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Sending your first message
Sending your first message
Michael Lepinay avatar
Written by Michael Lepinay
Updated over a week ago

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:

  1. Go to Messages (or Create Message from the dashboard)

  2. Write your message content. 

  3. 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.

  4. Choose whether to send your message now or schedule for a later date.

  5. 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.

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