SoChurch, the newest (and only) communication web application for the Church has released their new homepage and has begun to accept pre-registrations to their product.
The team has spent countless hours in the last few weeks polishing the presence with graphics, some of the funniest copy ever to grace a product and marketing page, and (of course) finishing the product for a release in November.
It’s the total LOL!
Check it out and consider pre-registration which is an unbelievable deal: $25 locks you in to a 50% discount on your first year.
Even if you’re not completely sure it would be worth capturing the 50% off. We’ve already had some pre-registrations from a number of people who just wanted to “gift” the product to their church!
Spend some time rolling through the site and let us know what you think!
And, of course, we couldn’t forget the awesome “jumping shot”:
Jonathan Cottrell says
Pumped! So excited to finally launch this to the world, showing everyone what’s coming. Praise God it’s here!
Brian Notess says
So we definitely needed SoChurch like 6 months ago.
Our church-planting network had serious communication needs which we managed to fulfill with a combination of facebook, blogs, twitter and e-news.
It’s a little hard to grasp the scope of this. Any video demos or 30minute infomercials out there?
Jonathan Cottrell says
Brian, We would love to talk with you personally about your needs for the network and how SoChurch can meet them. Email me at jc at sochurch dot com to discuss. Glad it looks like a fit!
Jody says
I’ve been looking forward to this since I first heard about it. Pre-registration complete.
Jonathan Cottrell says
Awesome Jody! Tell your friends.
Patrick Woods says
I dig the $25 pre-reg deal. Seems like a great customer dev tactic that’s a real win-win for you guys and the users. Down the road, it would be great to see a follow-up post on how the pre-reg discount helped build the pre-launch user base.
Jonathan Cottrell says
That’s a great idea, Patrick. We’ll definitely let you know and follow-up!
Mike Norton says
Ok, I understand you are trying to make some money at this, but why at such a price and with such a target audience. Realistically the only people/churches that can/will pay for something like this, which I still do not see what is so cutting edge over other available resources freely available, are large and/or mega churches. What are your plans for the majority of congregations that are out there that need tools but can not afford something like this?
Be a good steward. If I am wrong, please forgive me, but honestly, not convinced this is a deal.
Thank you for your time.
Mike Norton
Tech Pastor and advocate for the people.
Jonathan Cottrell says
Mike, first, I’m not sure if you took a look at our full plans page (http://sochurch.com/plans), but as you can see, our plans start at only $7 per month. This is the most affordable, inexpensive solution available, bar none. There are no setup fees, no long-term contracts, no required webinars, and no other barriers that many other companies place in front of people and churches.
We’ve done extensive research of churches and leaders across all states and all sizes. Let us just say that our proposed pricing at the time hit a very sweet spot for everyone. In fact, it was on the low-end of what everyone expected to pay for this type of solution. If you’ve been keeping with our blog, we’ve talked about our aim to provide a solution all churches can afford, and this has infiltrated everything we’ve done to-date, including our pricing. I can even say for myself, as a small group leader, that I would even be willing to pay $19 per month to communicate with my small group, were my church unwilling to adopt the system.
As for the pre-registration, no one is obligated to pay for it, but if they are convinced they will be interested in SoChurch from the extensive amount of content we’ve placed on the site, we thought it would be a good deal for them to receive a 50% discount when we do launch. It’s totally up to them.
Thanks for your thoughts and I hope that answers some of your questions and concerns.
gammell says
Question about the plans page: Do the features listed on the right correspond to the various tiers, or are they just a feature list for all tiers? That’s not clear to me.
Second, the group limits seem disproportionately small to me as compared to the membership limit. I run the site for a church with about 200 active members with probably 20-30 small groups and ministries. From my understanding of these tiers, that would mean we might very well need the 2000 member, unlimited group plan. That’s quite the jump.
Jonathan Cottrell says
Gammell, thanks for the questions and feedback.
To your first question, yes. The features listed on the right correspond to the various tiers on the left. This will be more clear when we launch the actual plan registrations page, but we were trying to highlight all the features available during the pre-registration period.
As for the group limits, from the research we’ve done, churches are all over the place in terms of group:population ratio. Yours seems very active, which is great! But you are correct in that, with 20 or so groups, you would likely find yourself in the $49/mo plan.
I hope this answers your question. If you have any others, feel free to email me directly at jc at sochurch dot com. Thanks again!
Geek for Him says
Awesome stuff guys- congrats on the launch – sending this on to the powers that be!
Jonathan Cottrell says
Thank you for the referrals!
Tim Owens says
Just preregistered for my church. I have no doubt this is going to change the way we communicate with our congregation and if I have to fork over the dough myself to make that happen I’ll do it. Can’t wait for the real launch guys!
Jonathan Cottrell says
Tim, we are so encouraged by this comment. Our desire from the very get-go has been to meet needs like yours, offering a solution that’s affordable to anyone so that their church and ministry communication can improve.
We look forward to hearing how this works for you and your church. Thanks for your support and encouragement!
Daniel Decker says
In one of my roles, I oversee communications for a 4000 member church. Really wanting to see the value in SoChurch but have to be honest that I’m not very clear on WHAT it does. I’m sure that will be more obvious as it evolves. Might be worthwhile for you guys to toss up an overview video or something that shows the full potential and actually walks someone through a real live example of benefit.
I LOVE the site and the creative copy + what I *THINK* are the value proposition points but I guess I just need some more finite examples to wrap my head around.
Thanks!
DD
Jonathan Cottrell says
Daniel,
Thanks for your candor. There are a few sample screenshots on the homepage, under “Take a peek under the hood” that should provide you a little more context. Also, I would encourage you take a look at http://sochurch.com/features/explore/ if you haven’t already.
And last but not least, we would love to provide you with more details. Feel free to email me at jc at sochurch dot com to setup a time to talk. We’re in the process of putting up more “finite” examples to better demonstrate the value, so thanks for this comment to reinforce that point.
Hope that helps and look forward to talking with you soon.