What do you think about your website?  Does it accomplish what you wish it would for your church or organization?  This past year we spent a lot of time asking and analyzing these questions for our website.

That's why we were so excited last week to publish the results of our work.  Check it out.  There are all kinds of articles and blog posts out there from professional marketing and website design firms that are incredible.  We don't pretend to compete with them.  But, we did learn some things along the way.

All of us realize that email marketing and website hosting are two different things. However, as we talked about last week's release of email links for text and social with our development team; we recognized that hosting email content was just a half step from being able to provide hosting for landing pages.  

It was so close in fact that we decided to build a Landing Page feature and released it with Email Links last week.  You can find it on Content Pages option under the Communicate button.  

The other day I did a podcast on using ChMS for discipleship with my friends at Missional Marketing.  I have loved learning from them and thought you might as well.  So, I asked them to write a guest blog post for me. 

Happy week after Easter.  You likely spent a lot of time preparing for last Sunday and now it's over.  Hopefully, you had a lot of guests and collected their information. 

I know you're exhausted, but you really need to follow up with these people. You'll be tempted to do something simple like a single "thank you" letter or email to invite them back.  But, you worked so hard!  Why not take follow up to a new level by setting up a drip campaign to continue to serve them?  The difference is bigger than you think and it's easier to do than you think.

You guys, email is not dead!  Sure, texting is emerging (we have you covered there) and social messaging and apps are vying for attention, but check out this stat in the Hubspot article, The Ultimate List of Email Marketing Stats for 2021.

Peace on earth and goodwill toward men.  This chorus about the coming Messiah is especially good news for us in 2020.  Our family so longed for this gospel message that we decided to put up our Christmas tree on Halloween day!  

Let's face it, working through Connection Cards consumes a lot of staff time.  Administrative staff spend time entering data, sending communication and making follow-up assignments.  Ministry staff spend time trying to connect with people, personally leaving too many voicemails that never get further follow-up.

A Digital Connection Card used in conjunction with our Workflow and Assimilation Tracking is the system you are looking for to free up time from tedious work and optimize personal relationships.

If you pour out your time and heart to pick the right font, images, navigation and content for your website.  If it drives you crazy to see unbranded or rogue email templates being used by staff.  If you wish there were a way to connect your social media and streaming messages to your communication process.  You must be responsible for your church's communication.

In 2 Corinthians 11:28, Paul writes, "Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches."

Pastors these days know exactly what Paul is referring to.  They've felt the uncertainty of cancelling worship services for the first time in their church's history. They hear the conflicting counsel about re-opening. They feel the angst of political polarization.  They care for out-of-work friends and family. They sincerely pray for the critically ill.    

The thesis of this series has been that Website Integration and Workflow Automation can do for Engagement (Outreach, Assimilation, and Connection) what Online Giving has done for Stewardship.  That is, provide a technology solution for accomplishing a major ministry objective in a way that is not dependent on large group gatherings.  The current pandemic has forced us to use more virtual tools than ever.  Let's not waste what we've learned.