People regularly experience crossroads. Especially at church! These “places of decision” must be handled carefully to get the correct response to meet your audience’s needs. So, they’ll make their best decision from the limited amount of suggested choices.
In our noisy world where there are lots of choices to make, with many places of decision, the church needs to be clear about options and very specific with direction. It’s up to the church to make suggestions based on who is likely to arrive at the place of decision.
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Here are 5 places of decision and how a church must communicate better at them:
1. In a sermon. Each time someone engages with your church’s communication channels, you must take care that you lead them to a “so what?” moment (most naturally ask that question after an engagement).
This, in the communication world, is called a CTA (call to action). Every sermon needs at least one invitation to a decision. Whether for a gospel response or a specific change in direction. Be clear, be specific.
If you don’t lead them, they may miss their opportunity.
2. At the road. When driving by your church location, people have a place of decision: to visit or not to visit. Your signage needs to be something that calls them to attend.
The sign should be simple and controlled to look like your church style, your brand and your website. Why? Because most will decide to go to your website first, before driving in. Ensure everything looks professional and consistent. Also, ensure the website messaging matches the CTA on the sign.
3. Inside the door. Once someone walks through any of your church entrances, they are at a place of decision. Make sure you have way-finding signs that give directions to what they “probably” want.
Sure, you won’t be able to list everything but at least have the most important: restrooms, worship center, family ministry areas. Then follow those directions to the next place of decision and have appropriate signage there too.
4. Every web page. On every website page, there are content areas. At the end of each section, module, or page, the reader arrives at a place of decision. Make sure you have a CTA (i.e. link, form, information) to help them. It could be “for more information”, “register now”, or “if you have questions, please contact.”
Also, interconnect web pages with links by leading them to what they should want. This helps SEO (search engine optimization) and does the heavy lifting for your audience.
5. Every email. Most churches need some sort of push communication.
Email, the most popular channel for this, is “pushed” to people who’ve requested it. Emails interrupt and communicate something. This important channel must also have a CTA at every place of decision in the email.
Be careful though, if you have too many places of decision in one email, you will get fewer responses to your CTAs. So, limit the options and be clear about what you expect them to do.
EDITOR’S NOTE — Mark MacDonald is a communication pastor, speaker, consultant, bestselling author and church branding strategist for BeKnownforSomething.com empowering thousands of pastors and churches to become known for something relevant (a communication thread) throughout their ministries, on their church websites and social media. His church branding book, “Be Known for Something,” is available at BeKnownBook.com.
