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October 10, 2005
Useful Church Web Sites Poll Results
(Filed under: Poll Results)
Last week we asked about the usefulness of church web sites. The results didn't change much from earlier in the week when we had matching responses on either extreme: 12% say they use their church web site every day and 12% ask "What church web site?"
35% say their church's web site is as current as a 1980 hymnal. Ouch. On the plus side, 40% of churches seem to be doing their job, offering visitors what they need. It leaves the question of whether or not church web sites are providing what people want.
This week we're asking a slightly different question, broaching the topic of Church Marketing Sucks swag: Would you buy a Church Marketing Sucks T-shirt? With 33 votes in we've got 24% saying absolutely, 24% giving an outright no, and 48% sitting in the middle with maybe, depending on the design and price.
Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks at October 10, 2005 8:46 AM
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Comments
Well, the results of this poll are hardly indicative of churches in america. People reading this blog are probably most likely the people who care about their church's marketing, and therefore put additional effort into improving the usefulness of website if/when given the opportunity. Overall, though, the results are at least somewhat promising.
Posted by: Cameron at October 10, 2005 9:30 AM
Why should the congregation visit the church website? Ours is set up to be purely visitor-focused. I make a firm practice of keeping internally focused material off the site, as much as I can.
Posted by: Joe at October 10, 2005 6:27 PM
Hey Joe, why shouldn't a congregation visit the church web site? Isn't that a great way to communicate all sorts of info? I think it's good to have a very visitor-centric mindset and not put all the elders meeting times on the homepage, but your congregation should still be able to find the info they need on the site.
Posted by: kevin at October 11, 2005 8:02 AM
i would tend to agree with kevin. i know that when i need information on just about anything that the first place i go is to the web. this includes when i need information on what's going on at my church.
Posted by: patrick at October 11, 2005 1:40 PM
I think a church website should be just like the website for any business. You should put all the information on it that it can handle.
If the website doesn't answer a question, then the person asking is going to have to call for an answer. That's an inefficient use of their time and the staff person's time. Why take time to answer the same question 50 times if you can train your congregation to look for those answers on the website.
The more difficult we make the information to find, the faster people will give up looking for it.
I'm not arguing that personal contact is unimportant and that efficiency is more important; rather, if we can systemize and simplify the menial, it will give us more time to build relationships and perhaps even accomplish the tasks that tend to get neglected because we are so busy with our routine.
Posted by: Ron Gehrke II at October 12, 2005 1:44 PM
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