a great way for churches to minister and serve their local communities.

For small churches, your members and regular attendees are already coming to church; so, why not call and ask them to pick up someone on their way? For larger churches, you can, perhaps, provide a van service.

How cheap and easy is it to make some home-made posters with the church's phone number and hang them up all over town (on telephone posts, shopping centers, grocery stores, public libraries, restaurants, bars (hey, bring 'em to church even if they're hung over), stick 'em in the ground)?

Poster board = $.50 - $.75 per sheet
A few markers = $2 - $3
Salvation, Discipleship, & Relationships = Priceless

Churches without marketing budgets have NO EXCUSE for not reaching their communities.

Blind Insights! New Web Site Plug-in and Blog Widget for Motivational Quotes

smiley — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 02:22:00 -0400

Excited to announce a new plug-in that I've created which allows users to display random motivational quotes on their web site. The fantastic new tool displays quotes for topics such as leadership, success, happiness, ambition, and so much more. The new plug-in is called "Blind Insights" and is available in 8 different colors; it only requires you to place two lines of code in your web site's source.

To choose your color and copy the source, visit the Blind Insights web site.

Link Building by Request in Receipt E-mail

smiley — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 21:25:00 -0400

I saw a great article today on building your back link network.

Rand Fishkin wrote about requesting links in your order confirmation e-mails. Great idea.

Furthermore, one of the comments in the blog mentioned a company that offered the same thing, but with one exception. After your order placement, if you provide a link on your web site to the company, then the company would credit your account 10% of your total purchase.

As for churches, how many of you have requested that your members place a link on their web sites to the church's web site?

My plug (hey I have to)...please put a link on your web site to mine. The Marketed Church @ http://www.themarketedchurch.com

SEO & Google Analytics: Assess Your Current Impact

smiley — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 15:26:00 -0400

As I've mentioned previously in my blog, "Define Your Audience," one of the first steps in optimizing your site is to determine who you want to attract. However, you also need to know who your site is currently attracting and where it stands currently in the search engines. Only after this assessment can you adjust or modify your site's design accordingly. A powerful tool for this assessment is Google Analytics. As pointed out by Eric Lander in his article, Google Analytics only measures user data. Therefore, you would have to view your web site's log files to get a complete report of visibility and navigation through your site. However, if you are interested user metrics such as page visits, bounce rates, time on site (these topics will be discussed in laters posts), then Google Analytics is a great tool for getting started.

Navigating through Google Analytics and interpreting the data reports can be pretty confusing for beginners. Therefore, as part of my search engine optimization series, I'm going to be including some posts on how to interpret various parts of the reports provided by Google Analytics.

To begin, we'll need to install Google Analytics on your web site. In order to install Analytics, you must have capabilities of editing the source code of your web site. If you don't, please contact your web site designer or hosting company.

Go to http://www.google.com/. You'll need to login to Google (create an account if you don't have one). Then click on "My Account" at the top. (See Examble A)

EXAMPLE A:

Now, if you see Analytics under "My Products" click on it. Otherwise, click on "More" under "Try Something New." (Examble B)

EXAMPLE B:

Once you are in Analytics, choose "Add Website Profile" at the bottom left of your screen. (See Example C)

EXAMPLE C:

Under the Create New Website Profile wizard, choose "Add a profile for a new domain" (1). Enter the web site URL (2) and click Continue (3). (See Example D)

EXAMPLE D:

There are two options for tracking codes. There are a few technical reasons for using the legacy tracking code ("Urchin"). However, unless you have a reason, use the new tracking code. (See Example E) If, for some reason, you are not seeing metrics, check to make sure you have followed all of the steps correctly. Only, after you have checked and re-checked, try using the legacy tracking code.

Copy the code (highlight the code and press "Ctrl+C"). As the instructions say, insert the copied code just before the </body> tag. And click Finish.

EXAMPLE E:

Now, your site will be displayed under you Google Analytics account. In order to see your reports click "View Reports." (See Example F)

EXAMPLE F:

If the script is installed correctly, it will take approximately 24 hrs before you start seeing your site's metrics.

Congratulations, the hard part is over!

Church Marketing: Quality content and quality deliverance online

smiley — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 02:52:00 -0400

Today, I read an article on Slate, "How we read online," by Michael Agger. The article reports a study performed by Jakob Nielsen who is a usability expert and discusses topics such as eye-tracking research, web design errors, and banner blindness.

Jakob's study makes some good points on presentation. While I don't agree with all of his beliefs, overall, Jakob's suggestions are worth noting.

Additionally, I inform clients all of the time about the importance of eye-tracking. In print media, the eyes are limited to the page's edges. On the web, however, if the page is not designed properly, then a visitor's attention could be hard to keep and diverted quite easily. Good web designers are typically able to draw the attention of visitors to certain aspects of pages and "encourage" specific navigational routes to increase the chances of conversion - or, simply, getting information about the user by them completing a form or something of that nature.

Quality does matter, especially if your site is one-in-a-million. How does your site stand out? What kind of impact does your site make?

Search Engine Optimization for Churches: What is it and why should we?

smiley — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 14:32:00 -0400

I've been asked to write an eBook on the why's and how's of marketing and search engine optimization for churches. In preparation for doing so, I'd like to use this blog as a think tank for acquiring questions, issues, and comments for search engine optimization and marketing for religious organizations. Therefore, I ask that you to be invloved in this process - I want to know your questions and concerns; I want to know your thoughts.

First off, if you'd like to know more about who I am, I would encourage you to check out the "About" page. As for my "credibility" in search engine optimization (SEO), I will report that 90% of my clients are listed on the top 2 pages of major search engines for their targeted keywords and phrases. I cannot, however, take any responsibility for my accomplishments - save my faithfulness to be obedient in using my gifts. God has given each of us talents to use for His glory; and, when we use those talents, He increases our fruitfulness. God does not call us to do things in which Has not first equipped us to do. God has equipped me to do this, and He has made me successful in the online marketing arena.

Before we "jump in" to the in's and out's of SEO, we should discuss what is and why should the Church concern itself with search engine optimization. By simple definition, SEO is a process in which pages are designed in order to increase their rank or position among search engines naturally, without paying for advertisements. With search engine algorithms constantly changing to prevent web site designers from cheating, pages must continue to be modified and adapt to these updated algorithms in order to retain their positions.

With that said, why should the Church try to optimize its web sites? Shouldn't we focus our attention on more tangibles such as salvations and memberships? Shouldn't we spend more of our time and resources helping our local communities and feeding the homeless? I think that all of these are lofty goals, but they're just that - goals. What about the process for achieving these goals? In other words, salvations and increases in membership, community outreaches, and feeding the homeless are great, but how are we making the initial connections; how are we making the initial contact; or, to borrow the Church's terminology, how are we establishing the relationship? Through efforts of mail outs, advertising and door-to-door visits, some churches have been successful in reaching their communities. However, what about the people that these strategies don't connect you with? Nevertheless, those 'unconnected' people are searching for something. And, they will find many things in the midst of their searching. Will they find you? And, ultimately, will they find Christ?

I know that, ultimately, God initiates the calling and allows Himself to be found. No one can come to Him, unless He calls them first. But, when God does make the call, and the recipient begins the search, is the Church easy or difficult to find? How can a "seeker" (used in a general sense for someone seeking God) find a local body of believers? Can they find your church? Why should they try your church compared to another church? I'm not speaking in a manner of competition. I'm saying that no other church in your area has what they are needing to disciple them and help them grow in their relationship to Christ. Your church has the very specific program, class or teaching that ministers to their need. But, how would the visitor know that? How could they find your church in the midst of all the other churches in your community.

I believe the heart of this issue rests on two gigantic, fundamental disciplines - responsibility and stewardship - and the combination of the two. The Church has received a mandate to practice both. Furthermore, I would take the issue one step further and state that the Church has a responsibility in stewardship.

In my many years of being active in ministry, I've repeatedly heard individuals reference Scripture such as, "God's word will not return to him void," and believe that it doesn't matter if we give 100%, 55%, or 10%; God's word will still accomplish everything He has planned. While I do believe that God's word will not accomplish anything less than what God has planned for it to, it doesn't release us from our duty or our responsibility to give our all. Along those same lines, if individual churches desire to have a web site, then why not do it right? Why not give it your best? After all, doesn't God deserve it; isn't He worthy? If your church is not going to engage the Internet with its whole heart, then I would challenge, why engage it at all? Why invest resources into something that you're only going to do halfway? Then, you become a poor steward of those resources and that doesn't glorify God either. Therefore, as my first notion of accountability to all churches, get your web site in order. There's no excuse for sloppy, dull, old pages. (And Microsoft's Frontpage is NOT an option for enhancement.) If you need to, hire a web designer. While I'm a license pastor, I make a living and provide for my family by the way of marketing services and web site design - I live in the corporate world everyday. I am a firm believer that God's people ought to be the best at what they do! All things were to created to glorify the Creator - even us. The Church's web sites should be second to none. Again, in gentle love and reprimand, it's time your church gets in the game.

Now, am I proposing for churches to 'ride the bench' on the information superhighway? Am I advocating that churches may elect not to do a web site at all, if they are not willing to invest the time, energy and other resources to do it right? Absolutely not! Again, responsibility in stewardship. Because of the resources that are made available to churches for web site design, viral marketing, and social media marketing, churches should be actively egaging their culture through the mediums in which the culture operates. Unfortunately, many churches are operating in today's culture using outdated techniques. Its like trying to sell a boat in the desert. Unless God told you to build one because a flood was coming, a boat has very limited effectiveness in a desert (if you flipped it, the boat might help shade you from the sun). As statistics point out, the Christian Church is losing effectiveness because it has not adapted (not changing the message, just changing the methods) to a modernized society. God is still working in people's lives, but we MUST be resposible and be good stewards. We must do our part.

You, the Church, are responsible for being a good steward in increasing your influence and reaching your community across all mediums made available to you. If you don't, then either it is because you don't know how, you are operating with limited resources, or you are lazy and disobedient. There are remedies for every reason (or excuse). If you need help, then I encourage you to contact me. A necessary part of having a web site, is to be found. Can your web site be found? Is your web site search engine optimized? There are many people searching, but can they find Jesus Christ through finding your church? If not, you will be held accountable for your lack of stewardship - no matter what reason you may have.

Video of the Week: Sarah McLachlan - World on Fire

smiley — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 02:25:00 -0400

Sarah McLachlan, instead of paying $150,000 for the normal video shoot, pays $15 for this video and uses the rest of the money to help over 1,000,000 women and children worldwide. This video has some staggering statistics. What are we doing to reach our communities with the resources that God has given us?

For all of you subscribers, here's the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0O2LMqnHGg

Win a FREE Search Engine Optimization from Google!

smiley — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 21:41:00 -0400

Until June 17th, Google is holding a contest offering free optimization to a handful of sites. Enter your site and win a free search engine optimization!

The URL is: http://www.google.com/websiteoptimizer/workout/index.html

Shep's Testimony at FCA Camp, Black Mountain, NC

smiley — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 19:35:00 -0400

A friend of mine, Shep, has an incredible testimony. He had the opportunity of sharing it with the FCA camp on Tuesday night. I posted the testimony on YouTube. However, because of the time limits of YouTube, I had to split the testimony into three parts. If you would like to have the full testimony on DVD, let me know.

Part 1:

Part 2:

Part 3:

For all of you subscribers, here's the links:

Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GlOt8ycqunE
Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQgxgYv0ods
Part 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qd6KMwMUGCo

Video of the Week: 12-year-old Defies the Odds

smiley — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 22:40:00 -0400

I saw this earlier this week. I thought it was a great inspirational video. The next time you think you have it bad, remember this kid.

Nick Santonastasso talks to TODAY’s Ann Curry about living without limbs.

For all of you subscribers, here's the link: 12-year-old Defies the Odds
For those of your who would like to read the article, here's the link: Nick Santonastasso talks to TODAY’s Ann Curry about living without limbs.

Church Bulletins: Are They Really Necessary?

smiley — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 19:56:00 -0400

Please don't be offended; no attack is meant. I just want to pose a question, "Are church bulletins really that necessary?" I mean, let's think about it...

First, everyone has to coordinate information - the teaching pastor, the worship pastor, whoever compiles and edits announcements. Don't forget there's the typing, the printing, the folding, and collating of inserts. Is it just me, or does it seem a waste of natural, financial and human resources? Couldn't (and shouldn't) the Church be more productive with its resources? Again, please don't hear me as being negative; accept this as constructive criticism. Remember, my purpose for this blog is to get you to think of strategies for expanding your reach and increasing your impact. So, if there was a better way than printing bulletins, would you do it?

How effective is printing the bulletins at your church? In other words, how many of your attendees actually read the bulletin? How many take them home and post them on their refrigerators to serve as a reminder of upcoming events? And, how many are left in the pews after service on Sunday only for more human resource effort is made to pick them all up. Sure, there are some who read them. Bulletins are also great for coloring on (one thing I'm looking forward to having in the service as my daughter gets older). Honestly, however, the main reason I take one every Sunday is because the kind older gentlemen and women stand at the doors passing them out. I feel as if I'd hurt their feelings if I told them I didn't want a bulletin; and then, of course, how could I ever worship with a clear conscience? (Just kidding.)

As far as delivering information, don't a lot of churches have Powerpoint slides with events and other notes? Also, generally, someone (either at the beginning of the service, or the end) gets up before the congregation and reads the information and events from the bulletin and/or slides. Futhermore, unless there's a predominantly older demographic in your church, (and even still) most people have access to the Internet. Wouldn't it be easier to just post it there and then train members to consult the site for all information? Wouldn't that be easier?

My only point is I don't believe bulletins are as effective as we would like to think. Besides keeping some people happy about "sticking to a schedule," there are other means to getting your information to your audience. Here's a few stories to hopefully start the 'creative juices' running. Both of these particular incidents happened while I was in college. I attended, Carson-Newman College, a school with approximately 2,500 students. While it is not too large, it is still larger than most churches' attendance. On two occasions, I was asked to get some information out to the student body. Here's what I did...

The first instance was a concert taking place in Knoxville, TN. I had only about a hundred flyers in my hand and five dorms to visit. Now each dormitory has an announcement board where various postings are listed. I was a student; I knew how often people actually stopped by the information boards. Most of these boards were in obscure places anyway. So, the wheels in my head began turning and I got an idea. Just inside the main, front doors of each dorm, I grabbed about 20-25 flyers and I simply through them up in the air. Then, wherever the flyers landed on the ground, that's where I taped them. It was organized chaos - and it got people's attention. I watched as every single person entering the dorms stopped to read the concert flyers on the ground. Talk about a 95-100% viewing rate. Plus, the flyers remained there until after the concert. And, don't worry, I didn't leave them there; I cleaned them up once the concert had come and gone. In my many opportunities to work with youth groups, we've implemented 'organized chaos' many times. We tend to remember things better when something is out of natural order. What ways can you wake people up in your church so they get the picture and it sticks?

The second example was while I was serving in a leadership position in Carson-Newman's Fellowship of Christian Athletes. Easter was approaching and so was Spring Break. Along with Easter and break came mid-terms. For the last FCA meeting before Easter break, we wanted to reenact the Crucifixion; we wanted this particular meeting to be an outreach to our lost students. So, again, I had another 'great' idea (don't worry, I'm full of them...again, just kidding). I got a handful of flyers printed out and I posted them throughout various parts of campus. The flyers, in fact, got SO MUCH attention that the administration contacted me. Oh yeah, what did I put on the flyers? Only, "Someone is going to DIE tonight at FCA." Okay, so maybe it was a stretch, but it was still the truth; someone really was going that night at FCA, at least in acting. But, hey, it got the message across. We had so many people come to FCA that night because they just wanted to see what the flyer was all about. Its ironic that one of my college English teachers told me that I had "too wild of an imagination." I guess it isn't too wild for God.

Can you imagine any wild ideas to grab attention and attract people to your church and its programs? Keep brainstorming; I know you've got some good ones coming.

The Greatest Weight of All: The Domain Name

smiley — Fri, 30 May 2008 20:42:00 -0400

Search engines determine relevance based on a point system. Depending on specific factors, your web site can acquire a higher score. The point system is also known as "weight." While it is not the only factor, the greatest points are awarded for a specific domain name that matches the search term. For example, let's say I searched for "fried chicken in cumming." If there existed (there may be, I'm not sure) a web site located at "www.friedchickencumming.com" or "www.cummingfriedchicken.com," then the web site would be awarded a large amount of points and would be considered to have a lot of "weight."

For myself, I am targeting individuals belonging to or working at churches and churches, themselves, who are looking for advice on online marketing. Therefore, I own the domain names:

All of these domain names point to the same place - this blog. They are called domain aliases. Now, once these domains are indexed and included in search engine results, TheMarketedChurch.com blog should be pretty high at the top for phrases such as: "marketed church," "church marketing company," "church marketing firm," "church marketing strategies," "cheap church marketing," and "ministry marketing strategies."

For as little as $5-$6 per year for each domain name, this is an extremely cheap avenue for publicizing your church in the community. Think about search phrases that you could purchase to point to your church or ministry web site. If I was a church here in Cumming, Georgia, I would purchase churchescumminggeorgia.com, churchescummingga.com, cumminggeorgiachurches.com, and cumminggachurches.com. I would then point all 4 to my church's web site. For a measly $30 a year, I would acquire a tremendous more amount of visit to my web site and, hopefully, to my church. After all, isn't that the point?

Building Castles in the Sandbox

smiley — Fri, 30 May 2008 14:50:00 -0400

SCENARIO: The day has come for your youth group's final and biggest fundraiser before their mission trip - a community-wide car wash. For the past month, the youth have canvassed the community with flyers; you posted ads in the papers and on the radio. A lot of time and money have gone into preparation and getting the word out to your community.

The morning of, you wake up only to find overcast skies. You quickly turn on the Weather Channel to find that there is a great chance of rain. You think to yourself, perhaps this will be no big deal. You provide the soap and God will provide the water. There has to be a few people who wouldn't mind getting their cars washed no matter what the drying conditions are. Besides, this could be a little fun for the youth as well. As you're getting dressed, you hear a siren on your TV followed by tornado warnings for your county and you begin to hear thundering. Now, it seems the car wash has been 'washed out.'

You proceed calling the youth to tell them to meet at the church; the group has to come up with a backup fundraising plan and QUICK. With the car wash, you had the luxury of time for advertising. However, the mission trip is only a few weeks away and time is now of the essence.

QUESTION: No matter what event you choose, HOW DO YOU GET THE WORD OUT QUICKLY?

More money can be spent in advertising. Some churches have the luxury of phone systems such as Phone Tree that will call everyone on the church roster automatically. The phone systems still have a limited reach - your church role only. You, however, need to reach the ENTIRE community. Again, the question is, "How?"

The Internet can be a great resource for getting information out to a community very quickly. BUT, you must, as with everything else, do it strategically and harness its 'powers.' So the group decides to post the information on the church's web site. Great idea. But, now the question is, "How many visitors fequently travel to the site? And, does anyone in the community visit our web site?" Ultimately, you must drive traffic to your site.

You are hoping that search engines will pick up the information on your event and display it to people searching for events in your community. Another fantastic idea, but search engines are quirky beasts. They are great for information distribution, but you have to wait on their timing. Here's what I mean...

There's a few things you need to know about search engines. First, search engines have what's called a "sandbox," or waiting period before indexing a NEW domain name. For instance, if you register a new domain name, then search engines will wait for a period of time before including it in their results. They do this in order to eliminate "fly-by-night" sites, SPAM sites, illegal software sites, etc. MSN Live and Yahoo have a sandbox of about 1-2 weeks; Google's sandbox is much longer at approximately 3-5 weeks. When planning an event and you wish to launch a new domain name for the event, please remember to plan accordingly. Register the domain name as soon as you can even if the web site has not been developed yet. Don't wait for the web site to be developed before acquiring the domain name. Most hosting companies will display a "parked" page until you upload your site.

Second, once search engines begin indexing your site, they will only index 3-5 pages per visit; and, their visitation frequency is between once a week and once a month. Therefore, if your church's web site is only 5-10 pages, then your entire site could be indexed (with all new updated information) in as little as 2 weeks, but as long as 4 months. Imagine the length of time it would take search engines to index and display your new youth event information if your church web site is, perhaps, 50 pages.

As a real example, a local church started an event and registered a new domain name http://www.31daystolive.com/. I think it was an evangelism initiative; I'm still not sure. They began advertising throughout the community 1-2 months before the web site went live. Furthermore, the website, it seemed, was only going to be active for 31 days. Once the web site did go live, it had about 10 pages maximum. Based on what I've shared with you above, do you think the web site got tremendous amounts of traffic from search engines? No, it didn't. As a matter of fact, the site is no longer active. If you search for "www.31daystolive.com" in Google, (as of today) only 6 pages are displayed; and, only one of those 6 is a page from the actual site. That one page listed on Google shows a parked domain page description. The site was only active through the month of March 2008 and no longer displays relevant information.

That's how fast online marketing works. So, how do you build a castle - a strong campaign - during your time in the sandbox?

The answer...drum roll, please...

"Social Marketing" and/or "Social Bookmarking"

If you notice, there are little icons below each of my entries. These icons are social marketing (and/or bookmarking implied from here throughout) services. Each one targets a difference audience. Futhermore, because of the high amounts of traffic to the web sites of each of these services, search engines index changes to these sites as frequently as every hour. Best of all, THESE SERVICES ARE FREE! All it takes is a free account in order to submit a new site.

TheMarketedChurch.com domain name was just registered this past Monday (May 26, 2008). So, based on what I told you above, I know that search engines will not begin to index my site for at least another week. Therefore, when someone searches for keywords or phrases that I'm targeting, engines will not return my site as a relevant result yet. However, as of today, if you search for "marketed church" on Google, entries from TheMarketedChurch.com blog are displayed as results 3, 4, 5 and 6. FOUR RESULTS ON THE FRONT PAGE! Better yet, the first two of the four results were index within AN HOUR of posting them to social marketing sites. The third and fourth results took 24 hours to be indexed. Again, my site has NOT been indexed, but entries from my site have - and, in a matter of a few hours. Yes, I have an account with many of these services and I post my entries to them. But, it drives traffic to my site. Just think of the possibilities when my actual site is indexed.

CONCLUSION: If you need to get information out fast, post your information on your web site. Then, push the web site address of the specific page where the information is posted to social marketing sites. Its fast and free. Take advantage of these resources and build castles while you're in the sandbox.

Video of the Week: How NOT to Use Powerpoint

smiley — Fri, 30 May 2008 00:17:00 -0400

Along with good marketing strategies, you must have good presentation. Pastors who use Powerpoint, please take note, as well.

For all of you subscribers, here's the link: How NOT to Use Powerpoint

Six Flags Offers Student Price for Adults Who Buy Tickets Online

smiley — Thu, 29 May 2008 21:48:00 -0400

I heard an ad on the radio today that Six Flags is offering student prices on tickets bought online. Smart move.

How many people visit their web site? An estimated 1.8 million compared to 500,000 only 5 months ago. Only an estimated 32% are regular visitors and, furthermore, only an estimated 21% of their traffic visits their ticketing system.¹

How much did their web site cost? I'm sure a lot cheaper than staff salaries and associated expenses that are incurred with workers in the ticket offices. Their expenses are also reduced by encouraging families to print tickets from their home computers and consume their own ink and pay for their own paper.

Smart marketing is greater reach with less expense. What ways can your church reduce overhead and increase reach? Think about it.

1. http://www.quantcast.com/sixflags.com