Churches

Your church site is built for the member who gives. It isn't built for the stranger who needs something.

I pastor and I build websites, so I've sat on both ends of this. Below is what the research actually supports, including the part most church web pitches leave out.

Book a sit-down Or call 417-900-2345

Start here

Most visitors came for two pieces of information

When somebody lands on a church website, the most common reason is to find out when you meet. The second is how to get there. A surprising number of award-winning church sites make you hunt for both.

43%

of church website visits are someone checking service times.

Grey Matter Research, 2012

28%

are someone looking for directions.

Grey Matter Research, 2012

36%

of people check a church's website before they visit.

Grey Matter Research

About that 36%

You have probably been told it's 80 or 85 percent. That number gets quoted in nearly every church web pitch and it traces back to a person, not a study. The real measured figure is lower. I'd rather hand you a number that holds up when your finance team Googles it.

The giving question

A recurring giver and a one-time giver are not the same gift

This is the one place where a website change shows up in the budget, and the numbers come from outside the software industry that profits from them.

71% versus 24%

Seventy-one percent of sustaining donors are still giving twelve months later. Twenty-four percent of one-time donors are. In year-two survival alone a recurring giver is worth roughly three times a one-time giver.

M+R Benchmarks

42% of dollars, 57% of transactions

Already recurring, across digital church giving. And roughly half of churches have never asked anybody to set it up. That number comes from a giving vendor, published against its own interest.

Ministry Brands

So the ask is small: make recurring the obvious choice on the giving page instead of the buried one, and ask people out loud a few times a year. That's most of it.

The other gap

Taking money but not a name

In a set of eight award-winning church sites, five would accept a gift and never capture contact information. Someone trusted that church with money and the church came away unable to say thank you, let alone ask again. That's a two-field fix on the same page.

Service times and address in the first screen, on a phone, without scrolling.
Two paths from the homepage — one for the member who's looking for a form, one for the stranger who's deciding whether to walk in Sunday.
A name and an email with every gift, so a first gift can become a second one.
Recurring presented first on the giving page.
Tap-to-call that works, because somebody in trouble at 9pm is on a phone.
A real person answers the contact form, which is the part no website can do for you.

What I won't tell you

A church website is not an evangelism engine

Lifeway found about one percent of unchurched Americans would explore a church website when they were seeking God. One percent. The website converts the person already considering a visit, and it serves the members you already have. That's worth doing well. It is not a front door to the lost, and anybody selling it to you that way is selling you something.

I'd rather you trust the rest of what I said.

Who you'd be working with

I'm in this on the church side too

I'm an elder, I preach most months, and I'm on staff at the Baptist Student Union at Missouri State, where I've run this same follow-up system for about five years. Students fill out a card, they get a text back. Events have sign-ups and reminders that go out on their own.

So when I tell you what a volunteer will actually keep up with after the excitement wears off, that's not a guess.

David Stone

Where churches usually start

The Sit-Down
one hour recorded, and we build from it$500

The system, monthly
giving, events, follow-up$100/mo

Campus ministries have their own version of this, called CV Campus OS.

cvcampusos.com

Next step

An hour, and I'll tell you what I'd fix first

Bring your current site. Some of what I'd change costs nothing.

Book a sit-down Call 417-900-2345

Clear Vision Marketing is the home of CV Pro Tools.

CV Pro ToolsThe system behind your site and follow-up The Sit-DownOne hour, then your site and system CV Campus OSThe version built for campus ministries