Can you believe Easter is just a few weeks away!?
If you find yourself in the church world, your team is probably knee-deep in preparation for your Easter weekend services and events. However, you are also quite aware of the importance of this holiday in the faith world.
Easter Sunday is the most attended church service of the year by and large. While this is a part of many people’s regular church attendance, there are many people who typically don’t attend church who come on Easter weekend. These people may be referred to as “Chreasters” — who usually only attend church on the Christmas and Easter holidays.
No matter your congregation’s reason for attendance, Easter is a vital weekend for the global church.
This is the one day of the year that you have an attentive audience with those who may not know Jesus yet or haven’t pursued a relationship with Him for quite some time. It is a beautiful opportunity because people from all sorts of backgrounds get to hear the Good News of Jesus Christ.
This is a holy Sunday (or another day, depending on your church’s service date!), and it is worth noting that the opportunity to take advantage of this day cannot be missed. There are souls at stake. Every person on earth needs to hear a message of hope, and we can offer that hope to them.
It has been two years since the Covid-19 pandemic began, and we were just beginning to see the sense of normalcy in our world. Yet things do not always go as we planned. As war and violence break out in Ukraine, we are yet again in the midst of a season of uncertainty and fear.
This is precisely why the message of Easter matters.
Jesus came to bring hope and healing to a broken world, and it is by His resurrection from the dead that this healing is possible. Jesus bought freedom for us when He triumphed over death.
This time, this moment, is precisely when we need to declare this truth from the mountaintops.
In light of our current world situation, it may seem trivial to even consider things like digital media or church websites. But we must see that we have been granted these tools to bring good to the world. While the Internet has been used for many vile and vicious things, we have the opportunity to redeem this medium and bring hope through it instead.
Just two years ago, our team at Pro MediaFire launched the “Great News” campaign. This campaign existed to bring the hope of Jesus to the world wide web through messages of encouragement, faith, and hope. We partnered with over 1,000 churches and nonprofits as they brought these messages of hope to their own communities.
This “Great News” has not changed. Jesus is alive, and that changes everything. No matter what we find ourselves enduring, there is still hope in the resurrected King.
As you enter into this time of bringing hope to your community, we want to offer you a few tips and tricks to prepare your website specifically for the Easter season. We hope that those who are seeking a message of hope this Easter can come across your church and find that exact hope.
A landing page is a unique type of webpage that is separate from your actual website. It serves as a standalone page where you access specific information that is not found in your website's standard navigation.
These pages are wonderful for directing your audience to a special offer, event, or other unique information. Landing pages are perfect to utilize for your church’s Easter services and events.
Instead of having to click through your website to find information about Easter, your audience is directly pointed to a standalone landing page to get all the info they need. Typically, users access this page by clicking on an advertisement, email link, social media post, or other digital channels.
Creating a landing page is fun because you can take so much creative liberty with it!
It is a temporary page, but if used well, it can serve well to reach your target audience, share important information, and hype people up for your church’s Easter.
The elements you can use on your Easter page can include:
There are endless possibilities for what you can do on your Easter landing page. So have fun with it, be creative, and provide everything necessary to connect your audience to your Easter services.
P.S. Check out this absolutely gorgeous Easter landing page from Woodlands Church of Texas.
Whether it is a landing page or your main homepage, you want to make it simple and easy for your visitors to connect with your church. Nothing is more frustrating than having to jump through hoops to try to find the information you are looking for!
The perk of creating an Easter landing page is all the relevant information you need is right there on one single page. However, the landing page can also serve another important purpose: connecting your visitors to other aspects of your church.
Your landing page can have links referring back to your main website and social media channels. These links enable your visitors to learn more about your community before they walk in on Easter Sunday. They can discover more about your mission, ministry offerings, beliefs, small groups, and even volunteering.
The goal of Easter Sunday is not to just have a huge service and call it a day — it is to build a further connection with those in attendance. The hope is that God will move those “Chreasters” that they want to begin regular attendance and involvement.
To retain those people, they need to know the next steps. So an additional element you can add to your landing page is a “what next” section. You can, in brief, supply a few links to the other things your church is up to the other 364 days of the year. You can then refer those links directly back to your main website, where they can learn more about your community!
Another super frustrating part of websites? When they totally stink to use on your phone.
Among U.S. users in 2020, 61% of visits to websites were done through mobile devices. This shows that not everyone is sitting behind a laptop or desktop computer to surf the World Wide Web — they access it from a device that fits right in the palm of their hand.
While apps are wonderful ala carte items to add to your digital toolkit, a mobile website is much more accessible because it doesn’t require extra steps. You just click and go. This is exactly why your website needs to be mobile-friendly.
What elements does a website need to be considered mobile-friendly? Here are a few:
It is wise to work with an expert web developer to ensure your website is friendly both on desktop and mobile. Ensuring your website bodes well with mobile devices will ensure your audience can access all the goodies on your church website right on the go!
(Hint hint: our team at PMF Creative are kinda the experts at this website stuff. Give us a call!)
An important element to include on your website is an option to sign up for email marketing. This can either be directly built into your special landing page or can even be a popup on your original website.
To offer this sign-up, you must first connect your website to an email marketing app (Mailchimp and Constant Contact are two of our favorites!) Once connected, you can build out special emails for those who sign up for your list.
Contrary to popular belief, email marketing is not dead! Many churches still get great results from sending out emails to their church members. These emails can be specifically utilized during Easter to send out event reminders, services announcements, and other special things happening at your church even after the Easter season is over. Utilizing email marketing through your website is a simple yet important element to consider including!
There you have it, a few simple ways to prepare your website for Easter this year!
We hope that this list helps improve your website impact and assist you in refreshingly connecting to your audience.
You never know what a simple click on a landing page or signup for an email list can do. It may just lead to someone coming to Easter service, meeting the Lord, and becoming a part of your community.
Blessings as you enter into this wonderful season of hope!
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