Optimum web environment model for e-marketing of religious organizations in the Republic of Croatia

Although religious organizations are essentially conservative, they are not immune to the changes brought on by the information and communication technology. Thus, one can conclude that all religious organizations, be they more liberal or conservative in their position towards change, use information and communication technology, i.e. the communication channel that it creates, more or less successfully. In fact, a religious organization, as any other organization, can choose between a range of communication channels created by the global network system, i.e. the Internet. The web is probably the most widely used and most popular communication channel available to Internet users. However, the web is not only a communication channel; it has developed into a virtual space, which evolved from being a means of presentation into a global social network. Web environment building is often left to the professionals such as web designers and developers of web sites that focus their attention on the appearance and functionality of web sites, but do not address the mission and goals of the religious organization for which the web system has been developed. In particular, the importance of marketing approach is disregarded, i.e. the necessity to meet the needs of the faithful, who are users of religious organization ‘services’. To create a web environment for religious organizations with optimal form and content, especially in the Republic of Croatia, one must address the task using a systematic or a model approach. For this reason, a study was conducted and a model of optimal web environment for e-marketing of religious organizations in the Republic of Croatia was develope