Digital Checklist: Easter and Beyond

Easter Sunday is one of the most highly anticipated events of the year for many churches and ministries, and springtime is a popular time for events across all types of organizations. When preparing for a major event, it’s important to consider your digital experience before you “go live” and trigger that blinking red icon.

Benjamin Franklin said, “By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.”

Said another way, by passing on opportunities to prepare, you pass on opportunities to succeed.

Many organizations are feeling more virtually equipped than compared to years past. We’ve outlined a few tips to ensure the highest return and reach on those investments you’ve made.

Content Strategy

Crafting a content strategy is a key part of any service or event. Clarity and consistency in your messaging is important for users to understand what to expect. Consider what makes your event unique and promote the aspects that will make it stand out and compel users to participate. These unique factors may include: An irregular time or place, unique online activities, or onsite offerings. A good content strategy always factors in who the audience is and what information they need to know.

Things To Consider:

What is your plan for content and the frequency of sharing it for the weeks and days leading up to your events?
Is your content posted on multiple platforms? Have you accounted for the different audience segments and platform characteristics in your strategy?
Does your content speak to your regular attendees as well as new visitors?

Mapping the User Journey to Live Stream

You’ve been working to solidify the key components of your events- the messaging, the live stream platform, and website updates to embed it. Don’t forget to consider the user journey that your visitors will follow to access your live stream. Is it difficult to find? Not for you because you know your sitemap like the back of your hand, but how about from the user’s perspective? Knowing how your users will access your stream will ensure a smooth experience for them and prevent them from bouncing (leaving your site). It can also be helpful to think through the user’s experience throughout the stream as well, especially if you are doing a blended in-person and live stream format.

Things To Consider:

Have you solidified your streaming plans?
Will you broadcast on one platform or multiple?
Will all content be live or will some be pre-recorded?
Do you have a plan to do a run through to practice the user journey and transitions for your team?
On your website, how many clicks does it take a user to get to the live stream? As few as possible is best.

Engagement Strategy

Don’t wait until the day of the event to engage with your users. Efforts leading up to it will build excitement and lead attendees to feel more connected. Encouraging users to mark their calendars, invite friends, share social media posts, and join in reading plans or other content leading up to the event are all ways to boost participation. Additionally, make plans to connect both onsite and online during your service.

Things To Consider:

How are you communicating with regular attenders and leaders to encourage them to invite others and promote your service(s)?
Do you have a plan for engaging with people during the service online, such as a host to post and respond in the live chat?

Data Tracking

Whether you use data to inform your regular marketing strategy or are just getting your feet wet, there are key pieces of data that can be collected around your specific event. Ensuring your tracking tools are ready to go will allow you to set goals for your metrics and measure success.

Things To Consider:

Do you have the proper tools implemented to track user traffic and engagement across your website, social platforms, etc? (This could include basic website traffic, number of clicks on certain buttons/links, views, downloads, etc).
What are key performance indicators for each platform you are tracking?

Post-Event Follow Up

The temptation to kick up your feet immediately after the event ends is real, and to be honest, you deserve it. However, a post-event follow up plan will help you capture and carry momentum forward. Your post-event follow up can also play a key role in your plan for next year’s event. By looking at both the data you collected and attendee feedback, you’ll know what should be replicated and what should be tweaked in the future.

Things To Consider:

How can you thank attendees for coming and encourage them to attend another upcoming event or service?
How will you gather feedback from your team internally and from those who attended?
When will you review data collected from the tracking you set up?
What takeaway or action did you convey during your event and how can you follow up to encourage follow through?

Let’s Chat

If any of these items in the checklist left you with questions or you’d simply like to bounce your ideas off someone with an external perspective, we’d love to hear from you.

From attracting new audiences to engaging your current one, we’ve got you covered. We’ll help with everything from tracking engagement to setting up deeper user funnels, and everything in between.

Get In Touch