TEXT MESSAGING FOR CHURCHES: CONNECTING AND INFORMING ALL WEEK LONG
It might not seem like a match made in heaven–after all, more than a few youngsters have been caught fiddling with their phones during a service. Yet, it’s important to realize how this modern technology can help your faith community overcome common challenges.
Ministries and religious organizations of all kind face the same challenges:
Keeping your congregation connected in today’s world of digital distractions and information-overload.
Connecting with the youth, teens, and young adults of your community.
Making your message meaningful the whole week long—not just the Sabbath. Text messaging, powered by SimpleTexting, helps your religious organization address each of these issues with ease.
How Your Church Can Use Text Messages Wondering what a church could possibly use text messages for? Here are just a few ways to use texts, complete with explanations and examples.
Send daily Bible quotes straight to your member’s mobile phones Text scriptural quotes relevant to that week’s sermon and keep congregants inspired all week long. “ “This is the day the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.” – Psalm 118:24”
Alert members instantly about schedule changes Need to cancel Sunday school due to dangerous weather? Send out text alerts to reach the multitude in minutes. “Sadly, Sunday school classes have been canceled this week due to the snow emergency. Stay safe and warm!”
Notify parishioners of upcoming events Want to ensure your social events are well attended? Remind members that day with automatic texts. “Reminder that First Church’s annual Ice Cream Social is this afternoon starting at 4pm!”
Reach your youth by speaking their language Did you know? Among 15-24 year olds, text messaging is by far the most frequently used channel for personal written communication. “Reminder that our Youth Group meets today after school at 4:30. Feel free to bring a friend!”
Get feedback from your community Have an idea and want the input of your entire congregation? Send a text, ask for feedback, and reap the responses. “Have any suggestions for the children’s next field trip? Let us know! Just respond to this text” You can probably think of even more reasons to message your members! Wish them happy birthday, run a contest, or share a prayer. There’s no limit to what you can send.
How It Works With text messaging, or SMS (Short Message Service), solutions, it’s easy to contact your members instantly. But before you can start texting, you need the cell phone numbers and the permission of your members. Sound complicated? It’s Simple with Simple Texting. All you need is a keyword and our short code. Once you’ve reserved a keyword on SimpleTexting.com, instruct your congregation to text your designated keyword (say, “1STCHURCH” or “BETHSHALOM”) to 555888. To be compliant it’s also important to add the following text wherever you advertise your keyword “Standard message and data rates may apply.”
That’s all it takes to gather their number and consent. They’ll automatically be subscribed to your text messages—it’s really that simple! You can also manually import your contacts if you have them stored in a spreadsheet. Easy.
Spreading The Word
But what’s the best way to tell your members about your new text services? Here we share some effective ideas to get the word out. How, where, and when you promote your text messages may be best dictated by how you plan to use them. We’ve broken down how to get the most subscribers by use.
Scriptural Quotes Sending daily bible quotes is a great way to keep your community inspired the whole week through—not just the Sabbath. Consider using quotes related to the theme of an upcoming or recent sermon to encourage reflection.
Announce it from the pulpit Advise your congregation that they can receive daily bible quotes relating to the week’s topic at the beginning or end of a sermon. It’s a tremendous way to extend your message’s reach throughout the week.
Event Reminders and Schedule Changes Timely texts about schedule changes or event reminders means no one will be left in the dark. Ensure all your events get the best attendance possible by promoting this convenient text service. For best results, integrate simple instructions (e.g. “Text ‘1STCHURCH’ to 555888 to receive event reminders by text message”) any place you’re advertising upcoming events. Here are just a few places a notice might be most effective:
Bulletin Board Community Calendar Newsletters, Emails, and Website
Updates on Charitable Efforts Text messages are an excellent way to inform your members about on-going philanthropic missions and programs. Keeping the whole community actively involved in your progress is sure to encourage more donations and volunteers! The best time to let the community know about this service is any time people are giving donations. The service will let people know where the money is going and inspire more members to give more. Here are a few ways to get the word out:
Announce about the texts during collection times Place a tasteful sign on the donation box with easy instructions Integrate instructions into any written requests for donations Follow these simple steps and you’ll texting in no time!
LOOKING FOR MORE REASONS TO IMPLEMENT TEXT MARKETING?
1. Affordable Channel As pay-per-click and social media advertising costs continue to increase exponentially over time, many businesses and organizations are searching for additional and more affordable advertising channels. Unfortunately, these same organizations oftentimes ignore one of their most valuable assets – the list of their customers/members and potential customers/members. Instead of continuing to pour money into the lower ROI channels, you owe it to yourself to check out text marketing and leverage your marketing list. While some incorrectly assume that SMS marketing is cost-prohibitive or difficult to implement, nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, you can get started for free!
2. Better Engagement The average email campaign produces an abysmal 20% open rate, low conversion rates, and ends up being a largely ineffective one-way communication channel. In contrast to email marketing’s anemic stats, text message marketing looks absolutely incredible. According to a recent study by Techipedia, over 98% of all text messages are opened! In addition, the
consumer response rate for SMS marketing is nearly eight times better than email marketing.
3. Incredible Relevance Unlike email blasts that are highly irrelevant and annoying to your contact list, text marketing can be perfectly timed and offer individualized content. Organizations can use geo-targeting to automatically target customers with messages when a consumer is near their business..
4. Timely Delivery Since text messages can be instantly delivered anywhere in the world, this is the perfect medium for timely communication. The aggregated statistics show that 83% of all text messages are opened within 3 minutes!
5. Quick Implementation Although you will want to continually tweak, test, and improve your messaging campaigns, this is something you can easily implement by yourself. Our web app is incredibly robust with a rich feature set, but it is also intuitive and easy-to-use. Still intimidated? Don’t be. We have a fivestep guide to getting started today and an educational resource center to get you started in no time. If you are willing to invest a couple of hours, your first campaign can be live today!
In summation, SMS marketing offers you and your business the perfect combination of an easy implementation, zero startup costs, and astronomical returns on investment. You owe it to your business to give it a try today!
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