A follow up to yesterday's post about answering questions online...
A monthly web-designer's newsletter I get (long story!) tells the story of a revamped much-improved website that performed less well than the "mistake riddled, ugly" old version for that business:
We recently redeveloped a web site for a client who sells a service at $5,000 a pop. Our redeveloped site replaced a site that he'd designed himself, which had been up for 6 months. It was an ugly, ugly site.
Yet, during its first couple of weeks online, the new site came nowhere near achieving the sales levels of the old, ugly site. Why? The answer reveals a fascinating insight into how some web sites work.
The old ugly site was mistake-ridden. It offered very little information. In no way did it present the client's services in a positive way. But it still outperformed the new site by a long way, for one simple reason.
As there was no information on the web site, people phoned up my client. He's great on the phone and made sales to 80% of these callers. He even made a $5,000 sale to a visitor who rang him to tell him about a typo on his web site!
My new (and better?) web site answered many of the prospects' frequently asked questions, offered a 3-part email autoresponder course, and provided a lot of great information that was useful to visitors trying to make a buying decision.
In fact, there was so much great information that prospects didn't need to call. So they didn't. They made their buying decisions based on the information that was provided on the web site and the sales dropped like a stone!
... I'd better go. I'm off to remove a whole lot of useful content and add a phone number to a homepage!
Even in business, relationship, conversation and people-contact is often the most important part of what makes it tick... how much more in a church situation. What makes All Souls special is the people you meet Jesus at work in - no website (however slick or informative) can replace meeting people face-to-face!
Hi, I'm new here. I've moved in to the area recently. I was a comitted Christian throughout university before moving to Amsterdam on a career of turning away from God.
I came back to the UK and now I wish to turn back to God. I used google to find a church in the local area that I thought would suit my style of worship.
The churches that didn't sell themselves on the websites completely removed any interest I had in them. I was also skeptical about those which didn't put any emphasis on their beliefs (I've been to some very odd churches in the past).
Last week I sat through a service at a friend's college which nearly sent me to sleep. I rarely heard doctrine and there was absolutely no energy in anyone! The thought of calling up churches and asking "Do you have good worship and a comitment to the bible?" terrifies me, and going to a different church each week would become very tiresome.
Therefore, I think a website 'selling' a church is an excellent idea. I know friends of mine who are techies like myself who sometimes find themselves lonely or wanting God (perhaps for the first time) and use google for more info. They're shy, so if they can read what a service will be like, see it even and understand the answers to the questions that trouble their hearts a lot has been achieved. Even if they don't make that dive today and go to their local church, the answers are in their heads and the thought will grow from within them.
Just my 2c.
By the way, I enjoyed reading this site, listening to Sunday's sermon and getting a feel for this church. Suffice to say, saving some disaster, I'll be there on Sunday!
Matt
Posted by: Matt | October 26, 2006 at 09:54 AM