82 days to Christmas!!

Well in the UK we’re moving into the final season of the year – Autumn.  It’s a great time of year.  The colours are fantastic and (aside from the rain) things generally look really beautiful.  As we move into the last three months of the year I think it’s a great time for people to dust down their websites, social media etc and start to get ready for Christmas.

Now is the time to get everything ready so that you’ll have a great website ready for Christmas.  I know it might seem like a long time but in practise these days will vanish very quickly.  Time has a habit of sneaking past while you’re not looking.  So here’s 5 things you can think of that might be worth a look:

1.  Add that photo gallery you’ve always talked about

People love pics!  Pics and video are just the thing for people that are tired and don’t want to read but do want something to do.  Remember that a picture is worth a thousand words and happy pics of your activities really bring your organisation to life.

2. Set up an on line course

This might sound hard but in practise it’s pretty straightforward.  Write the material and put in place an auto emailer.  This sends out the material to the subscribed people at a timing of your choice, once a day, once a week, once a month etc.  An easy way to give your visitors something positive to do.

3. Write some more content

When was the last time you added material to the site?  Was it interesting?  Did you get feedback on it?  Write something now (well finish this post first).  It doesn’t have to be too thoughtful but tell people what’s going on and they’ll be interested.  Tell them consistently too.

4. Change the colour scheme

This is a simple and quick way to refresh the site.  Just change the colours.  If your site has been set up properly this should be pretty trivial to do.  You’ll  spend more hours in the design than in the coding.  You should (or your web designer should) be able to create a new design in a few hours.

5. Send out a newsletter

This doesn’t have to be anything too fancy, just something to tell folks what’s going on with you.  Don’t despair if you don’t get any feedback from it.  Surveys show that on average you’ll get only 2 responses per year per thousand people.  But people do read them and are interested so keep going.

Well that’s five things you can do in the lead up to Christmas.  There is a lot there but you know if you’re building and maintaining a Christian Website then then they are definitely the right kind of thing to be thinking about.  If you’ve a shop it’ll be different stuff but for a Christian organisation then this is the right kind of thing.

One final thought I have is not to try to do all of the above if you don’t have the people.  Each of these areas takes time.  They aren’t something that you’ll complete quickly.  Most of them need thought and then resource to make them happen.  There is no point in a newsletter unless you can keep it going through the year.  So think about what is worth doing and pick the ones you can.

Alan