Online Communication Expertise

By Duncan Rein
March 1, 2006

The Opportunity

Today, it is clear that the rapid deployment and adoption of the Internet as a communication tool is as groundbreaking as the invention of the printing press almost 500 years ago. Text, images, audio, and video - all converted into a binary code of ones and zeroes - are being transmitted around the world at the speed of light, immediately accessible to anyone in the world with an Internet connection.

Entrusted with a life-changing message of God’s redemptive love and His compassion for those made in His image, Christian ministries in particular have been given a unique opportunity, and a responsibility, to harness the power of these new advances in order to improve their communication efforts and expand their reach. The digital revolution represents many opportunities for:

• expanded reach and greater ministry impact
• strengthened relationships with existing members and supporters
• establishing connections with new audiences
• increased online and overall revenue
• reduced administrative costs

Wise investments can result in a significant and measurable return for organizations of all shapes and sizes.

Did You Know?

• 17% of American Internet users have looked online for information about where to attend religious services.
• It is estimated that more than 65% of all American donors visit a nonprofit website before making their donations, and of these more than three quarters note that their experience on the website had some impact on their decision to give.
• Experts forecast that 30% of all funds donated to nonprofits will be raised online by 2010, compared to less than 5% in 2005.

The Challenge

Yet opportunity and potential do not guarantee success, and while the digital revolution represents extraordinary new opportunities, it also presents many new challenges and new obstacles to effective communication.

Firstly, the digital revolution has brought about an unprecedented proliferation of messages and content, as evidenced by our perpetually clogged inboxes and junk mail folders, together with the exponential growth in the number of web pages. With the decibel level in cyberspace increasing to a fever pitch, it is more difficult than ever to rise above the noise of competing messages.

Secondly, digital communication involves many complex interactions between strategy, messaging, marketing, design, technology, and quantitative analysis. Gaps in knowledge or expertise in any area, or the inability for these skills to be blended in the right way, can deal a fatal blow to an organization’s online communication efforts.

Finally, there is now another communication channel that needs to be incorporated into an organization’s overall communication strategy, and as the web becomes more central and more strategic, it will become increasingly important for all communication efforts to be integrated. With greater potential and greater possibilities comes greater complexity.

Counting the Cost

As with any communication initiative, consistent online communication requires time, effort, and legwork. Online communication strategies, no matter how well-conceived, are useless if they can’t be implemented. Behind the scenes, there is someone, or a group of people, writing content, optimizing graphics for the web, uploading new images, encoding audio and video resources, integrating designs into technology platforms, building new registration and giving forms, constructing new web pages, laying out emails, generating monthly reports, and synchronizing data, all the while managing tasks and deadlines. And this is just to maintain a steady-state online communication calendar!

Even more effort is required for new sites to be designed and built, for special campaigns to be developed to increase membership or convert members to donors, for promotional strategies to be designed and implemented, for new technologies to be investigated and incorporated, for rigorous analysis to be performed, and for existing strategies to be recalibrated in light of real-world data.

Many ministries struggle to calculate the true cost of their online communication efforts because they lack information around how their staff time is allocated. Calculations of total web expenditures are oftentimes made according to hard costs alone, without reference to the hidden costs of staff hours that are allocated to online communication efforts.

As a result, many ministries vastly under-estimate the investments they are already making in the web, whether or not these efforts are successful. In most cases, these hidden costs are much more significant than the hard costs from technology vendors, oftentimes by a factor of five, ten, or even more!

The Need for Expertise

Like other forms of communication, effective online communication requires much more than just time and effort- it requires expertise. Digital communication involves many complex interactions between strategy, messaging, marketing, design, technology, and quantitative analysis. Gaps in knowledge or expertise in any area, or the inability for these skills to be blended in the right way, can deal a fatal blow to an organization’s online communication efforts, even if many hours are being spent.

Our experience suggests that many ministries today are spending significant amounts of time and money on websites that are not adequately meeting their needs and this is primarily due to gaps in expertise.

Perhaps even more significant than the hard costs outlined above are the opportunity costs associated with ministries falling short of excellence in their online communication efforts. This shortcoming oftentimes contributes to inadequate communication with existing members, donors, and supporters and a failure to attract new audiences.

The Silas Approach

Many ministries approach their website as a one-time project. A great deal of focused time is brought to bear over the course of a few months, and a new website is launched. Exhausted, the team moves on to work on other important projects that have been neglected. Relegated to a lower priority, the site begins to deteriorate and the countless hours of upfront work on the new site result in little lasting value for the ministry.

While redesigning a website is oftentimes an important first step, a website redesign alone does not constitute a successful web presence. A central premise that guides Silas Partners is that the web must be viewed as a strategic communication tool that is central to a ministry’s overall communication and fundraising strategy. Just as a ministry’s communication efforts are ongoing - you never reach a point when you stop communicating with your members and constituents - successful online communication requires a sustained effort, commitment, and consistency over an extended period of time.

If done well, a ministry’s web presence can act as an important driver of organizational growth. As a key element of an integrated communication and fundraising strategy, the web can reinforce and support traditional offline communication channels, such as direct mail, newsletters, radio, TV, and special events. The web can help these efforts to achieve a greater return and maximize investments that are already being made. In and of itself, a ministry’s web presence can act as an engine of growth, attracting and engaging new audiences, while driving deeper connections and deeper involvement with current members and constituents.

The Silas Partners Value

Out of a desire to help ministries improve their communication and expand their reach, we have worked hard to assemble a highly talented and committed team, possessing deep expertise and valuable experience across the broad range of practice areas required for online success. We have brought together a team of experts, so that you don’t have to. We are well-equipped to serve any ministry that desires to take its web presence to the next level.

Results

At Silas Partners, we define our success by the success of our ministry partners. We understand that success on the web is defined differently for different organizations, and so there are no cookie cutter solutions. We tailor individual solutions for individual organizations, with every project and activity designed to support the ministry’s overall goals and priorities. From there, we work hard to build individual success stories, one at a time. You can read about the results our clients have experienced here.

Since 1999, we’ve helped many organizations expand the reach of their ministries, build stronger relationships with their constituents, connect with new audiences, and increase their online and overall revenue. Ministries that have seen the web as a strategic priority and have invested to improve their online communication have seen these investments returned many times over. We also provide case studies and client success stories on our website, and regularly spotlight best practice examples in our newsletter and on our blog.

Many ministries have chosen Silas Partners as a long-term strategic partner, focused on continually advancing their online communication efforts. While Silas Partners enjoys coming alongside a ministry as a long-term partner, we can also work on a project basis, applying our expertise to a discrete project or set of projects with high strategic value. Examples include a website redesign, an internet strategy roadmap, an online fundraising or promotional campaign, a branding study, a CRM analysis, a technology evaluation, or a combination of several elements blended together. In every case, we take a consultative approach, first listening to understand the need, and then helping to develop a plan that is focused in the areas of highest opportunity and that can be executed under real-world constraints.

If you would like to find out more about how to implement these strategies and ideas in your organization, please take a moment to let us know a little about your needs.