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! 

4 Ideas to Maximize A Vital Communication Tool

So, you probably already know that push notifications are a powerful and immediate way to engage your audience, almost like sending a text. But have you been making the most of this vital tool?

This video will show you four ways that you can use push notifications like a pro. Here's what our App Specialist, Daniel, is going to cover:

• Event Announcements
• Inspiration
• Content Promotion
• Urgent Announcements

To learn more, get in touch with us! 

3 Ways to Take Your App to the Next Level

When it comes to building an app, the concept of "if we build it they will come" doesn't hold true. With all of the content available at your audience's fingertips, it's impossible to be passive about your mobile strategy and be successful.

When you first made the decision to build an app for your organization, you likely had a vision and audience in mind, but it's easy to get lost along the way with competing priorities, limited resources, and maybe even slow adoption after launching your app. To help you make your app the best possible resource for your congregation, we've put together a few ideas to get you on the right track.

Let's ask a few questions that will serve as a framework so you can determine what success for your app would look like. 

1. What content does your audience want to engage with?

We would suggest starting with three of the more popular features for churches and ministries, and then building from there based on who your audience is and what is relevant to them:

Media

Regardless of what elements you include in your weekly services, every church has media in some shape or form. Whether you have videos, music, or only record sermon audio, our unparalleled media experience will help you provide great content that your community can integrate into their daily lives.

It's easy to download for a later time, users can multitask and do other things on their phone while listening, and there's even a handy 30 second rewind and fast forward feature so listeners don't miss a word of your content. 

Bible and Bible Reading Plans

The awesome thing about this feature is that your community can use it during the week, or directly in their app on Sunday morning. 

Giving

Subsplash Giving is an incredibly easy mobile giving solution, and we are invested in making sure awareness and adoption is successful. Subsplash Giving enables you to have a welcome place for new donors to give, and provides opportunity for increased donations from existing donors.

Not all churches have the same resources available to them, but that doesn't have to limit how they can use their app, which leads us to our next important question...

2. What kind of bandwidth does your team have?

Whether you're running a lean staff of 3, or a large team of 100 we are committed to walking with you every step of the way and making your app a success! We have a whole team dedicated to that purpose. If you are looking for free resources to maximize your app, tips on how to organize your app, or technical questions, our App Specialist Team is willing and ready to take your call or answer your email! 

Regardless of what your leadership team looks like, answering this question as it relates to your app is important in helping you determine what ongoing maintenance of your app might look like, which leads us to our last question...

3. What would it look like to scale your content?

As your church evolves over time, your content should change too. Maybe you want to expand into video or start including blog posts in your app. Making a plan for the future will set you up for success.

Get in touch with us if you have any questions about creating an app! 

Mobile Giving Can Help Your Church This Summer!

During the summer months the landscape at your church likely changes. While people travel, host friends and family, and spend more time out in the sun instead of in the pews, churches don't generally see the same levels of attendance and tithing.

As more people continue to adopt mobile, mobile giving is also becoming a regular part of people's digital lives - in fact, mobile donations increased by 45% from 2014 to 2015. What if giving at your church increased during the summer instead of dipped? 

Mobile Giving can be a huge benefit to churches who are wanting to keep their congregation engaged during the summer, despite people's hectic summer schedules. Here are a few ways Subsplash Giving can help: 

Making Giving Simple and Automatic

When users spend a few brief minutes setting up an account with Subsplash Giving they have the option to set up a recurring gift that will automatically withdraw funds on a fixed  day every month. This allows members of your church to continue to give faithfully even if their summer schedule clashes with regular life rhythms.

Making Giving Accessible

Creating an app for your organization gives you an incredible opportunity to meet your community where they are at. Whether your users are coming to your app to hear weekly sermons or read a blog post, putting your content side by side with Subsplash Giving encourages even more engagement in your app. 

Because mobile giving makes it easy to give at anytime and from anywhere, your church doesn't have to suffer the usual summer giving woes. 

Let's chat about helping you see the benefits of mobile giving for your community! 

Reach Church Encourages App Adoption from the Pulpit

Whether you're a congregation of 100 or 1,000, it can be challenging to help your audience see the benefit of your church's app. We think providing regular reminders about your app is an important part of increasing adoption, which is why we're excited to share this presentation from Reach Church. Sharing the value of your app with your congregation from the pulpit is a simple, yet powerful way to help your community see the benefits of your app.

By highlighting some helpful resources available in the app, people can see the value of the app right away. Not only on Sunday morning, but throughout the rest of the week too. And to make it even more actionable, they included the name of the app and how to find it in the app store on each slide.

Reach Church helped their community see the app as a tool to stay connected to the life of the church. By including visuals of each feature, people can easily see how user-friendly and compelling the content is in their app.  

The community-building nature of their app is really compelling and this slide helps show the different ways visitors and members alike can actively be involved in serving the church and other community members. 

The brevity and clarity in this presentation sets up the community at Reach Church to easily find and download their app for great resources, serving the church and others, and staying connected! Subsplash Giving is a new addition to our suite of engagement features. Learn more about it here! 

We love to see churches using mobile technology to share the Gospel and encourage their congregation! That's what we're passionate about and that's what we want to help you do too! Get in touch with us to learn more about the benefits of creating a mobile app for your church.

Download the Reach Church app for more inspiration!