Last year I wrote a blog that said Mobile was coming and it was based on me speaking about the benefits of having a mobile website and/or mobile app for your ministry. Well, about a week ago my blog sent out a post from my archives (via Tweet old Post) and the software chose the “Mobile is Coming” post. On Twitter, my friend Antoine Wright (@mobileminmag) responded “Mobile is not coming...Mobile is Now”, and I totally agree.
I have had the opportunity to build quite a few mobile ministry websites and apps and I find myself continually looking at the google analytics to determine how many people are visiting these mobile properties vs. the traditional properties. Here are some great stats for you on some properties I have helped build:
TD Jakes Ministries Mobile Website - 1 in 4 users that visit TDJakes.org is on a mobile device. Overall, that’s hundreds of thousands of users that interact with the ministry via their mobile device. If the ministry did not have a mobile website, the experience of interactive with the ministry would be greatly hindered. And here’s another tidbit, the #1 thing that people are doing when they are on the TDJ mobile website, watching live or archived video.
TD Jakes Ministries Mobile App (Apple - Android) - Most recently, TDJ launched an iPhone and Android app, within the first few weeks we had tens of thousands of downloads with very good reviews. Thus this tells me two things, 1. People were waiting on this app, and 2. People prefer an app over a mobile website.
Ever Increasing Faith Ministries Mobile Website - 1 in 5 users that visit Faithdome.org are on a mobile device. These users are looking for 1 of 2 things, either they want to watch videos (live or archived) or they are looking for the daily devotionals. This shows that these mobile users are very interested in receiving ministry no matter where they are via their mobile device. This is a great thing.
Ever Increasing Faith Mobile donations has increased 400% from the month the mobile website first launched compared to the most recent month. This mobile commerce figure was a bit of a surprise to me. I knew that we could make the online donation process mobile friendly but what I didn’t expect was how quickly people would use it.
Overall, I see that churches should have a mobile delivery plan for their web properties in order to reach more online users. Also, to answer an age old questions, which mobile property should a church do first, website or app, I always say website then app. The mobile website will reach more devices than an iOS specific or Android specific app.