Texting at Easter
* Updated on 3/28/23
With Easter quickly approaching, we put together some best practices and ideas for using texting to increase visitor experience and in-service engagement. Sure, texting is great for promoting your Easter services, but it can also be helpful in increasing engagement during service with live polls. If you're not sure what you can do with Clearstream polls, it's worth watching this video.
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Table of Contents
Texting Best Practices
Here are some tips for ensuring a lower opt-out rate, higher engagement with your people, and good message deliverability with carriers - yes, carriers have spam filters, which you don’t want your messages being caught by!
Use branded URLs. - This is a big one for not getting caught by carrier spam filters. If you need to include a link in your text, use a branded URL (like your church website). If you want to shorten your URL, stay away from public shorteners like Bitly. We conveniently provide a branded URL shortener for you in Clearstream.
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 it. Does it read well?
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.
Emojis - they're a great way to draw attention to your message, but don't go overboard! One or two is more than enough in a text. 😀 🙂 🙃 🙁 🫣 🤢 🤮
Engage with a Poll
Actively involve your church by creating a poll. A simple question can encourage connection during the sermon, and conversation afterwards. You can put your poll up on the screen as people walk into service, encourage everyone to text in during your sermon, or ask the congregation to provide feedback on their way out. Check out the example below.
When creating your Easter poll, consider what broad and relatable questions can help your greeters get the conversation going. The question itself doesn't have to bring about deep theological discussion, though the debate over sour vs sweet candy can get spicy. You might even present the poll to reveal results during the service. Or, have your congregation "vote" during the sermon and watch together in real time as the results roll in.
A few poll ideas:
How frequently do you attend [your church name]?
Who do you resonate with in the Easter story?
How are you celebrating Easter this year?
Scannable QR Codes to Initiate Text Workflows
Create a QR code and add it to your bulletin & signage. Your guests (and members) can scan the code with their phones to quickly text a keyword and receive the info they're looking for.
Copy This Simple Visitor Workflow
Keywords are simple, but can be a very effective touch point for visitors. And they allow you to automatically follow up with visitors with a series of texts. We've created a couple keyword workflows to show how they work. Check out the videos below to learn what you can do!
On Easter morning, there will likely be more visitors than you have on a typical Sunday, and it can be challenging to personally meet each of your guests. Make it easy for them to get connected by providing a digital connect card to gather their information. Guests simply text in a keyword and fill out the brief form. Then, you have the info you need to follow up with them, and you can also push that information into your Planning Center, Rock, or CCB account.
Once they've filled out the form, it's always a great idea to thank your guests for coming, and let them know what they can expect next! Will someone follow up this week? Should they expect a call from a pastor? Let them know with a follow-up text.
Advanced Easter Workflow
When there are a lot of things happening at your church, it can be a challenge to share all the details efficiently. Using a Send Menu, you can give a single call-to-action for all information. Guests or members, virtual or in-person, everyone can text in the same keyword. When they text in, they'll receive a list of options to choose from.
Beneath each option, create a unique set of texts and steps for those who select that choice.
First-time visitors - Send a digital connect card, and let them know you're here to answer any questions they have.
Someone just accepted Christ - Set a text to automatically send, letting them know a pastor will be in contact this week to connect with them!
Members are ready to join a small group - Respond with a link so they can sign up.
New Volunteers - Thank them for their willingness to serve, and connect them with the ministry they're most interested in.
Send a vCard so visitors can save your contact info
A vCard is a contact card that has your church information prefilled (phone number, email, physical address, photo, etc). You can attach a vCard to your text to share your church's contact information, and let your visitors easily save it to their phones. If you don't already have a vCard there are a lot of third-party apps you can use to create one, such as Apple's Contacts app.
If you have ideas you want to implement, but aren't sure how to set things up, reach out to our team. We'd love to answer any questions for you. 😊
We hope you have a joyful Resurrection Sunday!