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For Churches Getting Started Guide

Hello,

Chances are, your church is distributing printed newsletters, event brochures, sermons, bulletins, and missionary guides. This print communications keep your congregation informed and engaged, and has been doing so for many years.

But nowadays, your congregation is digitally connected. They live their lives on their devices.  

Too many churches don't make the effort to be a part of their congregations digital life. As a church, you communicate, teach and share values with people. These digital channels give you the lines of communication to join your congregants where they are. It's time to bring your message to the modern world.

Your congregants open and engage with your latest content in their favorite digital channel, on their favorite device.

Imagine This

Instead of waiting to pick up a printed copy the next time they are at church.

What You'll Accomplish With Simplebooklet

Turn your existing print investment in newsletters, event flyers, bulletins, teaching guides, programs and more into engaging, influential online content. 

Get your communications out to your congregation on the digital channels they live their lives on everyday.

By making Simplebooklet a part of your church's digital communication strategy, you'll accomplish the following:

Build trust and confidence with your congregation by showing your ability to communicate effectively and bring a joyful experience.

Save money and time by reducing your printing costs and increasing your reach.

Convenience

Instead of trying to download large files, they simply tap your flipbook link and experience your content instantly.

Timeliness

With an easy to remember weblink and the ability to install your content as an app, your congregants always have the latest version on the device they use everyday.

Trust and Confidence

Because your content is presented in a professional and branded layout, your content is more influential.

What Your Congregants Experience

Set up your account to make it quick and easy to add content.

How to convert your print content into digital content.

How to publish your content across multiple digital channels.

How to make a curated collection that your congregation can install.

How to measure your engagement with your congregation.

Guide Summary

In this guide, you'll learn how to do the following:

This guide will use a church bulletin as the example content when explaining how to use the simplebooklet platform.  (of course you can publish content including newsletters, flyers, profiles, missionary updates, sunday school bulletins and more.)

From your DASHBOARD

Tap BRAND SETTINGSFill in the relevant fields

These settings can then be applied to all your content automatically. 

Brand settings include your church logo, your contact information, and your social network links. 

Basically what you would expect to find on a business card.

Getting Set Up

This will do two things: make it faster each time you add new content, and, make it easier to update all your content from one place (for example, a change in email or phone number).

The first thing we want to do is set up your Simplebooklet account with your church's branding and contact information. 

To set up your domain, tap CUSTOM DOMAIN on your dashboard and follow the steps.

Tip: This does require access to your domain registrar (like godaddy) so you may need some technical support for this. Instructions are available here.

Getting Set Up

Next, we'll want to add your church's domain to your Simplebooklet account. This will make sure that your congregants view your content under your url instead of the simplebooklet.com url.

Adding Content

A single tap opens up an impressive page flipping presentation of your content, no matter the device.

Imagine This

No downloading, no virus, and no fancy software viewing apps. You're viewing a booklet right now.

The best way to get comfortable with Simplebooklet is to start by uploading some of your general communication content. This is content that you would share with congregants that give them a sense of who you are, what you do for them, and your roll in the community.  Good examples are:

About Your Church Brochure

Prayer Guide

Upcoming Event Flyer

Weekly Sermon

Weekly or Monthly Bulletins

Newsletters 

  

Adding Content

Now that you've set up your Simplebooklet account, you'll be able to quickly and easily convert your communications into online content you can share everywhere.

From the Simplebooklet DASHBOARD:

1. tap the UPLOAD button

2. select your PDF, DOC, or PPT file

3. Answer 5 questions

4. Set your URL

5. Open your booklet in DESIGN

Now you've got online content created from your communications and marketing materials. 

You can start sharing everywhere. You don’t need to do anything more. However, let’s enhance your new digital content and really leave a lasting impression.

  

Adding Content

On average, it takes about 3-5 minutes to convert and customize your new flipbook. After that, you can start sharing everywhere.

Every Simplebooklet is displayed on its own microsite. Think of it as the pulpit where your content is displayed. It's here where we highlight your church brand and make a lasting impression on your congregant.

The presentation of your content is just as important to give your congregation confidence and trust as your content is.

Impressive Presentations

The act of experiencing your content should give the reader as much joy as reading your content.

Background

This sets the overall mood of your Simplebooklet presentation. Suggestions include background patterns that match your overall branding, photos from your local area, or just a solid color to keep the focus squarely on your content. 

Impressive Presentations Page Buttons

You’ll want to configure the page turn buttons (how they look and where they are positioned on your microsite) as well as the scale content opens in default.  The default open should be set to original size for content such as a floorplan and market reports, while other content can better display as fitting to screen. 

Navigation Header and Footer

These are the top and bottom header and footer on your microsite. You can choose the colors of the header and footer and which menu options appear in them.  The colors of the navbars will impact the presentation and can either emphasize or blend in with your overall presentation.  

The navbar is also your opportunity to encourage engagement and out-reach. This is where your Contact Card will appear, and you’ll be able to encourage your audience to install your content on their device for offline access.

Page Transition

The page transition is how your pages flip from one to the next. We’ve designed a lot of different transitions to choose from. You can select to display your content as a single page, double page, and even trifold. Then you select how those pages flip.

The transitions will make a very big impact on how your buyer or seller consumes your page content. It is best to try and maintain the real world experience of reading your content in print format so that familiarity carries forward online.

Impressive Presentations

You can use our DESIGN WIZARD to walk through these configuration elements step by step.

Impressive Presentations

Publishing Anywhere

Start sharing your church content on the devices your congregants use everyday.

Imagine This

Instead of waiting until the next time they are at church.

Now that you have a professional piece of online content from your marketing collateral, it’s time to start impressing and influencing your congregation. 

You need to stop waiting for them to find your content buried on your website and take your content to them in the channels they visit everyday.

The content you’ve created works well in your social feeds, in email, and embedded on your website. 

Go to the PUBLISH Tab

Publishing

This is about getting out to where your congregation hangs out online in their busy everyday lives.

Social Media

Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Pinterest are very effective at getting your content into channels that people use either daily, weekly, or monthly. Pinterest can be especially effective for reaching congregations..

Embed

If you manage your own blog or website, our easy to use embed code lets you place your booklet right in your website. No more forcing congregants to download a large PDF, they can flip right through it on your site.

Email

Try emailing your content to yourself. You’ll see how effective the result can be and then be able to start sending out emails to your congregation.  

Publish Everywhere

Your congregants are everywhere. Go to them.

Make A Collection

Your congregant has access to all your curated bulletins, newsletters, and content at a single weblink.

Imagine This

The convenience of all your Simplebooklets at your congregants fingertips.

A collection displays multiple booklets on a single webpage. Think of it like your own branded pinterest board. 

It's a curated archive of newletters, bulletins, or event information you want to share with your congregation.

Collections are effective because:

1. They give a congregant a single link to view all your relevant content,

2. They can be installed on any device as a native app with your church's logo as the launch icon.

3. They work offline.

From the DASHBOARD

1. Tap COLLECTIONS

2. Tap Create New

Make A Collection

Collections are a powerful way to create one tap access to an archive of your content.

Making Your First Collection

Step One

Convert all the content you will want to display in your collection into Simplebooklets. For example, convert your recent year of bulletins.

Step Three

Customize the presentation of your collection by adding a background and configuring the navbar header features.

Your congregation will appreciate the focus you provide them with a curated collection of relevant content.

Step Four

Copy the URL of your collection and share it across social media, email and add it to your website to get your congregation engaged.

Step Two

From the DASHBOARD, tap COLLECTIONS and make a new one. Add the simplebooklets in the order you want them to appear.

Installable Content

Your congregant installs your collection on their favorite device so your content is always a tap away.

Imagine This

No hard to remember weblinks, just a simple tap on a branded launch icon with offline access.

One Tap Access

Instead of opening a browser and typing in a url, your congregant taps a branded launch icon on their phone, tablet or computer desktop. 

Offline Access

Every Simplebooklet and Collection can be viewed, even if your congregant doesn't have a network connection.

Notifications

When you update your collection, all installed versions are automatically updated with the latest content. This is especially valuable for newsletter collections.

Installation Means Engagement

Installed collections see 4x better engagement with congregants. 

For Simplebooklets:

1. Tap DESIGN

2. Tap NAVBARS

3. Toggle on INSTALL

4. Select your install icon.

Your Simplebooklets and Collections can all be installed on any device. You just need to turn on the feature.

Installation

For Collections:

1. Tap EDIT

2. Tap NAVBARS

3. Toggle on INSTALL

4. Select your install icon.

Every collection can be installed as a native like app on a congregant's device.

Send An Email

Email your congregation and highlight the benefits of installing your new collection on their device. Focus on the convenience, offline capabilities, and always up to date benefits of your installable collection.

You'll want to encourage your congregants to install your collection on their device. 

Once you've added your INSTALL menu button to your Navbar, it only takes a tap to put your collection on their device.

Encourage Installation

Share Your Collection Link

Add the link to your collection on all your print collateral. This way your congregant can access your content from any browser and be prompted to install directly without going through an app store.

Congregants appreciate the ease with which they can access your content from a single tap.

Keeping Content Fresh

Update Existing Content

If you update your print materials, make sure to use the REPLACE button for the corresponding online version. This will allow your congregation to keep using the same weblink and installed version of the content but now with updated information.

Enhance

Go back and enhance your content with updated buttons that will display photos, videos, and additional engaging content. Much of your content will continue having engaged congregants long after you first published.

Publish Often

It's okay to post older content onto your social media channels multiple times.  People appreciate being reminded of content they may have neglected before.

Best Practices

Any print content you have can become valued online content.

Thanks,

I'm very excited you are using Simplebooklet to communicate with your congregation. 

At Simplebooklet, we pride ourselves in helping our users. You can contact me anytime through our chat messenger in the application, or email me at support@simplebooklet.com.