The Good and the Bad
The Good
This past weekend we recorded the highest number of visits to our church website www.hendersonhills.com. On Saturday we had 1,000 people come to visit our site. This is pretty amazing since we average approximately 500 visitors per day. Why did we double the number of visitors in one day? Here are a few reasons:
- We have, over the past year, been training our church that our website is a great tool for them to use. It has information available to them 24/7.
- We have publicized the crap out of it to our church and have tried to drive them to the web for more and more information about events, ministries, etc. instead of giving them the truck load in our bulletin or through verbal announcements on the platform.
- We’ve really been working on putting together an intuitive, good looking, and helpful website for our church members.
And some of the main reasons the total doubled….
- We told our church in November that if there was bad weather to check the web site for cancellations/closings of events, services, and activities.
- This past weekend we had an ice/sleet/snow storm that basically shut down the OKC metro area.
- Our members listened and they went to the web for information related to weather closings/cancellations.
The Bad
It was great to finally break the 1,000 visitor barrier. So what’s bad. Not everything on our web site was up-to-date. We missed an opportunity to really shine! 1,000 people visited our site and in some respects we blew it. We didn’t have the most current information available to help them: Connect, Grow, Serve, and Engage.
Here’s what was not updated on our site:
- We have a great event called “The Next Step” coming up this weekend and there was NOTHING on the main page about it. 39% of the 1,000 people coming to our web site were new visitors. We missed the opportunity to help 390 people get connected to HHBC.
- Many people received an iPod for Christmas and we had an article written to encourage and train people how to subscribe to our Podcasts. No article, no encouragement to subscribe to a podcast, no new listeners. Missed opportunity.
- We have 5 fairly new e-Newsletters that are being sent out regularly to Parents of Middle School and High School students, Parents of Children, Men, Women, and one from our Teaching Team. No article helping them to subscribe. No new subscriptions.
Arrrgh! I hate missed opportunities. We’ve got to do better at keeping our website up-to-date. Each day approximately 40% of those visiting our website are new visitors. With approximately 500 visitors each day that’s close to 200 per day that are checking out our church for the first time.
First impressions are made one time. We can’t ask for a do-over. We have to do better. We have come far from where we were, but oh we have so far to go!