I was speaking last week to a group of Christian camping leaders at the 3CA Conference in Philadelphia. I was teaching about making web sites more productive…doing a better job of converting web visitors to web customer/donors.
All this talk about talking to the customer about her and about her needs instead of spending all your time and effort to talk about you and what you have to offer really got me thinking. If message clarity is true in the world of web sites how much more is it true in the church?
When was the last time your church leadership really tried to define who your customer is? When was the last time your church or ministry staff tried to identify the real needs (as opposed to felt needs) that those customers have and the time and money they are spending every single day to find answers to? When was the last time you tried to clarify the message or story you are telling?
We are all being bombarded every day by so many messages…good and bad. We simply don’t have the time to weed our way through muddled up messages looking for the truth or the “real meaning” buried deep within the copy. When was the last time you bailed out of a web site because, after about 15 or 20 seconds you just couldn’t find what you needed?
Well, here’s a news flash…sometimes the only reason people aren’t bailing out of your church service or ministry program is their good manners. It’s always harder to leave when you are standing right in front of someone. But online it’s not like that. If you can’t make the connection (provide relevance) in about 8 seconds…they’re gone. They simply will not stay around to try to figure out what you’re trying to say. They’ll just go somewhere else.
Carve out the time to refine your message. Begin now saying what you mean and meaning what you say. Talk to the people about the things THEY care about not the things you think are important. Speak to them in the language they are used to communicating already. None us, business or ministry, can afford irrelevance.
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