Mobile App Marketing Trends [Infographic]

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Denese EakinsDenese is a lover of knowledge and puts her research skills and creative eye to good use with her infographics. When she’s not researching and designing visuals to present data, she spends time volunteering in her other passion–health education.

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Using Technology To Increase Church Security

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Safety and security is a subject that is on everyone’s mind these days and for a good reason. All you need to do is watch or visit the local or worldwide news outlets to see that there is unrest, uncertainty, and mayhem taking place throughout the world around you.

In recent history, places of worship have been at the center of a number of random, senseless, and deadly attacks.

As a religious leader, it’s your duty to do everything within your power to keep your organization safe and prepare for a myriad of potentially dangerous scenarios such as inclement weather, intruders, theft, vandalism, hostage situations, power outages, etc.

While some may argue that too much technology is bad, when it comes to security, technology is your biggest ally. With so many security products and services available, you can make your church safer for the entire congregation, staff members, visitors, and volunteers. Another significant advantage of using technology is that it’s cost-effective. Any investments you make in upgrading the security of your buildings is worthwhile.

Here are a few security implementations worth considering:

Security Cameras – Security cameras – particularly ones that are monitored by a professional security company help identify threats and speed up response times from emergency personnel. In the case of theft, fire, or other misdoings, security footage is helpful in determining what happened and identifying any subjects associated with the event. Mounting surveillance cameras both indoors and outdoors allows you to get a full view of the activities taking place in and around your buildings. Private and Semi-Private spaces including offices, nurseries, classrooms, and access points are all highly vulnerable, so it’s a smart idea to use video surveillance in these areas of your facility. Another effective way to deter crime or unauthorized access to your place of worship is to prominently display stickers and signs that alert people that their activities are being recorded. Sometimes just the threat of being recorded is enough to discourage someone from doing something harmful.

Mobile App – If you’re weighing the advantages and disadvantages of a mobile app for your church, the advantages heavily outweigh the disadvantages. Not only can a mobile app for your church help keep you connected with your congregation, but it can also serve as a central communication center in the event of a crisis. Features such as push notifications allow you to notify people instantly with updated information and instructions, should an event transpire at your location. For churches who have implemented an emergency action plan (see below) you have the ability to share this information seamlessly with everyone who has downloaded the app to their smartphone or mobile device.

Panic Buttons – Since many places of worship maintain an “Open Door” policy during regular business hours to provide a place for spiritual refuge and guidance; you want to do everything you can to protect the people who are working there since they are accessible to all visitors. To reduce their possible exposure to danger, adding a panic button or alarm system offers an extra layer of security for any situation that might arise. Silent alarms are stealthy, so alerting the authorities doesn’t alert the perpetrator that emergency personnel is on the way, which could potentially save lives and bodily harm.

Emergency Action Plan – In the case of an emergency, having an action plan is critical to keeping people safe. Having an emergency action or response plan establishes organizational procedures for everyone to follow if there is a major crisis. Part of this action plan is to assign roles and responsibilities to execute the emergency plans in a calm and composed manner. Every type of urgency should be taken into account and procedures should be set accordingly. When putting an emergency action plan into place, you should refer to your property blueprints to create evacuation routes, designated shelter areas, and other protocols if there is an incident of any sort.

Build A Volunteer Safety and Security Team – chances are good that your church has plenty of members who would be willing to volunteer to help with enforcing safety and security. Consider purchasing matching t-shirts, vests, or jackets that identify your safety and security crew quickly. By doing so, your parishioners and visitors can readily determine who can help them if they need. If you are already having problems with crime in the area where your church is, a visible security and safety presence is a powerful way to discourage culprits from targeting your church. Areas where having a security presence is in the parking lot, entrance doors, as well as nurseries, daycare facilities, and classrooms.

Setting The Plans Into Motion

If you’re ready to put your security and safety plans into action, the first step is discussing your objectives with board members and coming to an agreement on details such as the budget and potential vendors for various aspects of your security plan. Once you’ve established a basis for the security blueprint, you can move on to taking bids from merchants who provide the products and services you’ve decided are critical to your organization.

Once the ball is rolling, you can tell your parishioners about the initiatives you’re taking to boost security and safety. Undoubtedly, your members will welcome your efforts to keep your place of worship a safe place.

An Ounce Of Prevention Is Worth A Pound Of Cure

You can’t go wrong by increased security precautions in and around your place of worship. By implementing a multi pronged approach to securing your facility in the event of any incident, you’re taking the right steps to protect your congregation, as well as the building itself. As the old saying teaches us, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” The sooner you take steps to safeguard your church, the better.

If you would like to learn more about deploying a mobile app to boost security and communications for your congregation, we want to hear from you! Contact us today! We’re happy to help you with all aspects of your mobile app needs.

Having a mobile app makes good business sense [infographic]

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Denese EakinsDenese is a lover of knowledge and puts her research skills and creative eye to good use with her infographics. When she’s not researching and designing visuals to present data, she spends time volunteering in her other passion–health education.

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Is A Mobile App Right For Your Church?

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It’s an amazing time in history. As a Religious leader, there are more technological tools at your disposal to not only streamline your communications with your existing congregational members, but also to attract and build a larger following.

All you have to do is think of major platforms such as Facebook to realize how technology improves our ability to keep in touch with others and extend our reach with those we do not yet know

One of the biggest game changers for Facebook was the implementation of a mobile app for their users. By doing so, they took steps to assure an improved user experience for everyone accessing the platform on their preferred device. In recent years, the sales of smartphones and mobile devices has surpassed the sales of traditional desktop and laptop computers. The way that people use and access the internet has changed, so it was a ‘no-brainer’ to invest in improved technology.

While you might think “Why should we get a mobile app for our church? Isn’t a website enough?” The short answer is that a website (even one that is mobile friendly) is very different from a mobile app.

A mobile app is optimized to operate on a smartphone or tablet. At the tap of an icon, anyone who has downloaded your church app can instantly connect with functionality only available on your app.

When weighing the advantages of a mobile app for your church, here are some things to consider.

Your app should be useful to your parishioners and go further than being eye-pleasing. The more value that your app provides, the better. If it doesn’t add enough perceived benefits, the likelihood of your users forgetting to use it – or worse – delete it, is high.

One of the most significant features your church members are sure to enjoy are push notifications. Push notifications are a nearly ‘can’t miss’ way to share news or updates with your congregation at the press of a button. Push notifications are a straightforward way to send information and updates about benefit dinners, dances, ministry group outings, rummage sales, car washes, Vacation Bible School, bake sales, fundraisers, retreats, special masses or services, or event changes, delays, or cancellations. With this type of connectivity, you can be sure that you’re always in touch with your parishioners on their favorite mobile device.

An optimized church mobile app may also include daily devotional and inspiration, recorded sermons, a member directory, volunteer listings, and other resources your members find helpful.

By treating your mobile app as a resource center, church members are never in the dark about what’s going on at their house of worship.

One of the advantages of being a church is that your members serve as your captive audience for downloading the app. Instead of having to build your app user base from the ground up, you have your existing parishioners who can download the app instantly. Since you already have an affinity group of users, you won’t have to compete with several other apps for your user’s attention. You can build a much stronger community with the help of technology and your mobile app. It serves as a central community center to provide information about upcoming events, volunteer opportunities, school functions (if your church has a school,) member directories, community announcements, and planned outings and excursions. In a nutshell, a mobile app is one of the most efficient ways to keep in regular communications with all of your parishioners from the device they use the most – their smartphone or other preferred mobile device.

A built-in audience is a great place to start. If you want your app to get distributed to a wider audience, it has to be useful, attractive and technologically sound. You want to eliminate as many quirksome bugs as possible before putting it into full release. Things like unexpected crashes and slow load times are two of the biggest reasons that people uninstall or delete apps from their mobile devices. Because technology is constantly changing and evolving, having the ability to upgrade and adapt your mobile app in the future helps you stay competitive. Once you’ve deployed your app, don’t be afraid to ask your users for feedback on how your app can be improved. You should be willing to adapt your app to meet the needs of your users as time goes along. The best ideas often come from the people who are the biggest advocates of your app. Your most loyal users are the ones who will have the most working experience with the app.

Since they regularly use all of the different features and functionality, they can tell you ways that it can be improved, offer new ideas for future development, and give “bug” reports helping to fix issues with the app quickly. You always want to put your best foot forward with your church mobile app and provide a seamless experience.

Unfortunately, one bad user experience can result in a negative impression of the app. Should they decide to tell their friends and family members, this discourages them from downloading the app, as well. On the bright side, you can expect the same reaction to your app if it is an excellent one. Your avid users will tell the people in their circles about how impressed they are with your mobile app. This constructive feedback is sure to influence others to give the app a try, so they can get all of the benefits of becoming a mobile app user. For this reason, it’s critical to select a mobile developer who has the experience to complete the job to your specifications and is there to offer guidance and assistance when needed to enhance the app on a needed basis.

Have more questions or want to learn more about how to launch a mobile app for your church? Contact us today! We would love to help you with all of your mobile app needs!

Don’t Get Deleted! Tips to Get Users to Download and Keep Your App Installed

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As more people worldwide gravitate towards using Smartphones and other Mobile devices to access the Internet, savvy businesses understand the need to stay connected with their target audiences on their preferred mobile devices. A recent study conducted by Pew Research found that just over one in ten Americans are “Smartphone Only” Internet users, meaning that they don’t have traditional Internet Services such as DSL, Fiber, or Cable in their home. What is even more interesting is that many Americans now spend anywhere from 5 – 10 hours daily using their Smartphones and other mobile devices.

Connect With Your Mobile Market

As you can imagine, mobile users are among some of the most loyal, and their dependency on these devices offers you a unique opportunity to get – and stay – connected with this avid user base. This opportunity is what’s commonly known as a Mobile App.

Unlike traditional websites where people typically access your site by typing in the URL or using a search bar, a mobile app requires that your user download your app to their Smartphone or Mobile Device.

Depending on the nature of your business, you might consider offering people who download your mobile app an incentive or promotional offer for doing so. For instance, a beauty salon might offer a 10% discount on services for using the app to schedule their next appointment or service. Your mobile app works as a critical part of your overall marketing and sales funnel. Features such as the ability to send “Push Notifications” directly to your app users offers a convenient way to alert your mobile app users about flash sales, special offers, or other promotions to drive traffic to your business.

By enticing clients and customers with exclusive offers, coupons and other rewards that are only available via your app, you’re taking steps to increase customer loyalty and patronage. By adding value, the careful use of promos and incentives helps assure that people who downloaded your app on their mobile devices keep them installed.

The Magic Of Push Notifications

If you want an “on-demand” way to broadcast an offer to your patrons, fans, and followers, Push Notifications are the perfect way to accomplish this marketing feat. Instead of your message getting routed to an Email (that may or may not get monitored on a regular basis) your marketing message is delivered like a text message. According to reports, 90% of people read text messages, so the likelihood that your communication reaches your target market is almost guaranteed. Once the message gets sent through the system, mobile users will get a pop-up on their Smartphone or Tablet with your message. How cool is it to know that you get your potential customer’s undivided attention?

Mobile Apps As Part Of Your Overall Marketing Strategy

It stands to reason that you want to derive as much value as possible for all of your marketing and advertising budgets and efforts. In addition to offering a cutting-edge mobile app, it’s always a sound marketing approach to build your audience using organic methodologies and paid advertising including Print, Online, and Social Media ads. 

One of the reasons that using Print and Online ads is so useful is because people might be reluctant to download your mobile app if they aren’t familiar with your brand or business. Online and Print ads are effective at raising brand awareness and building trust with the consumer.

Once you’ve established a baseline relationship with potential new clients, they are more likely to download your mobile app to take advantage of the special offers and promotions you offer via your app. In a nutshell, all of your marketing efforts work in combination with one another to stabilize your blended advertising costs.

Finding The Right Marketing Mix

Most successful business owners understand the importance of getting their marketing mix just right. Not only do you want to be able to attract new customers to your business, but you also want to be able to build repeat business with your existing customer base. As the old saying goes, “Rome wasn’t built in a day.” But if you work every day to build your business, you’re taking the right steps towards lasting success – and marketing has a lot to do with your end results.

Failure to target mobile internet users could perhaps be one of the biggest mistakes any business could make, because of the high degree of engagement people have with their Smartphones. All you need to do to see just how accurate this statement is, is by taking a look around you almost everywhere you go. People are always on their mobile devices doing something, whether it’s making a phone call, listening to music, watching videos, or hailing a ride with apps like Uber or Lyft. By increasing your coverage and market share with these same mobile users, you get the chance to increase your sales volume, revenue, and profit, which are the benchmarks for success for all companies.

Launch Your Mobile App and Marketing Campaigns With Ease

Want to launch your mobile app and marketing campaign but not sure where to start? No worries! The experts at Colleen Eakins Design are here to help you achieve your business goals with mobile apps, graphic design, and web design that work. Our job is to make sure that our customers look good online, digitally and in print, so they can focus on the core areas of their business where they excel. We help you get ahead of your competition by giving your customers, and potential clients access to one of the things they love the most, mobile apps!

We’re happy to work with companies of all sizes to develop a mobile app that helps them meet their business objectives. If you’re ready to extend your marketing efforts into the growing mobile market, Contact Us today to start the discussion about your mobile app needs. We look forward to hearing from you!