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January 2003
Web Strategies That Click
By Susan Crawford
We are excited about our plans for 2003! Throughout this year, we will present an actual case study of an existing church Web site and share how it evolves as it undergoes a comprehensive Web site assessment. You will be able to follow the entire process from establishing expectations and setting benchmarks right through to actual criteria rankings, findings and recommendations. In each column, you'll learn more whys and hows confronting the church's team and explore the implications, recommendations and possible alternatives. Although the assessment will be too large to present here in its entirety, we hope you will gain valuable insights and ideas you can apply to your Web strategy. Come walk with us and feel free to contact me with any feedback or questions along the way.
Meet My Partner Church
Hillcrest United Methodist Church has kindly agreed to partner with me and to share opinions, thoughts and feedback with you as I take their Web site (www.hillcrestumc.org) through this assessment project. Hillcrest is considered a medium-sized church located just south of Nashville, Tennessee in a growing and increasingly culturally diverse area. Under the leadership of the Rev. Joseph Shelton, Sr., the church is active in their surrounding community and offers several online ministries. These factors make Hillcrest an excellent candidate.
I am providing my assessment services to Hillcrest free in exchange for their participation and willingness to let you vicariously share in their experience. Most Web site assessment services are calculated on the complexity of the site and this is about all you will learn when search online. I use this same formula and my extensive services for Hillcrest (see below) are estimated at a minimum of 80 hours and valued around $5,000. If this fee seems a bit steep, there is a way to slice-and-dice a big project to fit any budget but success will depend on an important twist to your approach (more below).
Getting Started
After gaining Hillcrest's initial agreement, I put two primary pieces of groundwork into place which would form a solid project foundation. First, I shared with the Hillcrest team my assurance that I understand the value of retaining their users' good will, the value of their design equity and the need to implement any changes subtly and maintain established branding.
Second, I initiated a confidentiality agreement. This simple form assures both parties that confidential or proprietary information will not be disclosed and all loaned files, reports and materials will be returned at the end of the project. Although confidentiality is usually not a sensitive issue for most church sites, I execute an agreement on every project to promote trust in the relationship and to ensure that everyone is comfortable during the interview process. (Of course, for Hillcrest, we've also added a publication release.)
Why Undertake An Assessment?
How do you know if your Web site is well positioned? A comprehensive Web site assessment is the best approach for answering this question and ensuring a viable strategy. An assessment should delve into the total user experience beyond the eye-catching graphics and explore the supporting front-end and back-end operations. Among areas explored should be mission, marketing, ISP performance, copyrights, interactivity, security, information relevance, search engine ranking, user focus and visitor perspective. Due to this diversity, I encourage a client to build a project team that represents all areas of their organization. [Project note: In this assessment, we will not address legal/copyright issues or e-commerce; and Hillcrest's team includes a good mix of ministries, clergy and lay, technical and non-technical.]
Here is the twist I mentioned earlier. It is very tempting to address Web site sections in isolation (one area at a time). This piecemeal approach, however, is much like trying to bake a cake one piece at a time. Singling out certain areas works best only when you are conducting an annual check up following an assessment. If it is more affordable to take one step at a time, I recommend that instead of singling out successive areas of a Web site, a team should tackle one criterion at a time. For example, instead trying to perfect your welcome section, tackle navigation issues throughout your site (then address content or functionality).
What's involved? Each page of Hillcrest's existing Web site will be cataloged and reviewed against seven criteria: content, navigation, user appeal, functionality, technologies, branding and vision. Each criteria carries a measurable definition, i.e. vision=future preparedness; use of medium; user focus and how well current layout accommodates growth. Each area will be viewed in context with the rest of the site to ensure appropriate visibility and overall cohesiveness. I will also add three unique elements to this assessment process. First, I will interview each member of the client team to benchmark the current site; I will also analyze the benefits of all third-party content providers and rank the site externally against selected peers.
Assessment deliverables to Hillcrest will include only a brief overview of our findings. The bulk of the findings would be provided on CD in the form of a proprietary interactive computer interface. From this file, individual page findings may be quickly retrieved and presented visually with a priority ranking against each criterion and a recommendation narrative. This user-friendly implementation tool will act as an action plan to help Hillcrest identify what is critical, set priorities and track progress (celebrate milestones) on any recommendations they may wish to pursue. This action plan will also ensure that regardless of how the staff and volunteers change, the Web strategy will remain intact and easily followed.
How Is A Church Web Site Different?
Many businesses can offer services and/or products both offline (brick-and-mortar) and online (click-and-mortar) with little difference to the user. Church Web ministries, however, have the tougher task of extending offline values and core beliefs to their online ministry with the same warmth-of-community. Suddenly, the personal face-to-face relationship has shifted to the remoteness of face-to-monitor. Consequently, welcoming efforts may need to be more intentional with greater thought to appeal and interactivity to regain the sense of inclusion. You know your church's strengths. The measure of your online success will be how well you communicate who you are and what you care about and how well your message resonates with your users. The Internet is about building relationships. Creating an online presence that fortifies offline missions will build lifetime value for visitors and, in turn, grow the enthusiasm and financial support to sustain it. In addition to how the church sees itself outwardly, more subliminally, it is also a denominational "branch office." There may also be mandates to follow pertaining to the use of graphics and guidelines for theological, social or political content online. And finally, just by its religious nature, a church Web site can find its visibility catapulted (and doctrine challenged) by world events. The task of anticipating and integrating these elements makes a church Web site very unique.
Coming Next Issue
Going forward, our next step is to benchmark the Hillcrest site (see how many pages there are and what they cover) and see what common needs, goals and visions arise from the interviews. We hope you stay with us this year and feel free to send any feedback or questions to article@businesscolony.com.
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