Clearstream is a powerful texting and email software built specifically for churches. Mass text and two-way text your people, schedule workflows, send emails, take live polls, create subaccounts, and more.
If you’ve already signed up for Clearstream, welcome! This guide serves as a springboard for getting started. If you don’t have an account yet, you can sign up here.
Choosing your number
With Clearstream, you have a dedicated 10-digit long code (ex. 775-347-7333) for each account and subaccount you create. This number is unique to your account and will be used for keywords and sending messages to your people.
Growing your lists
Your contacts are stored in lists. There are four primary ways to grow your lists:
CSV Import - Import numbers using an Excel file.
Integration - If your church uses Planning Center, Rock RMS, or Church Community Builder/Pushpay, you can easily sync your ChMS contacts into Clearstream.
Keywords - People can opt-in to a list by texting a keyword to your church number.
Forms - People can sign up through a website form (think email sign-up, but texting).
Creating a message
Once your contacts are in your account, you're ready to send a message. You can send a message to an entire list, multiple lists, or just one person. Whether you’re sending a message to 50 or 50k people, we make it simple.
Click the Messages tab (left menu) > click create message > type your message > select your recipients > select when you want your message to send (now or later) > preview the message > send.
Once you send a message, you’ll see real-time metrics, like how many people are receiving your text, opting out, and replying. You can view and reply to any incoming responses in your Inbox, which contains all of your conversations with individual people.
Keywords (Text CONNECT to 775-347-7333)
A keyword is a word people text to your number in order to join a list and receive a series of automated messages. Many churches use keywords to follow up with first-time guests. For example, if someone is new and doesn’t want to fill out a connect card, but does want information about your church, keywords can give them a way to connect that’s simple and less intrusive.
Following up with visitors is the most common way churches use keywords, but they can also be used for events, salvation follow-up, or giving information about small groups. With each keyword you create, you can also set up a different series of automated messages.
Subaccounts
Subaccounts let you create multiple accounts under your main account. Very helpful if you have different ministries that want to use Clearstream, but you want separation between each department (youth group, women's ministry, downtown campus). Each subaccount has its own inbox, long code, contacts, keywords, and integrations. And you can have different people (users) managing each subaccount.
Integrations
Planning Center - You can sync People lists directly into Clearstream to text them. Additionally, you can push guests who fill out a digital connect card in Clearstream to Planning Center and automatically create a new Person in your Planning Center account. You can even add them to one of your Planning Center Workflows. Integrate with Planning Center from the Integrations tab on the left menu.
Rock RMS - If you’re texting inside of Rock, we replace Twilio as the SMS transport and give your team more functionality and faster throughput. If you’re texting inside of Clearstream, our Rock integration syncs Rock lists directly into Clearstream so you can text them. Additionally, you can push guests who fill out a digital connect card in Clearstream to Rock and create a new person profile in your Rock account. You can also even add them to a Rock Group or workflow. Integrate with Rock from the Integrations tab on the left menu.
CCB/Pushpay - You can sync CCB Groups and Saved Searches directly into Clearstream to text them. Additionally, you can push guests who fill out a digital connect card in Clearstream into CCB/Pushpay to create a new profile in your CCB/Pushpay account. You can also add them to a CCB Process Queue. Integrate with CCB from the Integrations tab on the left menu.
Slack - If your church uses Slack for internal communication, you can manage your Clearstream inbox from directly within your Slack account. Incoming texts will go into your Slack channel where you can view them and easily reply.
Simple Donation - If your church uses Simple Donation, you can enable text giving on your Clearstream numbers. To integrate with Simple Donation, go to your account settings > Integrations > login to your Simple Donation account.
Metrics and Analytics
Once you start using your account, you'll see helpful metrics in a few different places. Go to the Subscribers page to see how your lists are performing. The same applies to the Keywords and Messages pages. You can change the date range for any of these metrics.
Additionally, you can auto-generate reports that show detailed data for mass texts, keywords, and workflows. You can also have a Weekly Report sent each Monday morning at 9am. Weekly reports show everything that happened in your Clearstream account over the past week. To enable Weekly Reports, go to Account Settings > Notifications > enable Weekly Reports. You can download, print or share these reports.
Mobile App
Lastly, we have an awesome app for iPhone and Android, making it easy to manage your Clearstream account on the go. Simply go to your app store, search for Clearstream, and download the app.