I thought I’d take a quick break from the current series on church marketing and social media to write about a current topic.  I was reading an article the other day about whether small businesses should invest in search engine optimization during a recession.  As I thought about the article it got me thinking about churches and recessions.  Much like small businesses, many churches experience a financial crunch during a recession.  After all, a church member can’t tithe if they loose their job.  So, should churches invest in SEO and other church marketing strategies during a recession? Read more…

I recently came across an article, “4 myths about reaching the unchurched—and 4 ways to draw them in“, by James Emery White on Christianity Today that talked about reaching the unchurched. It was a great article that I thought you would enjoy and from which you could gain some insights, as I did.  I encourage you to take a few minutes to read the article. Read more…

In part one of this part three part series, Pastor Wirth talked about how Relevant Church uses creative marketing ideas to cause a buzz and increase the effectiveness of the marketing.  Then, in part two he discussed using multiple layers of marketing to greatly increase the effectiveness of the marketing effort.  In the third part of my interview with Pastor Wirth, he talked about creativity in marketing, how it can be used, and what that means to different churches. Read more…

In part one of this three part series, Pastor Paul Wirth of Relevant Church detailed how 65%-70% of the members of his church have come via the Internet.  In the second part of my interview with Pastor Wirth, he explained how multiple layers of church marketing – online and offline – complement each other and proved to be much more effective. Read more…

We’ve blogged a lot about ways churches can market themselves online through search engine optimization, pay-per-click marketing, link building and more.  While all this information is great in theory, does it actually work in the real world? Read more…

In the past when a family was looking for a church they would talk to their friends or maybe check the yellow pages for churches in their area.  Then they might visit several of those churches until they find one they like.

The Revolution of Local Search:
Over the last several years Internet search engines have made tremendous improvements in what is called local search, that is the search for businesses or organizations in a specific geographical area.  Now if you search for something and include a city in the search phrase you’re likely to see results that include a map with some virtual push-pins in it.  With one click you can get a phone number, driving directions, and even read reviews of the place of your choice.  As a result, people have been ditching their yellow pages in droves and searching online for restaurants, retailers, and even churches.

Today someone who is looking for a church – let’s call him Bill - will most likely start his search online.  Bill uses a search engine like Google, Yahoo, MSN, or Ask to find the websites of churches close to his home.  Then he visits many of those websites.  Based on what he reads, hears, and watches on those website’s Bill quickly rules out most of the churches without ever stepping foot in them.  Then he picks 2 or 3 that seem to be most like the kind of church he’s looking for.  He attends a Sunday service at those churches.  Hopefully he likes at least one of them and gets involved in that fellowship.

Let’s take a closer look at this process

Read more…

Church Marketing Online is a new website being launched today by OurChurch.Com.  The purpose of Church Marketing Online is to help churches make better use of the Internet in their marketing, evangelism, and outreach efforts.  We’re doing that in two ways.

First, we’ve developed the Top Church Search Rankings service which puts a church website at the top of the search results on Google, Yahoo, MSN, and Ask for the phrases people search when looking for a church.  This is key because most people looking for a church these days start their search online.  And while most churches today have a website, very few have been optimized for search engines and very few churches are monitoring their search rankings and making adjustments on a regular basis to ensure people can find the church website.

Second, we’re launching this blog where we’ll be posting articles about church marketing, Internet evangelism, and search engine optimization in an effort to help pastors and church webmasters better understand how to reach the people in their communities online.  Not only will we discuss purely online church marketing strategies, but also how to maximize a church’s offline outreach efforts (personal evangelism, random acts of kindness, billboards, postcards, etc) by coordinating and complimenting them with an online efforts.  The cornerstone of the CMO blog is what we’re calling CMO University.  This is a series of in-depth articles we’ll be publishing over the coming weeks for the purpose of giving busy church leaders an understanding of Internet technologies and their application to church marketing and outreach.

Thanks for stopping by.  Please a comment and let us know what you think about the new site and let us know about any comments, questions, or issues you want to discuss regarding online marketing and outreach.

In His Service,
Paul Steinbrueck, CEO
OurChurch.Com