Before exploring the importance, you need to differentiate landing pages from the church website. The website is the front door of your church, while the landing pages are the street signs.
The new communication technologies have wholly adjusted the way organizations interact with today’s people. This trend is not only for the young but for the emergent group. Your Website Become the Front Door to Your Church. The content of your website determines what your church communicates today. The site’s design and UI represent how inviting and welcoming today’s people are to the church. I have seen many churches ignoring this new claim. Unfortunately, their websites tell their church is outdated and unintentionally communicate that you are not welcome here. You do not need a fancy or gigantic structure reminding me of the glorious days of American Christianity. It should be continuous-flowing and mobile-friendly but inviting in today’s web protocols.
Now the real issue is how people will find your church online. The website is useless without setting up a mechanism for people to recognize what your ministries are all about and for the people of interest to be guided to enter the front door. Are your ministries designed to serve the people in your community? The street sign is more like an electronic display panel installed in a mall. It displays a series of PR images and copywriting to guide new consumers to find the stores of their interest.
A landing page is any web page, like the electronic display panel, that displays a specific PR (public relations) for a particular ministry or an event when people’s searches land on the page through search engines like Google. Guess what? People are no longer memorizing church names or interested in religious practices. The traffic volume for “churches near me” is plummeting to non-existence in most regions. We need a new evangelism strategy to help people start a journey of belonging to a community rather than asking them to believe first to initiate their spiritual journey as congregation members.
Each landing page should function as a PR advertisement to get the contact information (name, email address, etc.). Your landing page should present your ministry value propositions so that people leave their contact information for more ministry details, some special offer, or a deal. I always stress the principle of Ministry Marketing that you should offer values that become a remedy for people’s pain points rather than begging people to join. As soon as a piece of new contact information is submitted via an online form on the landing page, a follow-up email should be provided with a link to the details at your church website or a personal message to set up with the subsequent communications.
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