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As a church, you’re in the business of reaching people. And in a world that spends increasingly more time online every day, that business has to exist online to be successful. Inbound marketing is an idea centered around the concept that people are already looking for the content; they simply need to be able to search for it or stumble upon it. The more content you create, the more likely they are to find it.

So the question for churches, a community of people bound on reaching more people, is why not blog?

In an article Corey Eridon wrote for Hubspot’s blog, she laid out four major benefits of blogging for business and marketing:

1. It helps drive traffic to your website.
2. It helps convert that traffic into leads.
3. It helps establish authority.
   • The best business blogs answer common questions their leads and customers have.
4. It drives long-term results.

Here are those benefits rewritten from a church blogging viewpoint:

1. It helps drive traffic to your website.
2. It helps convert that traffic into weekend visitors.
3. It helps establish authority.
• The best church blogs answer common questions and address common issues their visitors and members have.
4. It drives long-term results.

The facts are there ... now how about the truth?

As a team that works in communications, we get that content creation can be overwhelming. It can feel time-consuming and unsuccessful. If you spend three hours on a blog post and only ten people read it, is it worth it? It can feel like it's out of your talent/comfort zone. Why create the content if it isn’t going to be good? Isn’t that just as bad as not having content? The list goes on. A million reasons exist not to do it.

But in a world of people taking in constant content, in a world of people scrolling through chaos and confusion, why not reach them where they are? Why not give them the opportunity to stumble upon a message of hope ... an answer to their question?

5 steps to starting a blog on your church website:

1. Believe you can.
• The first step to starting a blog on your website is simply this: believe that you can. Writing content doesn’t need to be a talent issue. Everybody writes. You just have to find what works for you.
• Write your thoughts and have someone else edit.
• Employ a team of volunteers to take turns writing/editing content.
• Start out easy. Your content doesn’t have to be pages of a well-crafted article. It can be a small list, a simple story, a summary of a recent sermon.
2. Recognize how much you have to say.
• A common obstacle to starting a blog is the misconception that you wouldn’t have anything to say. You are in the business of reaching people. You share content on a weekly basis, Sunday school lessons, small group study sessions and weekend sermons.
• Your blog doesn’t always have to be brand new content. It can be a summary or a follow up to a sermon. A small group leader could share a few words about what the group is studying this week. Or share a story about a teacher or a child who was impacted by a Sunday school lesson. People are being reached at your church on a weekly basis. The stories already exist. Having a blog simply gives them a place to live.  
3. Don’t bite off more than you can chew.
• Every blog that exists started with a single post. You don’t need to plan on blogging every day or even multiple times a week. Start out by posting one blog a month or bi-weekly. Don’t be afraid to challenge yourself to post regularly, but start with a consistent pattern that feels doable for you and your staff.
4. Make sure you have help.
   • While talent doesn’t have to be an issue, you do want to make sure you’re posting content that is grammatically sound. When you’re looking to establish credibility and authority, typos and bad grammar can definitely be a drawback. Find a team member who has training and talent when it comes editing. If you can’t find someone on your team, seek out a volunteer, use sites that check typos and basic grammar (grammarly.com is a good one) or, at the very least, always make sure a post has been seen by at least two people before it’s published.
5. Fight the fear, the failure and the discouragement.
   • The last, and most critical, step is to fight the fear, the failure and the discouragement. Content creation isn’t magic but it does work. You might see an immediate rise in your numbers, and you might not. Keep writing. Keep posting. Keep looking for opportunities to share your story, to reach out to a world that is longing to stumble upon an answer to their question.

Want to learn more about how to practice a better writing exercise routine? Click for more information on Fishhook University’s TeamSpeak Course.