Church leadership is about guiding, connecting, and supporting your patrons. However, you can’t limit this connection to physical visits. You must match your pace with your patrons, which is impossible without digital tools. Fortunately, SMS for churches exists to help you do just that.
Of course, creating social media pages for your church also works. But it won’t create that personalized connection your patrons crave. People on a spiritual journey will want to reach church leaders promptly if they need answers.
If you’ve never tried this marketing strategy, it’s natural to feel overwhelmed. But that’s what this article is for. So, let’s discuss texting for churches, starting with the benefits and ending with some best practices!
Benefits of Bulk SMS for Churches
There’s a reason why SMS is a popular marketing tool for small businesses and institutions, and churches are no exception. Even in this connected age, some patrons don’t always have access to the Internet. However, everyone has SMS on their phones, no matter how old-fashioned.
This means bulk SMS for churches will reach your congregation without restrictions.
Moreover, using SMS as a two-way communication tool can help your congregation reach you anytime they want. Making this process easy will make them feel connected. But this two-way communication also means you’ll have each patron’s chat history.
Using this history, you can judge their personality and behavior to personalize communications with them. You can also integrate your texting service with Church Community Builder.
Church Community Builder is software churches can use to manage their communications and engage their patrons. You can also use it to gather patron data, which can help with personalization.
Besides, two-way texting increases engagement. People can easily reach you, removing any hesitation they might feel.
Additionally, the ability to automate mass texting makes it even more favorable for churches. Being a church leader, you probably have to juggle multiple daily tasks. Manually sending individual messages can cause problems in this case.
But with automation, you can schedule messages and create triggers. This can save you a lot of time and make communication more effective.
5 Real-World Use Cases for a Church Texting Service
Businesses often use SMS to promote their products and services. But running a church isn’t the same as running a business. There are no products to sell and no customers to win.
So, then, how do churches use SMS? If you’re considering investing in a church texting service, you might be curious about this question.
Fortunately, there are several ways to keep your congregation engaged. From welcoming first-time guests to sharing biblical quotes, here are five real-world use cases for church SMS.
1. Service and Event Reminders
Churches hold services and events regularly. A huge part of church leadership is filling these gatherings with as many attendees as possible. Messaging for churches can help with this task.
Sending service and event reminders ensures attendees don’t forget about the gathering. It also makes a good impression and makes the attendees feel cared for. You can even schedule these messages to take the workload off your shoulders.
It can be as simple as “A quick reminder for [Event/Service]” followed by the date, venue, and time.
2. Scriptures and Prayer Trains
Prayer and faith shouldn’t only be for Sundays or physical church visits. People who want to keep their faith alive look up to church leaders for this. Therefore, finding ways to elevate your congregation’s faith falls on your shoulders.
Again, SMS can come to the rescue. Use daily or weekly texts to send scriptures from the Bible. You can even align these texts with next week’s or previous week’s sermons.
On the other hand, you can start prayer trains and encourage patrons to forward these texts. As a result, patrons will feel rewarded, engaged, and guided.
3. Volunteer and Prayer Requests
Churches often have sub-groups that participate in activities other than praying. These activities frequently include charity and volunteer work. If your church also has such groups, you might need volunteers.
In this case, you can use SMS to reach out to your community and request people to contribute.
State the emergency and give proper details on where and how to participate. You can even add a relevant scripture from the Bible to provoke people’s faith and encourage them to volunteer.
In addition to monetary and physical help, you can request prayers for such activities. For example, if a member has a medical emergency, you can ask fellow members to pray for them.
4. Check-Ins and Reflection Encouragements
Praying isn’t just about repeating Bible verses. You must also provide context and encourage patrons to reflect on those verses. A simple text message is a great way to initiate this process.
You can take a verse from the previous sermon and ask patrons their thoughts. Ask them how they plan to learn from the particular verse and implement it in their lives.
Moreover, you can take this opportunity to check in with patrons who haven’t visited the church for some time. Share verses that would encourage them to continue their spiritual journey.
Welcome messages might seem insignificant, but they are a major part of SMS marketing. As mentioned, church leadership is about making your patrons feel comfortable.
Welcoming first-time visitors through text is the first step towards making them feel guided and supported. It creates a great first impression and sets the tone for your upcoming messages.
Apart from welcoming, use text messages to convey important messages. For example, you must inform patrons if you’ve initiated new church plants. They might not see the message if you do this through email marketing or social media. Therefore, text messaging is the best choice here.
Use This Engaging Sample SMS for Church Invitation To Get More Patrons
Church texting services often have templates and tips to help you create engaging messages. But that doesn’t mean you should leave everything to the app. You have to put your own expertise in the message as well because you know your patrons better. Without that personal touch, they might feel distanced, killing the whole purpose of SMS.
Invitations are text messages that need to be the most engaging. You need to tell patrons why they should attend your event or service in as few words as possible. If you’re unsure how to do that, here’s a sample SMS for church invitation to help.
“Dear [Name,] you’re invited to experience the love of God at [Church Name] this Sunday! Join us for a powerful and uplifting worship at [Time.]”
4 Best Practices To Follow for Effective SMS Marketing for Churches
Now that you know what SMS marketing for churches entails, let’s move on to some best practices. If you don’t follow these tips, you might not see the desired results even after writing the most engaging messages. You might even have to face legal troubles. So, here’s what you need to do.
- Follow compliance guidelines: Even though you’re spreading God’s word, you must have permission to text community members. Failing to do so is a violation of the SMS compliance guidelines. Moreover, give recipients the option to opt out of receiving your messages.
- Pay attention to segmentation: Personalization goes a long way when engaging your patrons. Segment your contact list based on demographics, history, specific problems, and interests. Then, craft separate messages for each group.
- Keep things simple: SMS isn’t like email. Here, you have to consider the character limit. So, keep things simple and get the point across as soon as possible.
- Consider timing and frequency: It’s never a good practice to bombard someone’s inbox with messages, even if they’re family. The same is true for church members. So, focus on the right time and frequency.
Frequently Asked Questions About SMS for Churches
Before we end this discussion, let’s answer some frequently asked questions about SMS for churches.
What are some common uses of SMS by churches?
Some common uses of SMS by churches include invitations, prayer and volunteer requests, prayer trains, reflections, scriptures, and schedule information.
How can churches benefit from using SMS?
Churches can benefit from using SMS by enhancing church communications and increasing church attendance, engagement, and patronage. That’s because SMS is a cost-effective and preferred communication channel.
How to write a reminder message for a church program?
Focus on clarity and conciseness when writing a reminder message for a church program. For example, “Don’t forget! Our [Program Name] is TOMORROW at [Time]. Join us for [Brief description]. See you there!”
Invest in SMS Marketing To Fill Your Church With Patrons
Overall, SMS for churches allows you to reach your patron’s mobile device directly. Therefore, there’s a greater chance that they’ll see this message. This opportunity to send them reminders, reflections, invitations, and scriptures will uplift them spiritually.
Now that you know more about SMS marketing, it’s time to use them efficiently. With Beambox, you can automate SMS marketing campaigns and get high open rates. You can also expect high levels of engagement and conversion rates.
To find out more about how Beambox could help your business build lasting customer connections, start your free trial!
