How many apps do you have on your phone? In the last month, how many apps have you downloaded?
According to Quartz, the average iPhone user downloads fewer than one app to their phone a month. It’s a staggering number, considering Apple boasts 78 million app downloads since 2008. The data suggests that people love to download apps, but they are selective in what they download. To win the coveted home screen space, the app needs to provide real function and content that keeps the user coming back for more. If it doesn’t check those boxes, the delete button is just a finger stroke away.
As it relates to the church, there are a growing number of apps your members can download. There are giving-only apps. Video and audio apps for your sermons. There are live streaming apps. There are note-taking apps for your sermon notes. There are several Bible apps. There are even bulletin-only apps.
While we love that virtually every aspect of the church has gone mobile, there is such a thing as too many apps. Strange for a mobile app company to say, right?
We’ve all experienced this phenomenon at a restaurant. You open up the menu, and there are so many options you feel overwhelmed and lost. It makes deciding what to eat feel almost impossible. As a result, you end up ordering an old standby that likely isn’t the best option on the menu, or you pass altogether.
With app download stats as they are, your members and guests might download and use one church-related mobile app. How do you make the best use of that one download?
Three key things to consider:
1) Leverage Your Brand to Drive Downloads and Usage
1) Leverage Your Brand to Drive Downloads and UsageYour members have a relationship with your brand. They know it. They trust it. They are much more likely to download and use your app than a third-party app where there’s not a relationship.
2) Create Connection to Drive Generosity
Technology alone does not drive generosity. Rarely is giving the first feature people use in our apps. In fact, it’s usually the third or fourth. This tells us that users are watching videos, listening to sermons, reviewing sermon notes or connecting in another way first. This connection leads them to the give button. This is why our average church sees a 31.5% increase in their online giving. It’s why our average gift is $185. Connection drives generosity.
3) Make Your App the One-Stop Shop
Your app should serve as the digital front door to your church. Instead of pointing your members to multiple apps, you should point them to one app and get them to everything they need from there. If you want to connect with your people through mobile, it has to be easy.
If your members are only going to download one app, whose app is it going to be?
To learn more about Aware3 and how they can help you with your branded church app, visit them here.
So, what features of a church app are most important? Sermons, of course… We have a mobile app (which has become necessary anyway). As I see it, a church app is specific to members, limited to fewer features, and a duplication of work (e.g., in addition to posting a sermon the web, it has to be added to the app.) that said, our members are not utilizing the website.
Ginny, You bring up some valid points. I will ask Tony to chime in. I agree, duplication of efforts is no fun at all.
Thanks for your comment, Ginny. You hit on a topic that we’re super passionate about at Aware3. Mobile can be a blessing for your church, but it shouldn’t be a headache. When we launch an app, our goal is for it to go on auto-pilot as much as possible. We’re able to do that via integration we’ve built with many popular online ministry tools such as Vimeo, YouTube, iTunes, Church Community Builder, etc. Take your video for example. As long as you’re uploading your video into Vimeo and/or YouTube, we’ll automatically pull it from there so you’re not uploading twice. Same is true with your audio via iTunes.
I hope that helps. Happy to connect live if helpful.