Once you've had congregants sign up for texting and matched up contact information to their corresponding person records, you can create and format a text message and assign an audience all in one screen from the Communications.
To send a text in the Communications view,
1. Go to the Communications view and click the link to start a "New message".
2. In the drop-down menu, choose "New text message".
3. For your new message, choose a message type that best describes the purpose of your message. New message types can be created under Communication Settings.
4. Type in your message title. This will be used in the Communications view to show statistics for your message.
5. Under the Audience section, click to "Add filter" to choose which groups, individuals, and/or custom criteria to use to determine those you want to receive your message. Multiple lines can be added to include and exclude person records. The statistics below the menus will automatically update to show how many people are selected in total, as well as the number of selected records that have phone numbers on their records (that have been opted-in for texting) and those that do not.
For more information on choosing your audience, please visit our article here.
6. After selecting the groups and persons for your Audience, click the "Review recipients" link to review the phone numbers used for each person. Click "Done" once your review is complete.
Note: If filters are added or edited after changes where made under "Review recipients", manual selections will be reverted according to Selection Priority. For this reason, it is recommended to add and choose inclusion and exclusion filters under Audience before reviewing and editing individual contact selections.
7. In the next section of the screen, type or paste your message into the text editor. Text messages have a 160-character limit.
8. After composing your message, choose your desired action from the buttons at the bottom of the page.
- Cancel - This will cancel your message permanently and return you to the Communications view.
- Save Draft / Update Draft - This will save the message to the Communications view without sending it. You will be able to edit this message before scheduling and sending it at a later time.
- Schedule - This will allow you to set a date and time for your message to be sent to all chosen recipients.
- Send - This will send your message out immediately to all chosen recipients.
Once the text blast has been sent, you will be able to review the statistics from the Communications view.