Pro Church Podcast With Brady Shearer

With people spending such a large portion of their time on apps, churches are often tempted to build their own. Brady discusses the stats and investment.   If you haven't already, head over to ProChurchTools.com/Nucleus to download our 7 Church Website Page Templates. Pre written copy structured the exact way we would if we had these pages on our websites.   What's In This Session? The data (1:26) There is nothing a church app can do that either your website or social cannot do (3:02) Let's get logical (3:20) This isn’t Nucleus vs. Apps (7:30) Limited resources need to be wisely spent (8:09)   Show Notes & Resources Mentioned Nucleus 5 Reasons Church Apps Are Vastly Overrated | Ep. #041 How To Send Push Notifications For Free (Without A Church Mobile App) | Ep. #042 The 2017 U.S. Mobile App Report Pro Church Tools Pro Church Tools on Facebook Pro Church Tools on YouTube Brady Shearer on Instagram Brady Shearer on Twitter Alex Mills on Instagram   Find the full transcript for this session of the Pro Ch

Watch the video version of this episode of The #AskBrady Show here: https://www.youtube.com/user/ProChurchTools   #TIMESTAMPS:   0:59 - How do you navigate different regular events inside one ministry grouping? Is it just “Ministry Category” & “Event Name”? 3:05 - When you make a good / funny promo video intended for showing in a service, do you wait until after its shown live before you post it online? Or do you use it to drive people to your social media / newsletter (or whatever) before the service its originally shown? 12:04 - How early do you suggest to start promoting your church events on social media? 17:29 - How should I be using email effectively for church?   Brady Shearer is the CEO of Pro Church Tools Inc., a company helping churches communicate better. Through weekly videos, podcasts, and articles, Pro Church Tools reaches more than 25,000 churches every month.   Brady is the host of The #AskBrady Show, a church communications focused Q&A video show and podcast, as well as the Pro Church

Brady has tons of experience with building websites. In this episode he talks about custom websites - what to expect to pay, and the question you need to ask to determine if your site is truly custom.   If you haven't already, head over to ProChurchTools.com/Nucleus to download our 7 Church Website Page Templates. Pre written copy structured the exact way we would if we had these pages on our websites.   What's In This Session? Brady's experience with building websites (0:45) What is a custom website? (1:29) Finding an agency is very difficult (2:36) If you’re quote is between $1,000 and $3,000 . . . (4:09) If you’re quote is between $5,000 and $10,000 . . . (5:01) The Nucleus Blog cost about $15,000. For just a blog. (6:48) Church expense story (7:58)   Show Notes & Resources Mentioned Nucleus Wordpress Squarespace 7 Church Website Page Templates Pro Church Tools Pro Church Tools on Facebook Pro Church Tools on YouTube Brady Shearer on Instagram Brady Shearer on Twitter Alex Mills on Instagram   Find

Brady has described in depth why you shouldn't have a slider on your website, so in this episode he talks about what you should put on your website instead.   February is the month of giveaways! All of these giveaways will be happening over on Instagram, so be sure to give Brady a follow - @BradyShearer - he will be sharing what the giveaways are, as well as how to participate throughout the month.   What's In This Session? #1 - Logo (2:01) #2 - Navigation Menu (2:54) #3 - Headline (5:15) #4 - Call-To-Action (6:14) #5 - Inspirational Imagery (7:11)   Show Notes & Resources Mentioned Nucleus 1 Simple Reason To Never Use A Slider On Your Church's Website | Ep. #043 3 More Reasons To Delete Your Church Website Slider Immediately | Ep. #044 The 11-Part Website Homepage Formula 19 Perfect Church Website Main Headline Examples 7 Church Website Page Templates Pro Church Tools Pro Church Tools on Facebook Pro Church Tools on YouTube Brady Shearer on Instagram Brady Shearer on Twitter Alex Mills on Instagram  

Previously on Pro Church Daily Brady discussed why sliders are not the best option for your website. Today he shares 3 more reasons why you should delete your slider.   February is the month of giveaways! All of these giveaways will be happening over on Instagram, so be sure to give Brady a follow - @BradyShearer - he will be sharing what the giveaways are, as well as how to participate throughout the month.   What's In This Session? Recap (0:49) #1 - Sliders Make Your Website Slower (2:15) #2 - Sliders Are Ignored By Visitors (4:16) #3 - Experts Agree Sliders Suck (6:32)   Show Notes & Resources Mentioned 7 Church Website Page Templates Nucleus 1 Simple Reason To Never Use A Slider On Your Church's Website | Ep. #043 ThemeForest 3 Reasons To Delete Your Church Website Slider (And What To Replace It With) Search Engine Land Fight Against "Right Rail Blindness" AGConsult Be Like Amazon Siteturner UserZoom Report: 96% Of Church Websites Fail The First Impression Test [Case Study] Pro Church Tools Pro Chu

Churches love to use sliders on their websites, but data is showing that they are not the best option. Brady explores why sliders are so popular, and why you shouldn't follow the trend.   February is the month of giveaways! All of these giveaways will be happening over on Instagram, so be sure to give Brady a follow - @BradyShearer - he will be sharing what the giveaways are, as well as how to participate throughout the month.   What's In This Session? Defining what a slider is (0:38) Of the 1,008 church websites that we tested, 76.1% lacked a primary focal point (1:22) Churches love sliders, but why? (1:53) Bottom line: prioritize your external audience (3:21) Sliders have a clickthrough rate of less than 1% (3:55)   Show Notes & Resources Mentioned Nucleus Themeforest 3 Reasons To Delete Your Church Website Slider (and What To Replace It With) Why website sliders aren’t as great as most people think Do slideshows work? 7 Church Website Page Templates Pro Church Tools Pro Church Tools on Facebook Pro

Watch the video version of this episode of The #AskBrady Show here: https://www.youtube.com/user/ProChurchTools   #TIMESTAMPS:   1:00 - Do you have any suggestions of what content should be posted for churches in the 3 post? And do you all have a suggestion how to store or categorize your hashtags for Instagram posts? 10:34 - How in the world do you get rid of the “glasses glare” when doing 3 point lighting? 15:44 - What content do you think should be in a church’s weekly email and what is a waste of space? 23:12 - How can you get more DMs? What kind of story/IG content will increase that type of engagement?   Brady Shearer is the CEO of Pro Church Tools Inc., a company helping churches communicate better. Through weekly videos, podcasts, and articles, Pro Church Tools reaches more than 25,000 churches every month.   Brady is the host of The #AskBrady Show, a church communications focused Q&A video show and podcast, as well as the Pro Church Podcast, a weekly interview audio podcast.   Follow Me Online He

The one unique feature apps offer when compared to websites is the ability to send push notifications. Brady discusses how to use push notifications without building your own app.   February is the month of giveaways! All of these giveaways will be happening over on Instagram, so be sure to give Brady a follow - @BradyShearer - he will be sharing what the giveaways are, as well as how to participate throughout the month.   What's In This Session? Church apps are vastly overrated - websites can do anything church apps can do and much, much more…except for send push notifications (0:38) Push notifications are rarely enabled (1:19) Every single one of the most popular communication apps in the world (Text, Email, Facebook, YouTube, Facebook Messenger, Instagram, Snapchat) allows you to send push notifications to your contacts and followers – for free (2:58) 80% of people that download an app never become active users (4:45) 75% of people download an app, open it once, and never come back (5:01)   Show Notes &a

Brady shares stats and data on whether your church actually needs an app or if your website is more than enough.   February is the month of giveaways! All of these giveaways will be happening over on Instagram, so be sure to give Brady a follow - @BradyShearer - he will be sharing what the giveaways are, as well as how to participate throughout the month.   What's In This Session? Churches that succeed with digital media tend to do two things very well: make informed decisions based on data and they don’t try to do too much (1:00) #1 - Mobile apps are crazy expensive (1:27) #2 - Your church website should be able to do anything an app can do (2:47) #3 - 90% of app usage is spent on a user’s top 5 apps (4:30) #4 - App discovery is down across several channels (5:16) #5 - Push notifications are rarely enabled (6:02)   Show Notes & Resources Mentioned Nucleus How Much Does It Cost To Develop An App: 2017 Survey Church Community Builder Planning Center The 2017 U.S. Mobile App Report SquareSpace Wordpress

In the pursuit of originality people often lose focus what is truly important to their creative project. Brady talks about why being original is not the best marker for your website.   February is the month of giveaways! All of these giveaways will be happening over on Instagram, so be sure to give Brady a follow - @BradyShearer - he will be sharing what the giveaways are, as well as how to participate throughout the month.   What's In This Session? Originality is overrated (0:39) According to Google, websites that perform the best were found by users to be “simple” and “familiar” (1:20) Everything Is A Remix (3:03) In manufacturing (4:26) In film & television (5:27) In storytelling (6:18) In the Bible (6:45) The bottom line (6:51)   Show Notes & Resources Mentioned Nucleus The Top 25 Best Church Websites Of 2017 Everything Is A Remix - Kirby Ferguson The Greatest Showman TV Tropes The Seven Basic Plots by Christopher Booker The 3 Duties Every Church Website Must Fulfill | Ep. #039 7 Church Website

Brady condenses the most important aspects of website design into 3 simple check list items. Focus on these items to help your church website succeed.   February is the month of giveaways! All of these giveaways will be happening over on Instagram, so be sure to give Brady a follow - @BradyShearer - he will be sharing what the giveaways are, as well as how to participate throughout the month.   What's In This Session? An introduction to the holy trinity of church website design (0:55) #1 - Make a good first impression (primary duty) (1:11) #2 - Provide helpful information and next steps (4:19) #3 - Rank as high as possible in search engines (5:38)   Show Notes & Resources Mentioned Nucleus The Role Of Visual Complexity And Prototypically Regarding First Impression Of Website Report: 96% Of Church Websites Fail The First Impression Test [Case Study] How To Build Quality Content 7 Church Website Page Templates Pro Church Tools Pro Church Tools on Facebook Pro Church Tools on YouTube Brady Shearer on Inst

Your church website is integral to your first impression, and your online presence. In this episode Brady discusses three benefits of your website that are commonly overlooked.   February is the month of giveaways! All of these giveaways will be happening over on Instagram, so be sure to give Brady a follow - @BradyShearer - he will be sharing what the giveaways are, as well as how to participate throughout the month.   What's In This Session? #1 - it's 100% controlled by you (1:11) #2 - it's cost effective (3:38) #3 - it's quick and easy to change (5:52)   Show Notes & Resources Mentioned Nucleus 7 Church Website Page Templates Pro Church Tools Pro Church Tools on Facebook Pro Church Tools on YouTube Brady Shearer on Instagram Brady Shearer on Twitter Alex Mills on Instagram   Find the full transcript for this session of the Pro Church Podcast at http://prochurchtools.com/3-overlooked-benefits-churchs-website-ep-038/.

In the past it was common for churches to use newspaper ads for marketing. Now there are so many more avenues available. Brady talks about which tool is the most important to have and use.   February is the month of giveaways! All of these giveaways will be happening over on Instagram, so be sure to give Brady a follow - @BradyShearer - he will be sharing what the giveaways are, as well as how to participate throughout the month.   What's In This Session? Brady grew up attending a small Baptist church - they advertised in the newspaper (0:39) Now there are so many options for churches (1:50) Brady's experience looking for a counsellor (2:27) According to Forbes, 97% of people look for local organizations online (3:48) According to HubSpot, 46% of all searches on Google are local (4:02) 89% of surveyed participants admitted to searching for a local business on their smartphone once a week or more with 58% searching at least daily (4:19) Discovery happens online (5:44) Always accessible (6:24)   Show Notes &a

Watch the video version of this episode of The #AskBrady Show here: https://www.youtube.com/user/ProChurchTools   #TIMESTAMPS:   1:00- How can we, content creators, use our social media platforms to reach those who do not know Jesus yet? And what are your ideas on how we can better market to those people? 8:30 - I want to start putting everything we’ve ever put on Vimeo and over to Youtube. Is it worth the time and effort? 15:02 - If a church posts too often, isn’t there a chance people will get tired of it and start ignoring it? Or are you going to say there’s no such thing as too often? 21:10 - Is it okay to totally overhaul the logos and artwork that organizations have previously generated to create our own look? Is there any infringement of copyright here?   Brady Shearer is the CEO of Pro Church Tools Inc., a company helping churches communicate better. Through weekly videos, podcasts, and articles, Pro Church Tools reaches more than 25,000 churches every month.   Brady is the host of The #AskBrady Show,

With attention spans being so short, holding attention is a skill worth honing. Brady shares a copywriting tactic he uses to keep people reading.   February is the month of giveaways! All of these giveaways will be happening over on Instagram, so be sure to give Brady a follow - @BradyShearer - he will be sharing what the giveaways are, as well as how to participate throughout the month.   What's In This Session? Original concept by Brian Dean (1:01) This concept is universal and proven over decades (1:51) The LOST example (2:01) Bucket brigades (3:04) Examples (3:22) Combine with an ellipse or colon to make a bucket brigade even more compelling (6:13)   Show Notes & Resources Mentioned Storytape Backlinko LOST (TV show) Pro Church Tools Pro Church Tools on Facebook Pro Church Tools on YouTube Brady Shearer on Instagram Brady Shearer on Twitter Alex Mills on Instagram   Find the full transcript for this session of the Pro Church Podcast at http://prochurchtools.com/best-copywriting-hack-2018-ep-036/.

Brady shares some of the mistakes he made when first starting out in video and how these wrong beliefs can damage what you create.   February is the month of giveaways! All of these giveaways will be happening over on Instagram, so be sure to give Brady a follow - @BradyShearer - he will be sharing what the giveaways are, as well as how to participate throughout the month.   What's In This Session? 1. Sharpness is the most important thing (0:39) 2. Movement is how great shots are made (3:01) 3. Noise is bad (3:59) 4. On-camera mic was sufficient (5:18) 5. Lens flares make everything awesome (6:55)   Show Notes & Resources Mentioned Panasonic GH2 Lady Bird Video Influencers Pro Church Tools Pro Church Tools on Facebook Pro Church Tools on YouTube Brady Shearer on Instagram Brady Shearer on Twitter Alex Mills on Instagram   Find the full transcript for this session of the Pro Church Podcast at http://prochurchtools.com/5-beliefs-creating-videos-completely-wrong-ep-035/.

Brady encourages you to put the local back in local church by being involved in your community on Instagram. He shares a low time investment strategy you can use to get connected.   February is the month of giveaways! All of these giveaways will be happening over on Instagram, so be sure to give Brady a follow - @BradyShearer - he will be sharing what the giveaways are, as well as how to participate throughout the month.   What's In This Session? Put the “local” in local church (0:32) Follow restaurants, business professionals, and small businesses in your local area (1:15) Like and comment on 2-3 posts every single day (comments must be 100% authentic and non-promotional) (1:48) Only takes about three minutes each day, but over the course of three to twelve months this will raise your profile amongst the local community (2:21) Think about how much a like and comment means to you on Instagram - it means the same thing - if not more - to the businesses, organizations, and professionals in your community (2:41

Unlike Facebook, Instagram still allows you to leverage organic reach through the use of hashtags. Brady and Alex discuss how to best use them to your advantage.   February is the month of giveaways! All of these giveaways will be happening over on Instagram, so be sure to give Brady a follow - @BradyShearer - he will be sharing what the giveaways are, as well as how to participate throughout the month.   What's In This Session? Max out all 30 available hashtags on every post and post them in the first comment - not in the caption (add three periods with line breaks to hide hashtags in collapsed part of comment) (0:59) Save your researched list of 30 hashtags in a note on your phone for easy copy and pasting (or create a keyword shortcut) (2:36) Type of Hashtag #1: Custom (ie. #centralcommunitychurch or #centralliving) (4:35) Type of Hashtag #2: Community (ie. #niagararegion or #niagarafallscanada) (5:12) Type of Hashtag #3: Faith/Spiritual/Church (ie. #jesusislove or #churchfamily) (5:43) Use hashtags with

With Facebook now prioritizing groups, Brady talks about how to use this featured to build community amongst your congregation online.   February is the month of giveaways! All of these giveaways will be happening over on Instagram, so be sure to give Brady a follow - @BradyShearer - he will be sharing what the giveaways are, as well as how to participate throughout the month.   What's In This Session? Our experience with the new Facebook algorithm (0:42) Facebook wants you to use Groups for your church (2:10) The algorithm treats Facebook Groups similar to friends and family (3:30) Depending on the size of your church, you could benefit from a single group or multiple groups (4:13) Specifics (5:17)   Show Notes & Resources Mentioned Mark Zuckerberg's Answer To A World Divided By Facebook Is More Facebook (Wired Magazine) How To Build A Church Communications Plan From Scratch | Ep. #031 Church Motion Graphics Visual Church Media Facebook Group 3 Ways Churches Can Combat The 2018 Facebook Algorithm Upda

Brady received an Instagram DM from a Pro Church Daily follower asking how to create a communications plan for his church. On this episode he discusses where you should start.   February is the month of giveaways! All of these giveaways will be happening over on Instagram, so be sure to give Brady a follow - @BradyShearer - he will be sharing what the giveaways are, as well as how to participate throughout the month.   What's In This Session? Website (2:01) 97% of people search for local organizations online (Forbes) (2:26) 46% of all searches on Google are local (Hubspot) (3:12) Platform owned by you and accessible 24/7/365 (3:34) Email (all stats from OptinMonster) (4:11) 50% more email users than Facebook (4:30) 58% people say email is the first thing they check online each day; only about 15% check social first (4:40) 91% of people use email daily compared to 57% on Facebook and just 14% on Twitter (4:54) 77% of people prefer email for permission-based promotions from brands compared to 4% on Facebook (5