Did you know that your church sign creates a huge opportunity to reach people who are walking by? Although it exists physically, it can create a chance for you to continue talking to people long after they’ve passed your church sign.
When it comes to the digital space, it’s important that we create journeys for our visitors and members. This means that we have the intention to continue talking to our visitors or members beyond the first hello. In fact, we may actually have several next steps planned or a journey that we’d like to take them on.
For visitors, this could mean going from a casual passerby to someone who visits your website, engages with content, eventually has a conversation with you and returns to talk to you in person.
The question becomes, can we make the journey of our visitors start as they walk past our church sign? Let me suggest a few ways you can do this.
1. Capture their attention & create intrigue
Many church signs are already effective at doing this. They include catchy and clever sayings that leave people chuckling, shaking their heads or smiling. What if we took that one step further?
When thinking of our church signs, we should find ways to talk with people instead of talking at people. We can take the idea of clever church signs one step further by asking a questions, engaging or finding ways to open a communication circle.
2. Ask a question or open a communication circle
Church signage is usually one-way communication. It’s the equivalent to talking in a straight line.
When you talk in straight lines, you direct your communication at the people you’re talking to. Examples are broadcasting your livestream or sending out your newsletter or posting on your social media. You’re talking at people, but not having a conversation with people.
However, when you create a communication circle, you open the communication for a response. You ask a question, invite someone to a group or take people on a journey to their next step.
So in order to open a communication circle, try asking a question on your church sign, for example, try engaging people by asking them a Bible question, letting them ask a question or letting them request prayer.
You can also engage them with a little known fact and offer further information on your website, which they can access by a QR code.
3. Give them something to do next
When someone accesses your QR code, you can take them to an online quiz, a landing page or an article on your website. Find a way to engage with them beyond the first interaction they had with your sign.
Open their curiosity and then take them on the next step of the journey.
4. Engage them in a conversation
The next step will depend on the resources your church has. It would be ideal if you could engage the people who walk by in conversation and allow them to ask a pastor a question, ask for counselling, ask for help to meet a need they have, or give them a chance for prayer.
The level to which you can engage in this step of the journey will depend on your church. Look internally and see what the talents are within your church and how deeply you can pursue this option. Then, move the visitors forward in the journey.
5. Create a next step
At this point, you can review your online visitor journey and ask yourself, where you would like to go next. To understand more about the online visitor journey, you can download a copy of the journey for yourself.
What’s next?
This week, I invite you to evaluate your church signage and find how many communication circles you are creating. Are you creating intrigue, in addition to providing useful information? Are you allowing the sign to create two-way communication?
If you’d like help evaluating your church’s online communications to see if you are creating opportunities to talk with people, contact us and let’s talk!
It’s always helpful to have a second set of eyes evaluate your church’s presence. We can help you with a Digital Church Checkup.