Churches, Microsites & The Unchurched
May 4th, 2009 by Matt Haff
Wikipedia defines a microsite as an individual web page or cluster of pages which are meant to function as an auxiliary supplement to a primary website. Large corporations have been using them to launch a new product line, host a contest, market to a specific group of people, and to build branding awareness. Recently some of the more influential churches have started to do the same and it’s no surprise that they are successfully capturing their audience’s attention.
One example of this is a relatively new church called Courageous Church based in Atlanta, GA. Instead of spending a lot of money on marketing and advertisements the decided to offer free breakfast every sunday. To capitalize on this idea they used a micro site with it’s own branding and basic information about the free breakfast. Free Breakfast Church.
Another great example from the same church is the Church Sucks Challenge which was another microsite launched to focus in on the unchurched people in the community that have a negative view on church. This was done during the grand opening to draw people straight from the community rather than from other local churches.
Here at 12Stone Church we have a pretty good understanding of microsites. To keep from cluttering up our current website and trying to squeeze everything on the home page we just build another website for the purpose of the specific event.
12Stone Church Microsites:
- Art of Marriage
- Student Camp 2009
- Summer Spot
- Third Base (my personal favorite)
- Unchained
Something new that we’re trying this year is the sponsorship of the Gwinnett Braves on Tuesdays. To go along with this sponsorship we have a LED sign by third base, a spot in the bulletin, and a table to hand out fliers. Everything that we hand out at the stadium directs people to our microsite that we setup at http://thirdbase.12stone.com/.
Churches need to keep up with the times and watch the big dogs to see what works and what doesn’t. Just think of how your church can “market” itself to the unchurched or younger generations through a microsite.
I dare you to share how your church is using microsites.
Hi Matt, these microsites are rather cutting edge for the church and I welcome it. It’s about time the church got on board with Internet marketing tools to engage the lost world!
Tom
May 4th, 2009
Loving the 3rd base site man! Microsites can be very effective. We use them often and push hard. It allows an entirely new look, feel, push, etc. Thanks for the highlight!
Praying for you all!
Shaun
Shaun King
May 4th, 2009
Thanks for your support guys! I’m learning a lot about churches and the way they do things. In the past 3 months I feel like I’ve grown by leaps and bounds in my skills and faith. Keep up with me on here for more updates!
matt
May 4th, 2009