Menlo Church
Menlo is a large, multi-campus church located in the Bay Area. When they approached us they were struggling to find a cohesive and effective strategy for their website. We helped them navigate these challenges and created an effective new church website for their community.
Services
Design
development
strategy
date
may 2024
Project overview
Menlo Church is a thriving multi-campus church located in the California Bay Area, serving a dynamic community across five campuses with over 2,000 congregants attending each Sunday. They have had an influential presence in the Bay Area for over 150 years.
Before partnering with our web agency, Menlo Church confronted critical digital communication obstacles:
- Security Issues: The church's previous website had been hacked, exposing significant vulnerabilities in their existing digital infrastructure. This security breach underscored the critical need for a more robust, secure web solution that could protect their digital presence and community communications.
- Visitor Engagement: The previous website failed to invite and engage visitors into their community.
- No Cohesive Visual Experience: Lack of a compelling visual experience
- No Content Management System: Menlo was using Squarespace, which wasn't robust enough for their web needs. Particularly, it lacked a powerful CMS for all their content.
- Lack of Strategy: Menlo has a lot of moving parts with five campuses around the Bay Area. Without a clear strategy, their previous website was confusing and hard to navigate.
“Sunday Best has greatly enhanced our user engagement, storytelling, and overall communications for our church. Our new website looks fresh and it's user friendly layout makes finding and managing content much easier.” - Rachel Heisel, Communication Director at Menlo Church
Our Approach
- In-depth consultations with church leadership
- Comprehensive analysis of existing digital communication challenges
- Tailored strategy development for multi-campus communication
- User-centric design to reach visitors
- Event Management Consultation
Technical Solution
We leveraged Webflow to:
- Provide enterprise-grade security with built-in protection
- Create a responsive, modern website design with a intuitive user experience
- Implement a powerful, user-friendly content management system for Menlo’s content
- Enable easy content updates across five church campuses
Project Outcomes
The new website delivered significant improvements:
- Enhanced user engagement across all campuses
- Streamlined content management
- Improved visitor invitation and community connection
- More compelling and resourceful digital presence
- Comprehensive protection against potential cyber threats
In-Depth Project Breakdown
The Old Website
Menlo's old website was lackluster and ineffective. Menlo's old website didn't have compelling design, effective messaging, or a clear strategy. This resulted in a website that wasn't serving it's community well and created friction for potential visitors. Lastly, it didn't have a web platform that was robust enough to serve their web needs.
Phase 1 - Strategy
The first step to a great website is a clear, effective strategy. Menlo’s previous website was not visitor focused and had a lot of hard to find pages. We collaborated with their team to make a sitemap that outlines the pages that will be on the website and how you can find them all.
This new sitemap increased the visibility of all critical pages, like ministries and next steps, while bringing the most attention to a new Visit page. This Visit page would now be the main call to action on the website to help guide visitors into getting plugged into their community. Lastly we create a landing page for each campus that will serve as a hub for their various communities.
After the sitemap was complete, we wireframed all pages to show what content would live on each page. We introduced critical elements on these pages like FAQ sections, CTAs, testimonials, and more. This new strategy made each page much more effective in helping visitors get the information they are looking for and to help them take their next steps.
Phase 2 - Design + Content
Menlo wanted to refresh their visual identity in tandem with launching this new website. We collaborated with their team to implement their new colors and fonts. Menlo has a wide audience that spans many demographics, so we designed their new website to be modern, but familiar.
In addition to design, during this phase we guided Menlo towards more effective copywriting that will better connect with their audience. We provided FAQ prompts, coaching on important website headlines, and some editing to simplify the language on the website.
Phase 3 - Development
Menlo had a bumpy ride with their previous two web platforms. They were using Wordpress until a security issue caused the website to be hacked. After that, they temporarily were using Squarespace, but this platform wasn’t robust enough for their needs.
We built their new website on Webflow which solved these two problems and more. Webflow has built-in, enterprise-grade security and doesn’t rely on any unstable plugins (which often cause security issues on Wordpress).
We utilized Webflow’s CMS to create a system that allows Menlo to manage their sermon content, equipping content, podcast content, and more all on their own.
Phase 4 - Launch
After months of hard work, we launched Menlo's new church website. This new website is more engaging, easier to navigate, and is more resourceful. All of this will help Menlo equip their current community and as well invite more visitors into their community.
At project hand-off we also provided a digital handbook that includes all the documentation they need to manage the day-to-day of their website.
Conclusion
Menlo's new website now better serves both future visitors and it's existing congregation. There's a clear strategy, compelling copy, and great design that will help their church community grow.
Are you a ministry or church needing a new website? Lets chat! Book an intro today.
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