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5 Key Growth Strategies Using a Church App

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According to SmartInsights, 85% of people prefer mobile apps to websites. That’s 85% of your congregation that would much rather engage with you and your collective vision through an app. But first, you’ll need a feature rich church app. Church apps are known to grow your weekly giving, engagement and unity, but what are the best ways to accomplish that growth?

I’ve compiled the top 5 Growth Strategies we give our church clients after their app is finished as a way of helping you determine what exactly is needed in a quality church app:


#1 Growing Giving

donate-copy_1At the end of the day, if your app isn’t growing your giving what’s the point of investing the time and money into it. Lucky for you, Apollo Church Apps are proven to increase your weekly giving by 31% and in some cases we’ve grown weekly giving by 42%. That’s awesome! But how exactly? Here’s the secret sauce:

  • Integrate your mobile friendly giving link and text giving number into your church app so your congregation has instant access.
  • During your tithe and offering segment, send out a push notification to your church members inside your Geofence (which includes everyone currently inside your church) reminding them they can give via your app, then link the notification to your giving section. In some cases churches see a 41% increase in weekly giving doing this!

#2 Grow Attendance

88% of push notifications get opened, compared to email’s 22% and only 28% of church sms generate a response. Something to keep in mind is people don’t mind up to 3 push notifications from the same source a day, so don’t shy from their enormous influence. It’s about time you start using that to your advantage by doing these simple things:

  • Send out a push notification on Saturday Afternoon inviting users to the service the next morning. This subtle but powerful reminder will prove astronomically efficient in growing your attendance. Send something like “You don’t want to miss tomorrow’s sermon on Powerful Words by Pastor Mike, it will change your life.”
  • When having a conference or event send out a push notification weakly linked to your event’s page on your app, this will grow registration, sharing and awareness for your event.

#3 Grow Engagement

Church engagement is a hard road to master. People lose interest, they fall away from the vision, and most often they just aren’t connected enough to the church to be contributing members. With a church app you can change all that, here’s how:

detail-slide-pushgeofence-2

  • Integrate your digital bulletin into your Apollo Church App. When a user walks into your church send their phones your digital bulletin or itinerary for an event using Your Geofence.
  • At events, services, and conferences have your MC encourage people to download your app. Also add your app logo and buttons to your print materials.
  • Move your commitment card forms, your volunteer forms, and get in touch forms to your app; with an Apollo App this transition is a simple yet rewarding step. Then during an event, send a GeoPush Notification out to encouraging the user to fill out the respective form.

#4 Grow Media Views (Live & Recorded)

Apps already account for 86% of the time spent on mobile phones. Capitalize on that by adding these to your app:

  • HD lives Audio & Video streaming (if it’s not HD, don’t bother!)
  • Podcasts, Videos, and Articles if you have them.

Then send out these targeted push notifications during the week. With an 88% open rate, you’re guaranteed more views and engagement on your media, with turns into more support, and a more equipped congregation.

  • Sunday Afternoons: set an auto scheduled push notification linked to your new sermon to go out once the sermon is live. Something like: “If you missed today’s sermon or want to watch it again, swipe here!”
  • Wednesday Night: Send out a notification reminding
    Event Announcements: If you’ve filmed an event announcement, send a push notification out during the week linking to your video, then inside the video encourage users to go to the events section and register.

#5 Grow Vision

userlognin_3Since Apollo Apps creates custom church apps, and doesn’t just give a DIY platform, you have unlimited tools to be able to grow your vision, here’s a few:

  • Be sure to include ALL your resources on your app: your videos, articles and podcasts so people have access to the tools they need when they need them.
  • Add an e-commerce section to your church app (only available in an Apollo Church App) so your team and your congregation have access to all the resources they need.

Finally, one of the most powerful ways to grow your vision is implementing user registration and accounts into your app.  Through this we can create specific section dedicated for your leaders to access the resources they need, this makes your app a hub for your entire church, uniting the vision!

Jonathan Bodnar
Jonathan Bodnarhttp://apolloappdesign.com
Jonathan Bodnar is the founder of Church Base, an integrated church management company. Which he built to help churches simplify church engagement. Prior to starting Church Base, Jonathan was a youth pastor at a megachurch and a consultant for multiple global organizations like Unashamed Impact, Probe Ministries, and Point of View. He now applies his knowledge and experience to help churches around the world grow. 

4 COMMENTS

  1. “During your tithe and offering segment, send out a push notification to your church members inside your Geofence (which includes everyone currently inside your church) reminding them they can give via your app, then link the notification to your giving section. In some cases churches see a 41% increase in weekly giving doing this!”

    Am I the only one that finds this to be super pushy?

    • Hey Dev, Thanks for your comment. I think for sure churches need to be careful with push notifications. I personally dislike push notifications for the most part. I think there are appropriate times and places to use these kinds of “in your face” notifications – for instance, if there’s an immediate and urgent prayer request or financial need. Or if there’s an upcoming big volunteer/registration opportunity like VBS where the church takes an “all hands on deck” approach. You definitely bring up valid concerns. Good question! I think it deserves lots more conversation.

  2. “At the end of the day, if your app isn’t growing your giving what’s the point of investing the time and money into it.”

    I find this sentence highly disturbing, particularly as a lead sentence of your first point. My purpose in connecting with my congregation electronically is to enhance community. If an app or other online tool makes it more convenient for them to participate in giving, that is an added benefit, but if the app doesn’t generate ANY additional income, but enhances community within the church, there is a HUGE point in investing the time and money into it. Some might even think that we were more about building community, and making disciples, than we were making money,

    Sorry, but this is not near as much an informative article as it is a long advertisement. If this is the type of content I can expect from churchtechtoday.com, I won’t be subscribed long.

    • Hi Greg, Thanks for reading and leaving a comment. The article was a paid sponsored post by Apollo Apps and does aim to help educate and inform churches. I agree the point of ministry and technology should not be bottom-line driven; enhancing and building community should be top priority as well as evangelism and service. However, that said, many churches can’t afford to pay for new apps and other technology/software if there is not a return on investment in some way. You know as well as I do that it is incredibly hard to nail down return on investment related to community building.

      Many app developers and online giving companies have noticed the merging trend of giving online via a church app – the app bulletin and communication connection together with giving options provide a great way to connect, give, and be involved in their church community.

      We’ve written many articles about community building over the past eight years here at ChurchTechToday. I welcome you to check out these additional resources: https://churchtechtoday.com/?s=community

      In Christ,
      Lauren (Founder and Editor of CTT)

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