Best Practices Part 3: Push Notifications

Push Notifications have earned the third slot in our series of Best Practices for outreach and engagement. Why are they so lucky? Well, they can guarantee your audience will see your message directly on their devices.

Push Notifications

Sometimes all we need is that final "push" to take the next step. From a newly uploaded sermon series, a new blog post, or a reminder of the community BBQ, push notifications provide an effective way of updating your community immediately anytime, anywhere. By updating users on resources, events, services, and more, push notifications allow users to take advantage of opportunities to help them grow in both their faith and community.

One way we've seen churches and ministries use push notifications is for the purpose of sending reminders for upcoming events. Both The Gospel Coalition and Harvest Ministries have sent out reminders of their upcoming conferences, while others have sent out reminders of gathering times and places. Whatever the event, resource, or opportunity, push notifications enable you to get more people involved with a direct and visible message on their device.

Happy notifying, and stay tuned for part 4! 

Your Media is More Popular Than You Think

“The wifi’s down...”

Unless you have an unlimited data plan, this phrase often instills a slight internal panic. Whether it be a business trying to perform its daily activities, students studying in a cafe, watching Netflix at your house, or trying to pass time at the airport with Youtube videos, we live in a world that is heavily dependent on the internet and our devices.

While this attachment to our devices isn’t anything new, our time spent using them to consume digital media is definitely growing. So much so, that when an internet connection is lost, we suddenly feel a gap - not just in the use of our devices, but also in our daily media consumption habits we are used to.

According to Nielsen’s recent report, a continued growth in digital use is fueling an increase in media time spent. Among 18-34 yr. olds there has been a 53% growth in digital video viewing. However, this isn't just a trend for the millennial - digital media consumption has increased by 80% for ages 35-49, and by 60% for ages 50-64. In fact, digital media surpassed overall consumption on a TV screen in 2014.  

So why do all of these numbers matter? Well, for today’s content providers, delivering your content through effective digital mediums has never been more important. With this scale of growth and interaction, people are naturally developing a standard and an expectation for how they engage with media, both on their devices and on the web. The design, interface, reliability, and overall delivery of the content has become vitally important when it comes to meeting your audience's expectations. Whether it be presenting lecture videos, a sermon archive, or promotional video material, these digital channels provide schools, churches, businesses, and many other organizations a unique opportunity to maximize their audience's engagement with their media.

A good first step is to know how and where your audience is engaging with media. Thanks to a recent study from comScore, we know that the majority of people consume media within mobile apps, accounting for 52% of all digital media use. To break it down further, mobile usage makes up 60% of total digital media time, and desktop-based media makes up the remaining 40%.  Zooming in on just mobile video viewing, video streaming app downloads increased by 44% in 2014, and mobile video is predicted to represent 69% of all mobile traffic by 2018.

Key takeaway? Both mobile and desktop have the influence to help expand the reach of your media, while providing an opportunity to create deeper connections with your audience. No matter what your individual communication strategy needs are, developing an effective digital content strategy will be worth the time and investment.

Here at Subsplash, our heart is to help simplify your process, while giving you the tools to beautifully present your content. This was the foundation of developing Subsplash Cloud, an all-in-one solution for delivering your media. With one place to upload, encode, and manage your media, your content can be delivered through apps, the web, and your podcast feed - all with the click of a button. We want you to reach as many people as possible, and are passionate about helping you deliver a more delightful, enjoyable experience to your audience. We'd love to help get you started.

The Mobile Revolution and the Church

7:00am hits, phone alarm goes off. Eat breakfast and check Twitter for morning news. Play your favorite Spotify playlist on your morning commute. Check notifications on your lunch break. Pay for coffee with the Starbucks app. Text family about dinner plans. Watch the hilarious Jimmy Fallon video your friend sent. Snap a pic of the breathtaking sunset. And much more in-between.

Sound familiar? Maybe the details differ for everyone, but one thing is the same for us all: mobile has become woven into our daily lives. With mobile passing the TV as “America’s first screen”, and people spending almost 2.5 hours daily engaging with apps alone, content consumed on a mobile device isn’t something to brush off as a passing trend.

In fact, we say with confidence that mobile has become vital. With the revolution of apps, mobile devices can now sync our daily, necessary, and leisurely activities all in one control center. People are relying on their devices to consume and communicate what is useful, helpful, and empowering in their daily lives.

[Enter the Church] These are the people that make up your congregation. These are the people that are actively seeking how to use their devices in greater and better ways. These are the people that can greatly benefit from your church’s resources beyond the Sunday service. With the global reach of the app stores, churches and ministries now have an amazing opportunity to enter the space of mobile technology and use it to provide a vital function in their congregation’s daily lives: hearing the Gospel, and staying connected to Christ’s Church.

This is a call to action. An action that we’ve seen countless churches use to fulfill their mission to spread the good news of Jesus, and use technology to be an active presence in the lives of those they shepherd. From more app downloads than members in their congregation, to increases in sermon downloads, to increases in giving, we’ve seen churches like The Village Church, Elevation Church, Fresh Life, and many others find great success through The Church App Platform. By making sermon archives, blogs, push notifications, giving, and other resources instantly accessible, apps can help you meet your audience in their context, on their time.

Think about the people that work weekends and can’t make it to Sunday services. Think about those that need your pastor’s weekly blog post to encourage their spirits. Think about the people who will share sermons via their social channels and will reach their friends and families as a result.

While there are a lot of overwhelming and uncertain ramifications that may accompany the mobile revolution, we challenge you to look at the great and powerful ways technology can be used for good. Here at Subsplash, we are passionate about using technology and delightful design to help make the most of your Gospel content. We want to see the Gospel shared to the ends of the earth. With The Church App Platform you can easily create and manage your own mobile apps, putting your content in the hands of a wider audience. We’d love to help you get started.