BrianHimes.com » Marketing

Church Web Design: People vs. Buildings

Brian — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 17:38:56 +0000

I have been doing a little thinking about this topic lately. In church web design, should you feature pictures of your congregation, or just pictures of your building and surrounding neighborhood? I would like to hear where you stand. Here are my initial thoughts. Feel free to disagree or convince me otherwise.

In the world of web design and mail solicitations for nonprofits, images of people are king. It is all about emotional appeal. You want an image to touch the viewer and stir them to take action. That action could be to make a donation, volunteer, or whatever, but it is that emotional connection that you form with the person in the image that creates that connection. I argue that you cannot forge the same connection with a building. Buildings, even in the best light and at the right angle, are cold man made objects. Sure, you can take some stunningly beautiful photos of buildings, but the difference is you cannot look into their eyes and sympathize with them.

Churches are about people, not buildings. And, I think the theory behind using images carries over from the nonprofit world. Church websites should make an emotional appeal to people. As a designer you should want the people who visit your website to see the church as a warm family they could fit right into. You want them to identify and sympathize with the people in the photos. You want to create that emotional connection to pull them in. Buildings can look cool from an art or design standpoint, but ultimately that is not what churches are about. It is about people.

Those are my thoughts anyway. Please share yours. Whether you’re a designer, or an armchair critic like me, I would love to hear from you.

Posted via email from brianhimes’s posterous

Cup with a Cause

Brian — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 18:15:34 +0000

I stopped by the 7-Eleven across from my office this morning and noticed a new promotion while I was serving myself some coffee. The promotion is called “Cup with a Cause”, and it’s a philanthropic venture for 7-Eleven. Here’s a description of the program from www.cupwithacause.com.

The 7-Eleven Coffee Cup with a Cause program brings limited edition coffee cups designed by high profile entertainers and athletes into 7-Eleven stores nationwide. Each cup will benefit a charity of the celebrity’s choosing, with the organization receiving a $250,000 donation from 7-Eleven. This means that the next time you help yourself to one of 7-Eleven’s great coffee options, you’ll also have the chance to help someone in need. Now that’s hot. Cup with a Cause. It’s charity, by design.

It’s nice to see 7-Eleven doing something like this. And, with so many people visiting 7-Eleven each day, this will be great PR for all of the featured charities. Very cool 7-Eleven.

The first featured cup benefits the Richie-Madden Children’s Foundation.

Posted via email from brianhimes’s posterous

Viral Marketing and Fringe

Brian — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 21:27:02 +0000

Just came across an awesome viral marketing campaign for Fringe, the J.J. Abrams drama on FOX. If you watch the show, you’re probably aware of a character called “The Observer” who seems to appear whenever strange things happen. Apparently FOX has launched a campaign where they place actors posing as “The Observer” in various locations around the city. That’s not too creepy, right?

Read a blog post about it in LAist.

Posted via email from brianhimes’s posterous

You Aren’t Hurting Anyone

Brian — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 20:58:00 +0000

Let me give you a quick disclaimer. I am in charge of overseeing the direct mail program at a small non-profit organization in Southern California. Keep that in mind as you read this.

I understand that there are people out there who do not like direct mail. Heck, I’m not thrilled with the direct mail solicitations I get in the mail, but I understand it is a necessary evil. It’s a cheap way to raise money and with that money a lot of people can have better lives. Now, that said, I don’t understand those people who think it’s clever to send their their junk mail back in their response envelopes. Truth be told, it doesn’t hurt us one bit to open an envelope full of junk. In fact, if anything, it provides a little comic relief to my day. I’ve received jumbo-sized fake money, religious tracts, other people’s direct mail appeals and all sorts of odds and ends. It’s pretty humorous. I used to keep a wall in my cubicle covered with the best responses.

Now, I’m going to direct the rest of this post directly to these people who obviously are offended by receiving mail solicitations. If you think you’re making a point; the point is lost. It’s not going to cause us to think twice about sending out mailers. If you truly are opposed to receiving mail, send us your name and address and ask us to remove you from our mailing list. We will be happy to do so. If you don’t send us your name, and instead choose to send us your junk, we can’t do anything. We don’t know who you are. Personally, I think it’s rather passive aggressive and childish to not give us your name when you send us your trash, but that’s just me.

Photo: uzvards

Ad Cutbacks

Brian — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 16:52:00 +0000

I found this quote interesting given both my and my wife’s connection with direct mail.

As for overall ad spending, Barclays Capital is trimming its estimates for both overall and Internet ad spending. Total ad spending in the U.S. (including cable and broadcast TV, radio, newspapers, magazines, Yellow Pages, direct mail, Internet, and outdoor) it forecasts will decline 3.6 percent this year to $284 billion and then another 5.5 percent in 2009 to $269 billion.

How will this translate to the non-profit fundraising world? Are we about to see some changes? Should leaders of non-profits cut back on advertising right now?

Hat tip: TechCrunch

A Few Fundraising Ideas

Brian — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 18:53:00 +0000

One of my many jobs is working for a homeless services agency in Pasadena. After our last development staff meeting, in which we all seemed down regarding the financial outlook for the coming year, I did some thinking. The following are a few of the thoughts I have been playing around with in my head on ways to potentially increase revenue and awareness, even if it just helps ever-so slightly. Some of these thoughts aren’t completely fleshed out and are merely extensions of some things we already do, but I wanted to share them. Send any additional thoughts my way. I’d appreciate them.

More grassroots fundraising

Firstgiving – We already have an account with them that we use for our Bowl-A-Thon. For no additional cost we allow individuals to create their own fundraisers, we just need to promote it.
Facebook – We have a Facebook page that we update occasionally. It wouldn’t take much work to encourage staff to create their own profiles and promote the heck out of us to friends and family.
Encourage participation in outside events such as marathons, etc.
Promote our services and provide our wish list to local churches and businesses during Hunger and Homelessness Awareness week in November, and year round.

Additional resources for driving new, and repeat, visitors to our website

Create a weekly blog featuring program updates, client success stories, an update from the Executive Director, etc.
Place client success stories in a more prominent place on the website to show that we are making a difference
Start an e-Newsletter
Use Google Adwords

Increase size of donation link on website so that it is more visible

Bad Direct Mail

Brian — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 20:10:00 +0000

This is in no way meant to be a criticism of the validity, necessity, or mission of the organization 24april1915.org, but they are in serious need of help with their direct mail campaign.

Yesterday I received a very unfortunate piece of mail from them. Let me take a moment to describe it. It arrived in 6.5″ x 9.5″ white envelope. The envelope had both the return and mailing addresses printed on white (Avery 5160) mailing labels, and they were accompanied by three postage stamps. The stamps were placed haphazardly, facing every which way in an arc somewhere in the middle of the envelope, not in a nice, uniform row on the upper right-hand corner as they should be. Based on aesthetics alone, I was not excited about opening it. On top of the obvious lack of effort put into the envelope, the name of the sender on the return address was unfamiliar to me. I realized the date was that of the Armenian Genocide, but I knew of no organization with that name and was unsure as to why I was receiving mail from such a place.

When I opened the envelope I pulled out a large sticker and an unevenly folded sheet of white 8.5″ x 11″ copy paper. The sticker read Pay Attention, Take Action, History Gets Repeated, the Armenian Genocide. Now, I’ll be the first to admit, the sticker was pretty eye grabbing. It was red and black with white san serif lettering and was large enough to be read from quite a distance if placed on your car, which I assume was the intent. The white copy paper accompanying the sticker, however, was less than inspiring. It was a photo-copied donation form, asking me to participate in their campaign at one of many giving levels. The form wasn’t personalized nor did it take time to explain the purpose of their campaign, the mission of their organization, where my money would go, if my donation would be tax deductible, or anything else a normal solicitation would and should. It was also full of poor grammar and misspellings, which is pretty bad in my book.

Perhaps they believed their purpose was self-explanatory, thought the grammar was ok, and had a volunteer assemble the mailing. If they hope to be successful they need to realize their purpose is not self-explanatory, poor grammar is not ok, and you need to watch your volunteers as they work. You do not need to tell your organization’s life story in every mailing, but there needs to be some sort of clear call to action. Something as simple as “Help spread the word about the Armenian Genocide by sponsoring our Sticker Drive,” would have been a step in the right direction. I’m not saying that’s pure advertising gold, but anything more descriptive would have helped their cause, especially in a piece which is attempting to acquire new donors.

My advice to them, if they are unable to afford a consultant or direct mail company to manage their future campaigns, is the following:

Develop a clear mission
Develop a clear, concise call to action that tugs at heartstrings
Pay attention to detail
Go through several rounds of text proofing before sending anything out
Closely supervise volunteers
Collect samples of other direct mail campaigns and borrow ideas

This is in no way meant to be a complete how-to on direct mail. Believe it or not direct mail is a science based on research and trends. The items I pointed out above were merely the beginning in a long list of dos and don’ts. I hope I have not offended anyone with this post and I wish 24april1915.org the best of luck in this campaign and future campaigns.

Glendale Website

Brian — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 17:56:00 +0000

This is an image of the new (temporary) Glendale Church of Christ website. It’s based on the design for the up and coming website, which is still a little ways off. Let me know what you think. I’m interested in your feedback, because I’m on the team that is working to design the new site.

Also, if you’re so inclined, head on over to the site and view the Fall Family Festival movie. You won’t be disappointed.

Church Logos

Brian — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 16:07:00 +0000

According to Church Relevance here are the Top 20 Church Logos. I wondery why I don't see my Church, or any Churches of Christ, on this list.

Christian Retail

Brian — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 17:38:00 +0000

I was reading this morning about the International Christian Retail Show which occurred July 9-13 at the Colorado Convention Center in Denver, CO and it led me to wonder what would Jesus think? Would he walk in there and start tipping tables and ransacking booths. Would he react like he did when he cleansed the temple? I do not know, but I wonder.

It seems as though we may have gone a little off the deep end concerning all the Christian merchandise. I myself have fallen victim to some of it purchasing Christian music and Christian themed clothing, but I wonder if Christ himself would have endorsed it.

I tend to agree with political scientist Alan Wolfe, who was interviewed by the LA Times for an article titled; Christian Retailers Put Their Print on Products. He states that “The effect of such products is to create almost a parallel universe, one that allows Christians to withdraw from the world instead of engaging it as Christ commanded.”

If he is correct, and feel free to disagree, I think this ever-expanding world of Christian retail is quite dangerous. We are making it quite comfortable for ourselves and as we do that we pull further and further away from the rest of civilization. I understand that we are called to be “aliens in this world” but is this what it really means? Should we really have our own music, clothing, etc.? How are we going to reach others if we are off in our own little world?

I think this problem with Christian retail is very similar to an issue we have in our churches as well. We have been too inwardly focused and it seems that the only time we gain members is when we transplant Christians from other churches. If we are not out engaging the world then we cannot expect to win others for Christ. And after all is that not our mission; to go out into all the world and baptize in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Sprit? Odds are someone is not going to come to Christ by walking by our building on Sunday morning so we need to get out there. We need to be in the world, but not of it.

So, let’s not create for ourselves the parallel universe of which Alan Wolfe spoke by buying in to this consumerism that separates us from those we need to reach, but let’s get off the pews, get out there and engage the world.