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Oct 13
2009

9 Practical Ways to Promote Your Church Website on a Shoestring Budget

Posted by exiadmin in Untagged 
So your church has a website…great! That is definitely the first step to having an online presence but what good does it do if nobody knows about it?
 
It sure does involve “marketing” it to get the word out there. It takes strategy to drive traffic to your church website. But how? Often times, churches tend to hold back on promoting their website simply because there is “no” budget for it.
 
We often correlate high costs with marketing. It isn’t always necessarily the case. In this newsletter, I will show you some ways on how to promote your church website on a shoestring budget.  

1. Keep promoting your website to your congregation.
friends.jpgIn any advertising and marketing efforts, repetition is the key. Your congregation is your most reachable target market and is a willing audience to receive updates and promotions from your church.
 
1.a Utilize Powerpoint Slides
Put up a powerpoint slide with your website URL right before any service. Encourage them to visit your website by showing different updates on the slide every week. For example: New photos from Camp Wanzana now uploaded. Visit www.churchdomain.com.
 
For church event slides, it is also a good idea to direct them to your website for more information. For example: Women’s Ministry Fashion Show, October 28. For more information, please visit www.churchdomain.com, keyword: fashion show. 
 
By doing this, you’re developing a habit in them to keep visiting your website for any and every information they need.

Cost: $0 if you already have Microsoft Powerpoint software in your office.  
 
2. Make use of banner signs.
Banner signs, if well-designed, are attention-grabbers. However, plainly putting your website URL on the banner is not encouraging enough for those that see it to visit your website.

Spark their curiosity with catchy titles and then follow it with your website URL.   A good example would be: Lost? We’ll help you find your way! www.churchdomain.com  
 
Put this banner sign strategically, preferably on high traffic area, by the street.

Cost: Design: If you have an in-house designer, additional cost is $0. Banner Printing: Depending on the size, it can cost anywhere from $75 - $200+  
 
3. Put your church website url in every marketing collateral you have.
This is perhaps the most cost-effective way of promoting your website. You may already have materials that you print on a regular basis such as tithe envelopes, Sunday bulletin, ministry brochures or postcards. If you have not yet put your church website URL on any of your materials, you may want to do so. This gives your church website additional exposure without additional costs on you. 
 
Cost: Depends on the cost of printing materials. Perhaps a design change on some materials you have if you outsourced it to an outside designer. (Our cost on a 4x6 double-sided, full-color website is only $152.99. For additional pricing ideas, you can visit our pricing page.)  

4. Give away car stickers with your church name and web url.
Car stickers still work! A local Christian radio station in Houston, TX, gives away car stickers to their listeners and I see them in a lot of vehicles in the area! If I am not familiar and don’t listen to that radio station, I would say that it does encourage me to check them out.

Again, the key is to spark curiosity. The main thing is to put catchy titles or phrases to get them to check you out on the web.

Pass out these free stickers to your church members and encourage them to put this on their vehicle. newhopechurch.jpgA church in Pearland called New Hope Church is doing this and I must have seen hundreds of vehicles with this yellow speech bubble sticker that says New Hope. The only problem I see is that, it does not have their website URL on the sticker which sort of poses a problem if I do want to check them out or get more information from their website.
 
Cost: Design, Printing (Our 4x6 stickers cost $325 for 5000 pieces)

5. Put magnets on your vehicles or church van.
A car magnet is another great low-cost tool to promote your church and your church website. Vistaprint.com offers inexpensive car magnets.

Cost: Cost depends on the size. $15 - $60 for printing.
 

6. Send to Friend website feature.
Add a Send to Friend feature in your website so that your web visitors can send the link to their friends and family if they want to. Make this little tool available, you may never know what it can do for you.

Cost: $0 if you already have it. To add it depends on the hourly rate of the programmer you hire to add the piece of code.

7. Add your website URL in your email signatures.
Assuming that not everyone you deal with via email is a church member of yours, putting your website url on your email signature encourages impulsive click through as well.

You may also encourage your church members to do this for a certain period of time to help the church promote its website.

Cost: $0
8. Mention your website in your answering machines or voicemail greetings.
Most churches already have answering machines. Make sure to mention your website url in your voicemail greeting.

Cost: $0

9. Engage in Social Media
facebook-icon.pngAs we have discussed on Part 3 of our series Tips for Driving Traffic to Your Church Website, social media has become an integral part in many marketing and advertising efforts. Whether you are a business or a non-profit, social media is a must. Click here to read about using Social Media to drive traffic to your church website.

Cost: $0
 
 
If your church is using a particular idea to promote a website and we have not mentioned it here, please feel free to post a comment and share it with our other readers! 


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