Marketers how far is to far?

[seanhulin]

I am curious to hear from professional marketing folks like myself there thoughts on this.

A church comes to you wanting to do a redesign. You start to ask about their overall Marketing Strategies, Branding Strategy, and why they want a site. You realize and quickly help them that they don't have the basics down so how could you progress to a website or redesign without knowing all this and what the purpose of the site is. They agree yet come back stating they have a few thousand in budget. With the breathe of the scope of the re-design it clearly is not enough to do the site or start on the basics. What do you do? Do you help them build the basic site and start to point out all the other things they could be doing? In mega churches I would push harder for the basics but in this case is one good tool enough to start?

[flutem3]

Sean wrote:

"Do you help them build the basic site and start to point out all the other things they could be doing? In mega churches I would push harder for the basics but in this case is one good tool enough to start?"

Hi, Sean,

I am not a professional anything having to do with computers, but it seems to me that if the church members don't know what they want to do, it doesn't matter how much money they have budgeted. (I know I am going to be stating the obvious, but sometimes it helps to have a beginner spell out what she knows...or thinks she knows.) They have to:

1. Establish a reason/purpose for the website

2. Establish the target audience....outreach, membership, both, other, age group etc. and what other people they would like to reach if possible. Sometimes we try and don't reach anyone very well...only our very patient friends and the blessed members of this forum and UMConnect!!

3. Establish two or three reasonable goals.

4. Decide on what is to be said, how, who is going to say it, etc.

5. Determine what website building resources are in the church.

6.Then start working on thinking about a website.

I don't know if you are responsible for the website forever, or if someone else is to take over. Chances are you won't be doing it forever so I would keep it fairly basic and see if there are a couple of people who can learn how to design new pages, update material etc. from you as you are working on the website so there is someone to take over when you are no longer in the picture.

In other words, go basic. There is nothing to be lost by going that direction and perhaps much to gain. Just because bells and whistles are possible (I can't do them though-well maybe a couple) doesn't mean they should be done.

Actually, Curtis, David et. al. are much more qualified technically to answer your question. And they undoubtedly will "in the fullness of time." :D

Carol
I use Homestead so you know that I am a beginner at this stuff. I taught myself to use the computer about two and a half years ago so there is lots I don't know. However, there is lots I have learned as well. One of the things I have learned is that it is easy to complicate things and difficult to make them basic and clear.

[David Gillaspey]

I am curious to hear from professional marketing folks like myself there thoughts on this. Hi Sean,

First let me point out that few members of this forum are "professional marketing folks" so I don't know how many will be able to respond. Your question is welcome (as all questions are welcome), however, because it helps us to realize that church website design shouldn't be done in a vacuum, but should align with the overall goals and missions of the church.

Your comments raise (in my mind) more questions: How much do your charge for your services? (No, I'm not asking for a specific answer.) Do you scale your fees according to church size?

Since you are a "professional marketer" what, besides the website, would you be involved in? (I have to assume there's more to marketing or branding a church than just its website.)

Do you have any Content Management Systems that you recommend to clients? Because there's always this issue: Even if you delivered an incredible website to the client, how easy will it be for the church to keep it up-to-date in the future?

I mention this because, if the church doesn't have the budget for a full-blown redesign, perhaps the answer is to just develop for them a set of custom design templates (consistent with the branding strategy that you help them to develop) to use with a CMS. That's a way for you to deliver to them as much as they are able to pay for.

(I guess what I'm saying is, is it all that important to you that you actually develop the website, code and all, or is your skill and expertise really in the branding and marketing side of things? 'Cause there's a zillion website designers out there, but relatively few who understand marketing and branding. If the church has really big budget, you get to do it all! If a church only has a small budget, can you live with just helping them with their branding or marketing, forgoing the actual development of a website? I mean you do deliver a website to them, but you rely on, say, an open-source CMS so that you don't have to do a lot of programming that the church doesn't have the budget to pay you for. You just focus instead on the design and site structure.)

Sincerely,

David Gillaspey
President
Great Church Websites

[flutem3]

David wrote:

"First let me point out that few members of this forum are "professional marketing folks" so I don't know how many will be able to respond. Your question is welcome (as all questions are welcome), however, because it helps us to realize that church website design shouldn't be done in a vacuum, but should align with the overall goals and missions of the church."

Hi, David,

I knew you would come through. :D I didn't know exactly what to ask, but I knew you would. It made lots of questions pop up in my mind too...really basic ones.

Sean, I am looking forward to your response so that I can get a handle on the situation in which you are working and the situation the church is in.

Carol