Tony Morgan wrote an article (10 Easy Ways to Keep Me from Visiting Your Church Because I Visited Your Website) a few months ago; since then I’ve been meaning to compare the Champion Forest website to it. And after seeing the link on Church Marketing Sucks, I’ve decided it’s time.
First of all, I was shocked to see how perturbed some of the commenters were…it was like he stepped on their pet (or their feelings). At any rate, these are HIS ideas and thoughts (and in my opinion, good ideas)–not a chance to berate anyone.
On that note, my analysis:
1. Avoid telling be what’s going to happen at your church this weekend.
√ The Champion Forest homepage has the latest and greatest events. The most important have graphics, the lesser important have text links.
2. Put a picture of the building on the main page.
√ We emphasized people for our main graphic (and did away with the building picture). However, our steeple makes occassional appearances in promotional material (it’s a nice steeple).
3. Use lots of purple and pink and add pictures of flowers.
√ No purple. No pink. No flowers. Except maybe in the women’s ministry.
4. Make me click a “skip intro” or “enter site” link.
√ Don’t get me started on this. You’re unlikely to ever see that on a site I’m responsible for.
5. Add as many picutres and graphics as you can to the home page.
√ What you see is what you get. There is no scrolling on our home page (unless you use the archaic 800×600–then I just pity you). But remember, a picture is always more compelling than a paragraph.
6. Use amateur photography.
√ We use only quality images. And we strive to stay away from the “cheesy, I’m smiling for the camera” photo.
7. List every single ministry you have at your church.
∼ I don’t know if I agree with this one. I think a better perspective is to make it easy to learn about the ministries…no one likes to see a list of 2,000 ministries. It’s oppressive. But it is important to provide that information to inquisitive visitors.
8. Make it as difficult as possible for me to get directions, service times or find information about what will happen with my kids.
√ Click on the “New to CFBC?” link. All your most important questions will be answered on one page.
9. Put a picture of your pastor with his wife on the main page.
√ Since we’re between pastors, this is easy. But the idea is great; the church really isn’t about the pastor. He just happens to be the leader. And I doubt you will find the CEO of a Fortune 500 company on their home page.
10. Try to sell your church rather than telling me how I will benefit from the experience.
∼ I partially disagree with this too. Our church website is informational. We’re not interested in hyping the product (church). We want to provide information to visitors and guests and allow them (and the spirit) to take the next step. And explaining how they will benefit could a long process.
All in all, I think Champion Forest passes with flying colors.