15 Easy Internet Steps to get more Visitors to your Church

There is, without a doubt, nary a pastor or church in the

country that doesn’t want to get more visitors to come

to their church. With a pure heart and a message to

share, their intent is to provide for those visitors

programs and services that will enhance and improve

their life style. As the 21st Century dawns it has 

become obvious to email marketing specialists that the

Internet is a wonderful way for churches to evangelize

and make themselves known to a lost world. Randall 

Mains, Founder and CEO of Pathmaker Marketing LLC,

one of the premier e-mail marketing professionals in the

country, agrees that the following steps are an easy way

to inform prospective visitors about your church and what

it has to offer.

1) Open a channel on You Tube.

2) Open a channel on Vimeo.

3) Open up blogs on Blogspot, Typepad, Blogsome, 

    Blogger, etc.

4) Put out an e-mail blast to a local e-mail list.

5) Put out a send out card.

6) Take an ad in a local Christian Directory - most have an

     online directory.

7) Launch Google Adwords - - target geographically.

8) Get your church found on Google by claiming your 

    Google Place.

9) Get your members to give you posititve reveiws on

    Google Places.

10) Claim your Bing listing

11) Claim your Yahoo listing.

12) Launch Facebook ads - target demographically.

13) Open a Facebook page for your church.

14) Get listed in the top 40 directorires in your community.

15) Get an account with LinkedIn, the top business directory.

And here are three bonus steps!!!

16) Get church in the other top 9 business directories

17) Get a Twitter account for your church

18) Get a Flicker account.

As an email marketing company, Pathmaker Marketing,
LLC knows that the above suggestions will work, if given
the time to develop. If you need a professional e-mail
marketing firm to help you accomplish the above,
Pathmaker and Randall Mains stand ready to assist
you. To learn more, go to http://pathmakermarketing.com/

How to add a Digital Outreach to your Church

Understandably, the first question that might come to mind is, “Why
should we turn our church into a Digital Outreach?” Well, there are
a host of reasons you might want to pursue new ideas for outreach,
and the reasons for Digital Outreach are indicated below:

• You will have the ability to reach out beyond the confines of your
church to a greater, broader community.

• If your church currently ‘serves” those in a ten mile radius, your
Digital Ministry can go nationwide, or even international.

• It will allow you to better fill the Great Commission, per Acts 1:8
 - “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come
upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in
all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth.”

• Allow you a way of ministering to a vast mission field.

After wondering “why” to go Digital, the next natural concern is
“what to do” to go Digital.  You may want to establish a Digital
Outreach Team, which will coordinate with those in charge of
creating other ideas for church outreach. Together, they can
create a plan to implement all your outreach ministry
ideas.


Steps on how to add a Digital Outreach to your Church:

1) Launch Prayer Walls - An excellent way to facilitate outreach to
 people’s needs, and be added to the website or church Facebook
 page.

2) Establish an E-Mail Campaign - That people can receive for free
 like “40 Days to a Happier Marriage.”

3) Set up a Facebook Page For Your Church.

4) Turn Pastor’s Sermons into e-books.

5) “Stream” your Services on your Website and/or upload Videos
to You Tube.

6) Place “Teaching Videos” on You Tube - Pastor having a
“conversation chat” on various topics via digicam.
                         
7) Develop an “Articles Archive” - Written on a variety of topics,
you are basically creating an “Online Library”

8) Offer Free Downloads - White papers on various topics

9) Offer Electronic Bible Studies - “How to Establish and Improve
Your Prayer Life”

10) Translate your Website into a Foreign Language - Preferably
the predominant one in the area you serve

11) Develop an “Online” Bookstore

12) Develop a “Bulletin Board Forum” do discuss various topics/issues

13) Establish an “e Learning Center” - Classes on virtually any topic
Bible Studies

14) Create a “Christian Calendar” - Upcoming Events, Local & National

15) Have a Church Blog - Discuss current events and life today from a
Biblical point of view (Movies, Political Issues).

16) Create a Prayer Chain - “Text Message” Prayer Chain

Visit http://pathmakermarketing.com/ to learn more about Digital
Outreach to your Church.

Tap International Markets

As we enter into the second decade of the 21st Century it is more and more apparent that we are living in an ever-shrinking world! The people at Pathmaker Marketing are not only aware of this, but, rather, they stand ready to help you and your company compete in an ever expanding arena where English is not the only language spoken. As a result, Pathmaker Marketing is always looking forward to helping you accept the challenge of Internationalization!!

At one point in time, Internationalization meant that a company would be reaching out and expanding into other nations around the world. Today, however, the nations have come to us. The number of ethnicities that surround us is remarkable and, as astute business people, we need to do all that we possibly can to tap into these most viable markets.

How, exactly, can Pathmaker Marketing help you do this? First, they can assist you in doing a survey regarding the number of possible ethnic markets that you are currently missing out on! Once accomplished, the next step will be to help you consider to be the major aspects of Internet and Social Network Marketing!

The key to this program will, of course, be the utilization to put virtually all of these Marketing Programs into a myriad of languages. To show the extent of what can be accomplished, please take time to visit one of Pathmaker Marketing’s most recently completed projects, a 3D Virtual Tour of the Tenboom Museum in Haarlem, Holland at www.tenboom.com. Due to the extensive worldwide interest in this particular topic, the client’s goal was to have it presented in twenty different languages.

Think of how wonderful it would be if prospective clients could go to your Website and click on a tab that would allow them to read it in their native tongue - - Español, Deutsch, Francais or whatever! Rather than struggling trying to decide what, exactly, you have to offer that they may need, you can imagine their thrill in being able to do their research so much more readily and easily.

In regard to Keyword Research, you will be opening up a whole new world of obtaining Winnable Keywords for Page Ranking with Google, Yahoo, Bing and other Search Engines This, in itself, might open the doors to actually doing business overseas, to say nothing of serving the prospective clients in your own community!

Building on the concept of Keywords and Winnable Terms, imagine how beneficial it would be to have your Blog Posts be in more than one language! As your knowledge is shared in multiple languages, your stature as an expert will build exponentially and there is no telling what heights that can lead you and your company to!

As you increase the number of languages you are offering your services and products in, you increase the number of Websites and Directories that you can be Linked to. Whether you strive for Unilateral or Reciprocal Links, additional links will give you additional opportunities.

As Social Networking continues to be the rave, imagine how many more “friends” you can have, and how many more people you could “tweet” if your postings and twitters were multi-lingual. A wonderfully simple way to expand your number of contacts, with the help of Pathmaker Marketing your Networking efforts can become even more profitable!

One of the areas we have been particularly successful in is assisting clients with instituting and conducting Contests and Sweepstakes. By conducting your contests in more than one language, you have positive testimonials that are not limited to only those individuals who can speak and read English.

Finally, imagine the positive affects of being able to produce a monthly E-Newsletter that could be distributed in multiple languages! Again, whether you want to Market around the world or just in your own community, the ability to do so in more than one language can be a tremendous boon to your business!

To learn how, exactly, you and your Company can benefit from an Internationalization Program you need to contact Pathmaker Marketing to schedule a private phone conversation with CEO Randall Mains as quickly as possible. After all, you want to reach everyone in your community!

Develop Email Fundraising

by Randall Mains

The primary goal of your email fundraising is to raise gifts or sell products, not deliver ministry (that’s what your e-newsletter does). E-fundraising is an entire course in itself that fundraising professionals like Pathmaker Marketing teach, but when done effectively, it can become an monthly income-producing channel for your ministry that might even rival your direct mail and telephone fundraising efforts.

But you’re not ready to do e-appeals until you’ve properly introduced your newfound friends to your ministry. Once they know who you are and what you stand for, then you can begin implementing fundraising for nonprofits and begin requesting their support for your worthy causes.

In general, the basic components of any email solicitation include your Subject Line, your message in HTML and/or text, and your Landing Page.

The primary goal of your Subject Line is to get your emails opened. The primary goal of your email is to get click-through traffic to your Landing Page. And the primary goal of your Landing Page is to get conversions on your offer (i.e., gifts or sales, leads, list signups, etc). Each component has a specific goal, but they must all work together harmoniously to produce effective results.

There are different schools of thought on basic email fundraising strategies like: short email to long landing page, or long email to short landing page, but to determine what works best with your constituents, you just need to test, test and continue testing.

In addition, there’s the landing page process of effective internet marketing, which brings to mind to importance of your understanding of landing page conversion protocol. This subject is a big one and we’re only touching its surface today, but to show you how advanced you can become in this arena, here’s a patented formula I use to improve landing page conversion:

Landing Page Conversion = 4m+3v+2(i-f)-2a

m= the user’s motivation; v= clarity of the value proposition; i=incentive to take action; f=friction elements of the process; a=anxiety about entering information. Proper use of this formula from the Marketing Experiments Corp. can significantly improve your landing page conversions.

The formula basically says that the greatest weight in the conversion process is given to the motivation of the donor to support your cause, followed by the strength of your value proposition, followed by your incentive less the friction of your checkout process, less the anxiety that the donor feels about doing business with you online. Three factors can improve your conversion rates, while two factors can decrease them.

For more assistance with your email fundraising, contact Pathmaker Marketing 623-322-3334.

Church Outreach Ideas for the Internet: Interactive Prayer Wall

Prayer is a powerful resource that God has given to all believers. As a community, a church should continually pray for one another. An interactive online prayer wall allows church members and guests to share their prayer requests and praises, both anonymously and publicly. It is a great way to building a stronger community by praying for others using the benefits of modern technology.

Consider building a prayer wall in your church website. It is a wonderful tool for church outreach.

Cross Pollinate Your Online and Offline Communication Strategy

by Randall Mains

One important mistake that many ministries make is to consider online communication to be separate from offline communication. But these days, savvy marketers put their web addresses on all printed materials and even in their radio and television ads. Likewise, your website should contain toll-free phone numbers and mailing addresses. Cross promote as much as possible. You should also put your web address in your catalogs, on your brochures, business cards, in your radio or television program. You get the idea.

Another good strategy is to cross-pollinate your monthly direct mail appeals with an online fund raising effort. Our typical email fundraising approach, when synergized to snail mail, is to start Split Testing 10 days AFTER the snail mail arrives in homes, then go to full blasting 3 days after that. The email will stand on its own results, plus give LIFT to your snail mail this way. After reblasting and remarketing for another week, you can have your email efundraising efforts done in 10-13 days total, and be out about 1 week before the next fundraising snail maill effort arrives.

The combination of the two channels – direct mail and email fundraising -- working in tandem with each other to promote the same initiative will raise the water table overall on your results. Combine telemarketing in this mix and you have a powerful one-two-three punch for your fundraising efforts.

This topic — maximizing your nonprofit fundraising efforts by combining traditional channels with online marketing tools — is quite detailed and I plan to expand on it in future blog entries. For now, I’ll wrap up this series by again leaving you with these words:

A strategic online communication plan will use integration to strengthen existing donor relationships while building new ones to enhance your ministry and expand its church outreach.

Church Outreach Ideas for the Internet: Email Fundraising

As nonprofits look for new ways to raise money in the digital age, email fundraising is beginning to stand out as a compelling option. Many of the larger and nationally active nonprofits are already using this approach to save money and reach broader constituencies. Your church should too.

There are many people out there who are willing to support various Christian causes through online giving. As long as you have a strategic e-fundraising campaign, your resources will continuously grow. This will contribute to the fulfillment your mission to share God´s glory and enlarge His territory.

Pathmaker Marketing has solid experience in assisting non-profits and churches raise funds via the Internet. An email campaign in June 2009 yielded over $30,000 in gifts from 375 donors. a 13-month campaign for another not for profit organizaton raised $192,000 in gifts through the email fundraising channel. We have a proven track record of increasing our clients´ funds multiple times over in proportion to what it costs our clients.

Schedule a meeting with Pathmaker Marketing to discuss and learn more about how you can make your church outreach on the internet grow even larger.