MinistryNet: Budapest 2005

Allan spoke to us about digital media and pay per click advertising.

It does not matter how good a site you have developed if no one in your target audience knows it’s existence. We can be far more effective at promoting to our audience who are most likely be receptive at far less cost.

Don’t overlook the obvious: include URLs in all print materials, electronic signatures, digital testimonies, templates, videos, DVDs, etc. In addition, we can purchase keywords for “pay per click” advertising.

If you don’t have a evangelistic site, check out free ones at www.greatcom.org/links.htm. Choose good URL with both .com and .org and country domains if it’s relevant. Also get other groups linking to you.

For Pay Per Click, remember it’s an auction. Choose your main search engines, languages, and terms. Then develop good landing pages, follow up people coming, pray, and monitor results and adjust when necessary.

Are your goals fully developed? Do they require faith without being ridiculous? Pray and plan to be successful. Another strategy to consider is a Global Catalytic Task Force.

Download Allan’s PowerPoint.

Ray spoke to us about a project called 12 Words. The idea is to capture the marketplace by the 12 most searched words in the Arab world. We write about “Family”, “Children”, “God” and “Jesus” but are in the teens and twenties of search terms. Instead, this project wants to write about the most searched words. Some of the top words searched for is “sex”, “dating”, “health”, “love”, and “career”.

Jesus would be ministering to the people looking for these words, not what we’re writing about.

To accomplish this, local ministries have their own ownership, content development, and local relevancy…though these sites have a global impact. The pages take the visitor from their expressed or stated need to show their need for Jesus.

One nice thing about this strategy is that the sites market themselves because that’s what people are looking for! The team commits to develop an article per week for a year. If the site is well done, it’ll rise in the rankings.

Download Ray’s PowerPoint.

Rob shared several examples of changed lives because of the internet. (ironically, Rob is the one posting this…though typed by Patricia)

The role of marketing in changed lives:

• Identify audience
• Good website design
• Engage in ministry

How do you get your audience to the website? You can have a great site but if they’re not coming, then so what? The goal of marketing it to get the right people to your site.

Ways to get people to you site:

• Search engine optimization
• Linking strategies
• Traditional marketing

Find out what search engine your target audience uses.

Rob talked about using good keywords as well as different way of using them to get higher rankings in Google.

To get good inbound links write good content: quality, relevant, fresh, easy to read.

Ways to get someone to find a link to your website:

• Email: eNewsletter, signature
• Online communities (interactive): your online profile, blogs

Traditional Marketing (how do you get someone to type in your web address):

• Give out your web address on anything printed
• Word of mouth
• For ideas see escmedia.org

How do you define success? Getting your target audience to the site

Review:

• Design your site for people, have good content, have a good design, make sure your visitors can accomplish some goal.
• Design also for search engines because they send the people to our site.

Download Rob’s PowerPoint.

We had another special guest give the morning devotion on The Great Commission.

Searching for truth and happiness as a child, our guest became a Christian over 30 years ago while living in a part of the world where this wasn’t encouraged (to say the least).

1. We need to see the big picture — God loves [my country] and he loves yours too. God has a big plan to bring people out of their condition to Himself.
2. There is no…How to do it? — Jesus told us to go and preach the gospel, but He didn’t tell us how. We create our own tools to do it.
3. He is the sender, the message and the messenger — because this is true, we should give back the glory. He’s giving us the power to do it! It’s His commission, not ours.

Download the PowerPoint.

As you know we’ve been praying for people to get here because of visa problems. In short, 11 people had visa problems. 1 decided not to come so that left 10 trying to get here.

Today #10 made it! All 10 of the people who wanted to get here did! God has proven his faithfulness once again. He has provided 100% of all who committed to attend MinistryNet: Budapest 2005.

Thank you for your prayers.

Marilyn spoke to us about writing for the web.

The internet allows us to be more persuasive and provide more in-depth answers. For example, a 30-second commercial introduces the brand. A 30-minute info-mercial encourages you to purchase because more time is taken to present the product. However, articles are written as clearly as possible. They are edited so that each answers the questions the visitor has.

Communication Objectives: Either

1. help someone understand who God is or
2. help them understand what a relationship with God is like.

At EveryStudent.com, each article addresses both the intellectual (as in John 3) and the emotional (as in John 4).

Download Marilyn’s notes in Word.

Patricia spoke to us about the importance of graphic design. Through some examples, she showed is some of the main points for design.

It’s not just about having a good looking website. The main reason you want to have a good design is because it’s about communication. All design decisions should be made because of what your audience would like.

When using color, in general, you should use only 3 colors. To help you pick colors for the web, try the Color Coordinator and Color Match. For more go here.

With text and fonts, the most important thing is making sure the fonts and colors are easy to read. Websafe fonts are Arial, Verdana, and Helvitica.

With graphics, use good quality, relevant photos (at 72 dpi). Don’t use animated GIF’s, background images, or poor quality photos.

White space is okay on a website.

For layout, use a grid. Draw one and use the boxes to fill it with content.

Download Patricia’s PowerPoint.

Yván spoke to us about web usability using the project for teens in Spain called El Sistema (or The System)…a futuristic story with hackers looking for the meaning of life looking for “File 0″ which is the Gospel of Luke maintained on the website. The story is distributed as audio CD along with the website.

This is done in partnership with schools, websites, and local churches. They interact with web visitors all through the story and characters in the story.

They have done a great job at identifying their target audience. About half of internet users in Europe are 18 years old or younger which was part of the motivation to target teens. More than one quarter of all of these users are 15-18.

With this project, they use flash technology, images, story-telling and narration as the main way to communicate. This strategy has been very effective in reaching them because they are being culturally relevant to their audience.

Psalm 34:8 tells us to “taste and see”. John 1:45-46 says “come and see”. Their strategy is to let their audience come and see the Gospel.

Download Yvan’s PowerPoint.

Through the means of mass media every person has opportunity to know the love of God and to connect to a local, though often hidden, church. Websites are being built for ministry to focus on topics such as dating. Questions are asked through these sites about Christianity. Often there is a misunderstanding of what Christianity is about and these ministries are working to correct these misunderstanding. Some are sending weekly eNewsletters and using live chat. Currently, one particular site is seeing 1400 visits per week.

A new website that has come online lately is EveryArabStudent.com. Since it started in November, over 3000 people have indicated they have made a decision for Christ. Now there is a follow-up site called EveryArabChristian.com.

There are many more websites and activities that are being done in strategic locations. Please be in prayer for these ministries.

Dave talked to us about Branding. We watched some Super Bowl commercials and looked at what they did and didn’t communicate. Branding is not deceptive, dishonest, or evasive. It’s presenting something to gain someone else’s interest. Often in Christian circles we pull back because we self-impose restrictions.

Branding produces an emotional message that establishes a desired tone. It’s a desired image but not the only image of the product — it’s the one that entices or generates the most interest and doesn’t answer all questions. Branding starts with understanding your target audience, not the product. It creates a feel that is unique that captures attention.

Our problem is we’ve been branded by others and we’ve lost control of our image. Because of negative branding, our message is often not even heard. We should take back our stolen image not because of what they think of us, but what they think about our God. We want them to see something they really do want. They want Jesus, they just don’t know it.

Steps to Creating a Brand

• Know your Audience
• Determine desired emotional feel
• Invest, sustain, and promote the image

If a person only encountered your media image, what would he think/feel about you…and why would they want to meet and/or interact with you?

There is no “one-size fits all” brand. You need to decide based on your audience.

Download Dave’s PowerPoint and his notes in Word.