4 Ways to Ramp Up for Fall with Your App

It's that time of year when people are returning from vacation and settling back into routine. Fall is the beginning of a busy time for many churches as the pews start to fill out again and your staff is likely ramping up for a new sermon series, getting people connected, and even gearing up for the holidays.

Your app can help you feel more prepared for this busy time. Here are a few ideas...

Refine your home tab

Your app is a great tool to use for first impressions. Some people might come across your app before ever setting foot in your church building. Creating a comprehensive home tab is a great way to give a good first impression for visitors. Building out or refining your home tab is also a helpful way to get your existing members excited to get back to church if they've been out during the summer months.

Put a connect card in your app

The fall is a great time for people to get connected. Whether someone is looking for a community group or wanting to serve, giving your church attendees an easy way to get plugged in is a great way to help them in the process. 

Remind your community about giving in your app

Regardless of when you added giving to your app, your community might need a refresher of all of the benefits of giving inside the app. The fall is a great time to introduce something new that will enhance their Sunday morning experience. You might want to discuss recurring giving, text-to-give, or any of the other great features of Subsplash Giving. It might even help you make up for any dip in giving you experienced during the summer months.

Using a great promotional tool like this video we created for our clients can help!  

Create fresh content for your congregation to engage with

Starting a new blog series or creating new artwork for your new sermon series might just be the push your community needs to start engaging with your church's app. Giving your congregation a little nudge towards enjoying all of the benefits of your church app might require some fresh content. 

As always, we are here to help with setting up any of these features and we've got even more ways to engage your community this fall if you're interested!

Get in touch with us if you want to get started on your customized app for you church or ministry! 

11 Ways to Serve Your Community This Sunday - Part I

Apps have become the primary digital tool for daily interaction with your community. Since your app will be used more than your website, think mobile first! There are so many great features to include in your app that encourage your community to interact with your app on the daily, but beyond engaging your community during the week, we’ve designed some great tools to enhance your congregation’s worship gathering on the weekends. 

Here are a few examples of ways people can use your app starting with helping people get to your church all the way through getting people connected to a group.

Here are the features we are going to explore in this series:

• Maps
• Push Notifications
• Digital Bulletins
• Visitor Cards
• Fill In Notes
• Giving
• Live Interaction
• Bible
• Events
• Sign Up Forms
• Group Connect

Easily integrate maps into your app so that when your community members open your app first thing on their way to your church, they have all the info they need. This feature is perfect for first time visitors!

Before your community even walks through your church doors, sending a push notification with a short teaser about what to expect that day is one small gesture to help your community feel excited about the weekend service. 

If you need to share some announcements or an order of service, digital bulletins are the perfect feature to give your congregation a glimpse of what to expect that weekend.

Help first time guests feel welcome by adding a vistor card to your app. Remove any barriers to people getting connected and make newcomers feel even more at home at your church!

This brand new tool promotes deeper engagement in your app by letting your community follow along with your message. Not only can you create custom fill in the blank notes for each sermon, you can provide a space for free-form journaling, or simple outlines.

Check out 6 more features for your Sunday morning service and get in touch with us about creating your app!

Increase Engagement For Easter with Your App!

Easter services are the most highly attended weekends for churches, so why not take advantage of the opportunity to share the Gospel and good news of the risen Christ by leveraging your app to engage with first time guests as well as committed members?

Here are some ideas to increase engagement with your community this Easter Sunday...

1.  Send a group push notification to Easter volunteers

Group push notifications are the perfect tool to get in touch with your Easter Sunday volunteers. If you need to send out instructions, new information, or specific prayer requests about Easter weekend, this is the best way to do it!

No more wrangling everyone up for last minute meetings or trying to reach everyone by email in the hope that it will somehow get to your volunteers in time. Just create your push notification group and send up-to-the second updates straight to their phone.

2. Share last year's Easter Sunday sermon

You might have last year's Easter Sunday sermon sitting in your archives somewhere. To get your community ready and excited for Easter weekend, you could share last year's sermon in a linked push notification, on your blog, or social media.

3. Share baptism sign up forms in a linked push notification

Make it as easy as possible for people in your community to get baptized by sending out a push notification with a link to a sign up form. Sending sign up forms ahead of time will help you get in front of all of the Easter Sunday busyness!

4. Share baptism testimonies on your blog

You've probably witnessed some amazing stories of life transformation at past Easter services in your church. Why not encourage your community and get them excited to celebrate Easter by sharing those stories on your blog? 

5. Tell your community to share the app with friends

With so many visitors making their way to church on Easter Sunday, it is a great evangelistic opportunity. To help get visitors warmed up to the idea of attending your church this weekend, send out a push notification to your community reminding them that they can share your entire app with their friends.

When members of your congregation share your church's app, it will give visitors an idea of what they can expect when they visit your church for Easter.

Happy Easter from all of us at Subsplash!

Tips for Promoting Your App (Part 2)

In our first installment of Tips for Promoting Your App, we discussed some app promotion strategies that would encourage your community to download your app. Here's a review of the four specific strategies we are discussing:

• Generate excitement before the launch
• Leverage the new and improved Subsplash app promotion page
• Communicate the benefits
• Create a promo video

Now, let's take a look at a couple more ideas on how to get your app in front of the people who matter most to your organization.

Communicate the benefits

Your audience might not know all of the ways your app might benefit them, so why not tell them?! Even though you’ve thought through all of the upsides of creating an app for your organization, your community is still warming up to the idea, so tell them how it’s going to make their lives easier. Tell them how they can listen to your podcast on the go, read your blog in an instant, and receive important updates on organization-wide events in push notifications.

You might want to send out an email to let your audience know what the specific benefits are; or, if you send out a monthly newsletter, include a small section dedicated to promoting your app. You might even want to send out a blast on social media that is concise, but hits on the important points.

Create a promo video!

If you have a creative vision for promoting your app that you just can’t wait to share, creating your own promo video is a great way to get your audience excited about downloading your app! While this strategy is more involved, it's a great, creative avenue to get your message across in a way that will stick with your audience in a big way.

Check out some of our other clients' videos for inspiration!

Walnut Creek

 Journey Community Church

If you're wondering how an app can benefit your organization, let's chat. 

'Share This App' Feature Update!

Have you ever been so delighted by a Subsplash app that you wanted to share it? Have you ever thought to yourself, “I’d really like to show this app to my friend or sister, or maybe even my co-worker?” If so, we’ve made it super easy for you with our new app sharing feature!

To share an entire app, open the side menu and look for the share icon to the right of the app name. Clicking on the share button allows you to effortlessly text a download link to anyone your heart desires. Not only that, but you can share the app through Facebook, Twitter, or any other channel you choose! You can look forward to this exciting new update in the next couple of weeks!