5Q Communications - Top 10 Tips for Effective Web Ministry

Internet Training Session

Top 10 Tips for Effective Web Ministry

Speakers:
Todd Turner, Insight For Living
&
Chad Williams, 5Q Communications

Monday, March 1, 2010 1

* No oversight or responsibilities for Web; Executive; Management; Web Rockstars.
* Vince Lombardi: 6 division titles, 5 NFL Championships, and 2 Super Bowls

Strategy


“Failing to plan is planning to fail”
“Strategy is doing the right thing; Tactics is doing things right”
“Begin with the end in mind”


Context: Ministry goals, funding, politics, culture, technology, human resources
Content: What is it that we want to communicate, existing content, new content
Users: Audiences, tasks, needs, experiences, vocabularies, etc

4


Context: Radio Advertising Agency -- relationship
Users: Radio Ministries-- potential ministry partners and existing, stations--new and potential
Content: Unique content serving various audiences

Opened the Vault: Users: internet visitors weren’t purchasing; Context: ﬁt philosophically--ministry minded; Content: 40 years of content
B/F: 4,500 downloads/mo
1 Million Downloads/mo
15 Million Downloads
Revenue: CD sales stayed the same
December largest giving month on record


Users: Radio Listeners, # audience have iphones
Context: Radio
Content: Radio How do you get to the sweet spot? Ask right questions

Who is your audience?

7


demographics/psychographics


ministry, engagement, donations, sales, etc, sending traffic to ministry sites


ministry, engagement, donations, sales, etc, sending traffic to Ministry Sites

What is the primary
action you want visitors
to take?


Mental Model

Does your site
communicate
effectively?


Graphic design, text, professional

Is your site integrated
and complient?


Integrated: Sign up
Compliant: COPPA, Can-SPAM, E-commerce,


Comprehensive Strategy:
Chris Brogan: Trust Agents Book
Home Base: Blog, donation, store,


Conference: March 25-27

Strategy Take Home Tips

✓ Find Your Sweet Spot
✓ Ask the Right Questions
✓ Build Encompassing Strategy


Strategy Resources

Groundswell The New Rules
by Charlene Li & of Marketing &
Josh Bernoff PR
by David Meerman
Scott


Groundswell: conversations
New rules: see yourself as a publisher; give

Website or Web Ministry?


Website = Organization-centric; Same content as offline; Same audience as offline
Web Ministry = User-centric; re-shaped and new content; new or growing audience


This is a website
This is a web ministry

37.4 Million Visitors


Not a client
Tremendous job reaching
Ask yourself: website or web ministry?

Right Stakeholders


Story: publishing new book, 2 days after hits the street, get email asking if
www.yourministry.com/yourbook exists.
Launch a new web promotion: free calendar -- 10,000 new names

Right Stakeholders

✓Who is your Web Champion?
• Are they at the right tables?
• “How can we leverage the Web?”
✓Brainstorm: Who Will This Touch?


Brainstorm: need to do that for every project/initiative -- production, sales, maintaining

Org Chart Conundrum


Where does the responsibility for the website fall?
* IT? Marketing? Creative?
* Goes back to strategy--what is your primary purpose for the site?
* Never put it in IT; Media Ministry / Marketing

The Webmaster Is Dead


Poor tomato.
Those who are responsible for everything say, “Yes, I’m dead--I’m overworked!”

Team Approach

Project Manager

Content

User/Customer Input User/Customer Input

Creative Technical
Design Design


Project Manager: keeps things on task
Content Writer: creative writing; writing for the web
Creative Design: graphic design; photoshop; html; CSS; ﬂash design; information
architecture;
technical; programming; database

Hire or Outsource?

✓Volunteers
✓Hire Staff
✓Freelancers
✓Web Agency


I’ve done all these...
Volunteers: used a core of volunteers for certain things -- BTTB story
Hire: hire best talent with ministry heart
Freelance: lower price; need good Project Manager
Web Agency: Exposure trends; Fill all your gaps; Consistency; Value

Working with Freelance/
Agencies

✓References
✓Single point of contact
✓Single firm
✓Clear expectations
✓Avoid micro-management


Workflow Resources
Web Redesign 2.0: Workflow
that Works by Kelly Goto and
Emily Cotler

How to be a Great
Web Client
www.5Qcommunications.com


Design: More than Pretty


Form = abstract
Function = work well

www.leoburnett.ca



Balance between form and function. Works well, clear path-ways, clean. Leans towards
functional.

Design Tips: Use
Conventions

✓Logo
✓Navigation
✓Search box
✓Metaphors (e.g. shopping carts)


* Common locations for logo, navigation, search box
* Use metaphors
* Tell site aspects without being able to read the language

Design Resources

www.SmashingMagazine.com http://sixrevisions.com

www.webcreme.com/


Search Engine Optimization


Finding your site is like ﬁnding a needle in the haystack
Some say, “Ignore SEO”


What organization is this?
Generic searches tell us that we are reaching a new audience

SEO Basics

✓Keyword research
✓Keywords to content writers
✓One key phrase per page
• Title
• One H tag per page (H1)
• Copy
✓Quality links


Keyword research

SEO Consultant

✓Training
✓On-going process
✓Conversions are key


Buyer Beware

✓Beware of out-of-the-blue emails

“Dear Google.com,
I visited your website and noticed that
you are not listed in most of the major
search engines and directories...”

http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=35291


Buyer Beware

✓No one can guarantee #1
✓Beware of secrecy
✓You should never have to link to an SEO

http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=35291


No one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google.
Be careful if a company is secretive or won't clearly explain what they intend to do.

SEO Resources

www.BruceClay.com
www.seomoz.org

www.WordTracker.com

How to Write Killer Web
Content

www.WordTracker.com

Usability: Cater to Visitors


How many times has this happened to YOU at a website?
Why does this happen? Because we aren’t listening.

Good Navigation

✓Where am I?
✓Where have I been?
✓Where can I go next?
✓Where is home?


Foundation is a good navigation system.


Where am I?
Where have I been?
Where can I go next?
Where is home?


7 kids; kids grab knees;
So there it was banging itʼs head against the window. How foolish it looked. What did it need to do the correct the
situation?
Change perspective; it needed to change its perspective.
Same thing in usability; get another perspective.
Causes us to take a step back and look at our products through the eyes our users.
When we do it, it is amazing how much clearer things become.

Usability Testing

✓Observe one user at a time
✓Inform your judgment
✓Test one person at a time
✓Think like your visitors?
✓Testing one person early is better than 50
people late
✓Nothing beats a live audience reaction


What is it? Bringing in one person at a time.
Why? (rest)
How many have done usability test?


How many have ever done a usability test? Here is a sample.

✓34% Revenue
✓76% New Names
✓11% $ Per Order
✓9% Cart
Abandonment


Usability website for FPA resulted in...

Resources

www.morae.com

Usability Increases
Revenue by 34%


* Don’t Make Me Think: Classic
* Rocket Surgery: Released 2010
* Morae
* White Paper -- you can read full report on Listener’s Bible Case Study
* Wrap-up: Strategy, website or web ministry, right stakeholders, org chart, right team,
design, SEO, usability,

Analysis
Tracking Web and Ministry Numbers


A top 10 best practice - do ongoing analysis
If you cannot measure it you cannot manage it
In the old days you measured views and hits - now it is conversions
Capture the right data so you can make the right decisions

Don’t build application(s) until ...

How are we going to measure “success?”
Conversion Visitors

200
Building it is only half the battle.
150
Eyes on the page isn’t a good
measuring stick. 100

Do certain paths produce 50
different results?
0
2007 2008 2009 2010

Analysis


When you build any web project - deﬁne what success is.
Clearly deﬁne what success is then you can capture that goal. Example: capturing email
addresses is a goal and there are multiple ways

You can’t manage it if you can’t measure it!

Spreadsheets vs Graphs
DATA GIVERS SUSTAINING

2010 2009 2008
100
45590 54483 52433
42589 78524 45858
75
41598 24887 14452
40598 24785 44128 50
28658 36444 78722
56871 78545 17475 25

45887 47228 56585 0
2007
16859 47214 54858 2008
2009
2010
Analysis


Graphing the data is key to helping you make the right decisions. This sounds simple but until you start
graphing the data, how do you know what trends or anomalies you have?

Key data to capture

QUESTIONS BEYOND THE NORM...
Value of an email: Email to $$$ (1 to 1)... by channel
Different channels equal different results
Do offline email imports behave the same way as online captures?
Do you need different Welcome Flows?
Does a web sale bring the same revenue as retail pricing?
Do you lower pricing periodically or hold prices?
What paths are visitors taking?
Does your search box get more activity than your links?
What keywords are users searching for on YOUR site?
Build that content? Buy that product?
What emails are visitors unsubscribing from?
Do you see any trends here?
A/B testing emails and reaction
Subjects lines? Premium vs straight ask?
Do your donation forms all bring in the same average gift?
Why?
Analysis


What is the value of an email? You may have several different channels for collecting addresses, are different channels
worth more to you?

“Welcome Flow” is an auto-responder plus, for Insight For Living, this launches a ﬂow of “Welcome” information that
educates the user about IFL and builds relationships.
Depending on how you come to IFL you will get a different “Welcome Flow” (educational campaign/relationship building)

The Welcome Flow buffers you out of other correspondence until you are through the ﬂow (that way there is no “asks”

New Names
Value for Value


When you collect names, think V for V. When asking for an email people these days think I better be getting
something good.

Traffic and page counts are not good enough

Relationships are everything
Conversion Traffic

Library vs corner bookstore approach
70
Content provider

Emails collection / Phones numbers-Texting 52.5

Streaming player good space to play in
35
Left Nav collection
17.5
Landing page forms/sign up

0
2007 2008 2009 2010

New Names


* IFL has chosen to build relationships through emails.
* Library vs. bookstore approach -- some ministries lay out their content as soon as you get in the door, itʼs all
layed out -- content heavy
* IFL takes more of the approach, “Hey, how are you? How can I direct you today?” We are here for you and want
to build a relationship.
* Some collect cell phone numbers for texting campaigns (Focus on Family)
* Email sign ups in the Left Nav - IFL grew 200K address by doing this

Push, Don’t Pull
Kiosk in the Mall


Take you website to people vs. trying to get people to drive down your road by billboard advertising.

Go to where people are hanging out - use social media, Oneplace, and other places where the people are.

If you build it, no one cares!

Location, Location, Location
Countless hours spend planing, designing, coding, testing...building application

Little time worried about getting the RIGHT traffic there.

SEO doesn’t always fit (People don’t search for you like you may think) (Cribs)

Take your product to the MALL (Social Media)

Push, Don’t Pull


Would you rather have more people or the right people?

SEO -- For instance if I were a dog breeder what key words would I want? Dog? Lab? Breeder?
1 strategy = Those are too broad and everyone uses those. If you are in Nashville, then you want words like Nashville
TN breeder.
Cribs is general but now you can soft sell the product through baby names an also offer his work... tie it into
2 strategy = social media

Multiple Approaches

You Have Options

RSS -
Social Media
Let the Web work for you

Feedburner -
Why reinvent the wheel?
PDA/APPS Your Content Other Sites

Syndicate Widgets -
People looking for content

XML - Your Site
Work with developers

Push, Don’t Pull


Think about your content vs. just thinking about your website as the place to bring people to

Feedburner - free and a way to give out content

Commitment
Stay with it!


Nothing more frustrating than building and not sticking with it. Easy to jump into the next thing.

It takes time to do it right

Ready...Shoot...Aim... The Org Chart

Don’t Guess
Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should
Need a buck-stops-here person - WEB experience
Homepage WILL look like your organization
ads, too many items above the fold, shotgun design

What Do you Do? Then do it... and keep doing it!

Most of us are not the patriarchs...
Let technology assist the mission/vision... not change it.

Commitment


The web person needs to be a person that is empowered, know the vision

Most are not patriarchs -- means we are not the person who started the organization, why do something?

Todd Turner
toddt@insight.org

Chad Williams
chadw@5Qcommunications.com

Eric Brown
ericb@5Qcommunications.com

Twitter: ask5Q

Attend the Internet Advisory Council
Open to all, Tuesday from 2 to 3 pm

5Q Communications - Top 10 Tips for Effective Web Ministry

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