FAQs

Great question.

Our MES is a messaging platform that allows you to segment dynamic audiences* and deliver personalized communications to your church members, at scale. Whether you have 50 members or over 50,000, the system delivers designated messages based on where the member is at in relation to the “next steps” of a discipleship path you have defined, or as you segment activities.

You can set parameters once, and the platform manages the delivery of messaging as members are dynamically added or removed from a particular audience. The solution does the heavy lifting to increase efficiency and effectiveness of communications, while you gain insights for ministry, members feel known, your church grows and the kingdom expands. Simple, but impactful. 

*Dynamic audience: Audience based on a set of rules that you have determined. They automatically update themselves to include or not include members based on their activity and engagement with your church, and whether they fall into one of the audiences you have set.

Our solution was built by church professionals for church professionals, based on proven results.

Our messaging platform builds dynamic audiences from a variety of data sources and sends out messages via various mediums (mobile app, sms, email). Our custom built data warehouse normalizes your data and allows segmentation and reporting that is ideal for churches.

We give you all the capabilities of a CDP (customer data platform), without the unnecessary “retail” features.

The MES is a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), web-based product, no downloading necessary.

Our software creates a "Dashboard" that is available to members via their mobile app or a 'My Dashboard' link on your website's top navigation.

The link on your website gives members post-gate or password protected access to their personalized Dashboard that displays their Profile, Next Step Badges, personalized messaging and links to member-centric information; consistent with their mobile app. 

No. You will need a church management system in place to use our software.

Our solution is middleware that includes a custom data warehouse for each church that connects and normalizes data sources; including, but not limited to, your existing church management system (ChMS) and any other source data you use (eg. Spiritual Assessments, Spreadsheets, etc). 

Next, The Member Engagement Software (MES) is layered on to serve as the personalized communications platform that uses code, algorithms, dynamic segmentation and some other fancy  & complicated technical stuff that we take care of for you.  

Remember, we have been in your shoes. The goal has always been, and remains, to make it as simple and user-friendly as possible for your MarComm team to use; without the need for additional developers on your part. 

No. Our MES was intentionally developed to be agnostic, not requiring any specific Church Management System but agile enough to integrate with any of them.

You know your church best and what the needs of staff and members are. Use the system that works well for you and we will meet you where you are.

If you are looking to change your ChMS or are looking for other features or functionality, we are happy to discuss the options and give you the pros and cons of changing. Often, our MES fills the gap and amps up the use of your current ChMS; saving you the cost and pains of deploying a new system. 

We work with all ChMSs; integration with all church management systems is a priority of our solution development. We have already mapped and developed APIs with the major church management systems. If we have not yet mapped to the system you are using, it will add some time to the onboarding process, but is still available.

Standard API mapping is included in our onboarding fee, additional fees may apply to custom integration requests.

No. We do not have our own mobile app. However, we have a lot of experience with many mobile apps.

If you are in the market for a mobile app or considering a change, we are happy to discuss the options and determine what mobile app may be the best fit for your needs and budget.

We are an objective voice that keeps your needs and desires as priority. From general advice to a discovery engagement that outlines technical architecture and recommendations, we can help educate and ease the decision making process. 

We can integrate with any mobile app; template based, semi-custom or custom. The member’s experience will depend on the style, design modification and API availability, but we can provide a “Member Dashboard” accessibility via any mobile app. 

Don’t have an app or looking to change? We are happy to discuss options and features, to help determine what approach is the best fit for your needs and budget. We are an objective voice that keeps your needs and desires as priority.

Yes. Our software integrates with your existing mobile app, regardless of who you go with.

We have existing clients on all the main stream church mobile app providers.

Whether you have Subsplash, Pushpay, Tithely, custom or other - we can find a way to make the MES Dashboard work for you and your members.

Onboarding is the process that involves setting up your custom data warehouse, defining and identifying your church's unique 'Next Steps", mapping the data logic to those Next Step parameters and training your staff on the MES, prior to launching it to your church.

Typically, onboarding takes approximately 55 business days. 

The actual timeframe depends on our current onboarding waitlist, ChMS integration, mobile app integration, next step badge logic confirmations, data mapping configurations, level of complexity in mapping to (additional) data sources and the responsiveness of your team.

Once onboarding is complete, the solution is available to roll out and launch per your schedule. 

The Member Engagement Software was developed by church professionals to be used by church professionals on the MarComm Team; which is usually the Communications Director or Coordinator. 

The software is user-friendly and simple to use. We recommend at least one part-time person be dedicated to managing the messaging, per the church’s communications calendar and needs. Ideally, there is a full-time Mar/Comm person that becomes your expert in managing the omni-channel communications for your church.

The objective of the member engagement journey is to shepherd people on their discipleship path, seamlessly guiding and responding to  ministry needs with processes that are digital and in person.

If you do not currently have staff or a volunteer to manage the MES, we are happy to provide those services for an additional monthly retainer.

Yes, thorough training is included in MES onboarding. 

Also, clients have monthly meetings with a dedicated Engagement Specialist that is included in the MES subscription.

Our mission is not to just sell software. Our goal is to improve church member engagement and grow churches, and the kingdom.

We are very hands on and partner with you to give your team the opportunity to become experts of the software, strategize marketing plans, maximize messaging, brainstorm and schedule campaigns, monitor progress and continue to develop new approaches to knowing your members and growing your church.

Not necessarily, but it is useful to have some marketing experience.

We partner with our church clients and provide white-glove customer care. We will walk along side you and train your team as  you implement the member engagement strategy. 

Understanding that there is a 'science to messaging', and not just a 'feeling', is needed to manage this most successfully. The premise of understanding true 'promotion' and how it relates to church, from standard marketing methodologies is beneficial.

We recommend access to at least a part-time designer to manage images for messages, in planning for a team.

Our software does include an image gallery with enough images for standard messaging.  However, to implement personalization that is unique for your church, you will want to have design and photography resources to make sure your messages are reflecting your actual membership and audiences; so you don't only use stock photos. 

Yes.

Yes. 

We believe the old adage that you can't manage what you don't measure. Data is the core of what we do, to drive actionable insights.

The MES has a robust reporting capability that you can access on your Admin Dashboard, and we send monthly overviews of your engagement status and progress. 

There is a one-time Setup fee and a monthly subscription required for the MES.

Pricing is tiered, based on church size (average weekend attendance).

Setup fees start with a standard range, but are adjusted to reflect the complexity of data integrations desired.

Price Ranges:

Setup fees (one time):

$3,500-$10,000

Subscriptions (monthly):

$600-$2,500

Setup fees are non-refundable.

Subscriptions can be terminated or cancelled with 30 days notice. Of course, we will work with you to remedy any outstanding issues. However, if you no longer desire to use the MES, there is no penalty for cancelling our software service.