Does Search Engine Marketing Matter to a Church?

Does Search Engine Marketing Matter to a Church?

Chris Byrd, Wisdom Selling

Your church has great opportunities to take advantage of the internet to grow your ministries.  Check out the link at the bottom for one opportunity coming up this weekend.

Persons new to your community are most likely now to search for a church on the internet first, before visiting around.  Therefore a website is a must for a growing church.  Once you have a site, though, you want people to find it.  Search Engine Optimization can be a very valuable tool for a church to use if the goal of the church is to be the first church identified by a seeker when searching on-line for a church.  Google, Yahoo, Bing and other Search Engines (answer providers) are always looking to provide the most relevant information to their customers.  This is how they justify their fees to advertisers.  Therefore, they are always going to do their best to Search all the websites and other information on the internet to find the best answers to questions that might be asked.

The formulas they use are always changing, as websites try to beat the system and get more notice.  For example, websites began buying text links from each other to appear more widely accepted.  Therefore, the search engines had to put restrictions on text links to keep the information credible.  However, there are many legitimate ways to increase the value of your presence on the web, which is the process of optimizing your site to be favorable to search engines.   In doing so, you create greater likelihood of being found by those in your community looking on –line for information about churches.

Search Engine Marketing has different methods to it, depending on your goals.  There are search goals that focus on relevance by location.  There are others that focus on relevance by keyword.  There are other marketing methods when you want to advertise events, messages or other saleable items.  A good webhosting provider will have these resources available to you.  OurChurch.com is a great webhosting provider, with the extra benefits of being one of the larger webhosting sites focused entirely on Churches and Christian Businesses.  This allows them to understand more fully the search engine needs of churches relative to geography (being the top of the list in your zip code, for example) and relative to keywords (childrens programs, etc).  Regardless of where your site is hosted, they can help.

There are fees for Search Engine Optimization, as there are real people doing real work to make this happen, but OurChurch.com is very competitive as they realize the needs and assets of the market in which they work.  If you would like more information about this very valuable support, email me at chrisbyrd@wisdomselling.com.  You can learn more about this as well by visiting http://marketing.ourchurch.com/marketing-church-marketing-services.php .

Thank you for taking the time to read this information.  Here is the link I recommend for you. 

http://blog.ourchurch.com/2011/05/03/14-ways-to-learn-live-lead-and-leverage-your-faith-for-internet-evangelism-day/

How do Music and Strategy relate?

Music moves me.  I have always loved a wide array of different music genres as well as different musical instruments.  I like to sing and I like to learn.  We have guitars, wind instruments, brass instruments, pianos and accordions, along with a lot of percussion.  I have tried to learn many of these instruments, mastered none, but learned a few.  Check out what we have to offer in musical instruments and music support.

How does music relate to business?  Well, consider this.  There is a strong need in business to appreciate diversity.  We can't always understand and relate to other people, but we can appreciate them and respect their differences.

Music is the same way.  You may not particularly enjoy all types of music, but you can appreciate it for what it is.  Did you know stores play Mozart, Beethoven and others because the music can make you feel more sophisticated and you will spend more?  We react to music both consciously and unconsciously.  Business is the same way.  We feel certain reactions to the quality of people in an organization, the way they carry themselves and the way they communicate.  If you cannot agree with everything they say, but you understand it completely, you are more likely to give a little in negotiations.  If you can listen to and appreciate all different kinds of music, you have the chance to learn to be flexible.  This will help you in strategic planning, to consider alternatives, it will help you in marketing and sales, to appreciate diversity, and in life, as you seek to talk with those different that you.

I am placing interesting combinations of music on www.thebyrdstore.com for you to try.  Keep checking back there for options for you to enjoy.  The CD collections are used, and not in their cases, but I have enjoyed them and am now moving on to the next level of downloads.  I have mixed up some crazy combinations of music for you to try.

Why Wisdom Selling Solutions?

When you start a business to support the ideas of helping small businesses and non-profits, you naturally draw on the learnings of your past experiences.  I have loved many different people and things in my life, but my family, my faith, my sports and my music have dominated.  Behind this is my love of learning, particularly around business efforts.  I have studied different strategic planning processes, different selling methods, and how marketing impacts the ability of a company to succeed.  Marketing creates the environment for a transaction to take place, while Sales finds the people to make transaction with and causes it to happen.  I have seen the growth of web marketing strategies, and this has changed entire business plans from a focus on face-to-face to a focus on the best way to connect, whether phone, email, web or even texting.  One thing that has not changed, though, is the need to connect.  The how can be figured out, but the what and the why of connecting often remain a mystery.  What am I selling, and why would you want it?  Business strategy is around building into the entire organization the ability to answer these two questions and then for internal analysis- at what cost.  Because these questions are always fun for me, I have started Wisdom Selling Solutions.  It is not enough to know stuff, we need to be able to do wise things as a result.  Read our blogs, look at the books we recommend and give us a chance to serve your organization.  You can see our books and other items at www.thebyrdstore.com .

Why the store?  Well, these books and other items helped me build my knowledge base, and now they help me fund activities with non-profits.  So buy one and enjoy it.  Or two or three.