The Ultimate Church Connect Card Template

This guide has everything you need to know about the church connect card.

You’ll learn how to increase the number of church welcome cards returned each week.

And I’ll share with you the ultimate church connection card template – for free.

Look…

It’s not as easy to attract new visitors to your church as it used to be.

Barna reported that in the year 2009, 48% of American adults were attending church weekly. Fast forward to 2020 (pre-pandemic), and that number has dropped to just 29%.¹

A colossal decline in just one decade.

Attracting new visitors to your church is becoming increasingly more difficult

Here’s the bottom line:

As culture shifts, attracting new visitors to your church is becoming increasingly more difficult.

This is why your church connect card is so important to your new visitor experience.

If you’re unable to capture a new visitor’s information, you risk them leaving your service never to be heard from again.

The Crux Of Your Church Connect Card

Simply put, the most crucial element of your church connect card is the number of form fields you request from a visitor.

The fewer form fields you display, the more cards you’ll see returned.

To make a point, Neil Patel is a well-known marketer online and he saw a full 26% boost in conversion rates on his contact form simply by eliminating a single form field and reducing his overall number of fields from 4 to 3.²

Similarly, ImageScape saw a 120% increase on their form submissions when they condensed their form from 11 fields to 4.

Moreover, they saw a 160% increase in form submissions after reducing the number of fields all the way down to 3.³

Here’s the deal:

The easiest and most effective way to see an increase in church connect card returns from new visitors is simply to ask for less information.

But that’s just part of the story…

Because thanks to Barna, we actually have detailed information on how new visitors to churches part with their personal info.

Barna asked Millennials what personal information they were willing to give to a church upon a first-time visit. Here are the results:

• First Name – 82%
• Last Name – 53%
• Email Address – 33%
• Physical Address – 19%
• Phone Number – 12%
• Social Media – 6%
• I Don’t Want To Share Anything – 15%

Best Results? Fewer Than 4 Form Fields

How can you actually start using this?

The question your church needs to answer is, “What is the fewest number of form fields we need to capture from a new visitor?”

My suggestion?

Four or fewer.

Bottom line: Capture as little information as you need during your first interaction.

Think of it this way…

Initiating a relationship with a new visitor to your church isn’t too dissimilar from any other human relationship.

Relationships take time – you don’t want to rush them. There are stages. And intervals. Everything doesn’t just happen all at once.

And keep in mind that once you have basic information from a new visitor, you can always follow up with them later to get more info.

So if during your first interaction, all you manage to capture is a new visitor’s name and email – that’s great! Because you can always follow-up later to get their physical address, age, marital status, etc.

How many form fields should your connect card have? Four or fewer.

On the other hand, here’s what you DO NOT want to do…

You don’t want to scare away a new visitor during your first interaction by asking for too much information too fast. Then you’ll lose them forever.

The Ultimate Church Connect Card Template

Displayed above, you’ll see our church connect card template.

Here’s a breakdown of the anatomy of this card:

Element #1: The Photo

The entire front-side of our connect card template is covered in a black and white photograph.

Not just any photograph though, it’s a photo of real, happy people from our church. This is important.

Don’t display a stock photo here. Don’t display a photo of a landscape or field. Display a photo of real people from your church that are happy and smiling.

Here’s the good news…

This is actually easier than you may think. To prove this point, I put together a full case study on how you can take photos that look great for free using just your phone – click here to access that case study.

Element #2: The Website Link (Front & Back)

The secret to expanding the impact and purpose of your connect card is to include a website link on both the front and back of the card.

(more on this later…)

Element #3: The Four-Part Form

On the back-side of our card, you’ll find the new visitor form. We keep this form as lean as possible with just four simple fields.

We ask for a visitor’s name, email, and phone, and then we give them a freestyle form field where they can submit any questions, comments, or prayer requests they may have.

Element #4: The Brand Color

Integrated throughout the design of the connect card template is a primary brand color.

Element #5: The Postcard Shape

Notice that we’ve designed our connect card in the shape of a postcard rather than a tall, skinny, card.

This is a subtle design choice, but I think the postcard shape feels more friendly and warm, while the traditional tall and skinny shape feels more like paperwork.

The Central Hub Website Link

Imagine this…

A new visitor arrives at your church. They make their way into the sanctuary and find their seats.

At this point, what do they do?

Well, if they’re like most people, they begin observing their surroundings. And within a matter of moments, they look at the seatback directly in front of them.

What do you they see? Your church connect of course!

They pick up one of the cards and as they glance at it, they see the big call-to-action that reads:

Follow along with today’s experience at lifeabundant.ca.

Now…

I want you to pay particular attention to that script, “Follow along with today’s experience…”

These five words are chosen specifically to compel a new visitor to pull out their phone and visit the website listed.

And what do they find when they visit this website? They find your church’s central hub website.

But you’re probably wondering: what’s a central hub website?

Simply stated, think of it as a normal church website, but with superpowers.

Because the truth is, most church websites are just glorified Yellow Page listings – a place to find information, but that’s about it.

Meanwhile, a central hub website is all about next steps.

In fact, it’s one easy destination for every single next step in your church:

• Ministry signups
• Event registrations
• Giving
• The calendar
• Prayer requests
• Message notes
• We even put a digital connect card in there for new visitors that prefer to fill out a card digitally.

One way to think about a central hub website is to think of it as a church bulletin, a church mobile app, and a church website – all-in-one.

Now…

When a new visitor checks out this website before service they can be introduced to your church in a totally new way.

They can find all the information they need and they can even take a next step directly from their seats if they choose.

It’s kind of like a church bulletin on steroids.

It has all the same information that a bulletin would, but it actually allows your church and new visitors to take action with that information – rather than just read about it.

Moreover, with a central hub website, you don’t need to worry about printing costs each and every week, and you don’t have to worry about folding bulletins and distributing them – all that time and money is reclaimed.

A central hub website is like a church bulletin on steroids

If you’re interested in learning more about building a central hub website, I recommend that you check out Nucleus.

Nucleus is a new kind of church website builder that we created and it’s the world’s first and only central hub platform for churches.

Download The Church Connect Card Template For Free

To make this as easy as possible for you, below you’ll find a number of additional resources, along with a link where you can download the ultimate connect card template for free:

• My Step-By-Step New Visitor Follow-Up Sequence: The church connect card is just the first step in your relationship with a new visitor. Click here to learn our full follow-up strategy for new visitors (free pre-written emails included)
• The 2-Step Church Announcement Formula: If you’re unsure of the best way to ask new visitors to fill out your connect card, we’ve got a walkthrough for that too, an exact announcement formula that works like a charm – click here to access that formula