You went and gathered the numbers, and now they're sitting there in a pile of dashboards. So let's make sense of them! This is where the data starts actually telling you who's out there, and you'll walk away with two or three signals that are worth doing something about.
Use alongsideRising › Know › Reading Your Audience Data
Allow25 minutes
You'll needYour website, social, and email numbers
Auto-saving as you go
Here's the thing about data: you do NOT have to read all of it. Most dashboards hand you fifty numbers and sort of hope you feel something. We're going to do the opposite, and pull out the two or three signals that actually mean something for your church.
Step 1
Which numbers are you working from?
Tap whatever you pulled together. Even one or two gives you a real read.
Step 2
A quick thing before we dig in
One word, several different meanings.
"Engagement" is really a handful of different things wearing one word. A like, a save, a share, a reply, a click, they each tell you something different. A save is someone saying "I want this later." A share is someone saying "I'd put my name on this." So read them for what each one is telling you. The total at the bottom is the least interesting number on the page.
Step 3
The five questions
Answer what you can. Your best read beats a perfect one.
Age range, life stage, whatever the numbers hint about the real people.
The posts, emails, or pages that actually earn a reaction.
The days, times, and seasons when things pick up.
Which channel is doing most of the work.
Your best guess, honestly. You know your people better than any dashboard does.
Step 4
Patterns to look for
See if any of these ring a bell.
A few patterns turn up at just about every church, so see if any of these ring a bell: people engage once and then vanish (that's your first-visit drop-off), whole seasons run hot or cold, and there's usually one kind of content that outperforms everything else without anyone planning it. Naming the pattern is honestly half the work!
Step 5
The discipline
Few signals, acted on, beat fifty numbers read.
Just the few things most worth acting on. Two or three, no more.
The payoff
Your Audience Read
Okay, here's your read: the signals worth carrying forward. You'll bring these right into the Actual vs Intended Audit next, where we hold them up against the people you meant to reach.