Once you have subscribers in your account, it's time to send them a message. This short article will cover how to create a message, and some best practices for texting your church.
Steps:
Go to Messages (or Create Message from the dashboard)
Write your message content.
Select the list you want to send your message to. If you need to send a message to only a few subscribers, simply search for the person's name or number.
Choose whether to send your message now or schedule for a later date.
Click Preview Message. Double check everything, and click Send Message.
Once you send your message, you can view live, second-by-second metrics on the Message View page. You can also see who responded, opted out, and more details on the Message Activity Table.
P.S. - You can quickly duplicate sent messages. To duplicate a sent message: select any sent message from the Messages page > click the 3 dots in the top corner > Duplicate.
Best Practices
Following these guidelines will keep your opt-out rate lower and engagement higher.
For most use-cases, we recommend sending 1-2 messages per week max to your main church-wide List. For communicating with small groups like scheduling, that of course doesn't apply.
Keep the wording human. No one enjoys a spammy-worded text message. A simple way to gauge this: try reading your message out loud before sending.
Send messages during normal hours: 8am-8pm. There are of course instances when a message needs to be delivered outside this window, but generally it's best to stick to these hours.
Stay away from using lots of punctuation and line breaks. Make it concise and easy to read.
Reply to incoming responses. When you send your message, you'll typically receive replies. All replies go into your Inbox. You can reply back to people from your Inbox. Tip: make sure you have email and push notifications enabled in your settings so you can know when you receive an incoming message.