The Complete Guide to Church Text Messaging Solutions

If you oversee your church’s marketing and community outreach efforts, you understand the importance of affordable and effective means of relaying information to your members. For example, maybe you’d like to spread the word about a prayer request, announce an upcoming church event, or even send inspirational biblical quotes. When that’s the case, it’s time to turn to texting for churches.

Church text message marketing offers a cost-effective way to communicate with your congregation. Text messages cost just pennies to send and get significantly better engagement rates than other marketing channels, including email marketing. Although email can effectively reach your audience, only 21% of marketing emails are opened by the recipient. An internal EZ Texting study showed that 98% of people who received text messages from our texting platform read them.

But before you pick the first cheap church texting service you come across and start sending texts to your contacts, know that not all texting services are created equal. You will need a reliable, responsive, and easy-to-use platform with a robust feature set, friendly customer support, and a good price. Poorly managed texting solutions have the potential to miscommunicate, which for religious organizations can often result in confusion that goes beyond momentary inconvenience. It can mean folks show up at canceled events, meet at the wrong location, or, even worse, deposit food pantry donations at last year’s drop-off point.

EZ Texting has been a leader in the church text messaging space for over a decade not only because we offer low-cost testing options but also because we have been able to help religious organizations quickly adapt to technology and communications trends that affect how their group functions. We’ve helped hundreds of churches and religious organizations better communicate with their members and have the happy customers to prove it.

The Complete Guide to Church Text Messaging

Before we dive into our guide to church texting, let’s address some of your frequently asked questions regarding church text message marketing.

Why is church texting important?

Church texting is important because it helps you stay connected with your congregation, whether they are in the pews or not. With church texting services, you can send reminders about upcoming church events, share news, collect donations, provide customer service, and build relationships with your members.

What are the benefits of using church texting?

The main benefit of using church texting is that it provides a cost-effective way of instantaneously communicating with your congregation. Because your texts are delivered straight to your members’ mobile phones, it’s easy and convenient to contact them, whether you’re sharing an urgent announcement or sending them a reminder. This method of communication also has high engagement rates, making it one of the best avenues for interacting with your congregation outside of church.

What are the legal considerations for using church texting?

Your church text marketing messages must comply with the CAN-SPAM Act and other marketing laws. This means you cannot send unsolicited or spammy messages. Instead, you must obtain permission before texting members of your congregation, so when sending church texts, be sure to provide opt-in and opt-out options at all times.

What are some tips for using church texting effectively?

Some tips for using church texting effectively include keeping your messages short and concise, using clear and easy-to-understand language, avoiding slang and spammy content, proofreading your messages before sending them, and respecting your recipients’ privacy.

What are some of the best church texting services?

Some of the best mass texting services for churches include EZ Texting, ChurchCast, Text in Church, TextMagic, and Flocknote, to name a few. Follow along to learn more about the benefits of using these church texting platforms to communicate with your congregation.

The 5 Best Church Texting Solutions for Budget-Minded Congregations

If you are just getting started with texting for churches, check out our Beginner's Guide to Church Text Messaging and our free Church Text Messaging Playbook, which includes 21 message templates you can use to help get started today. Then, check out the following five church texting apps as you investigate how text marketing may benefit your congregation. These budget-friendly church texting services let you quickly and conveniently communicate with your members without breaking the bank:

1. EZ Texting

Searching for an affordable church texting service? Look no further than EZ Texting. It’s a leader in the text messaging service space and has helped more than 210,000 customers. Church customers are often surprised by the user-friendly platform. A long list of useful features for churches includes unlimited groups, teammate manager, keywords, drip campaigns, automated reminders, and two-way texting, which allows for secure 1:1 text conversations.

Notable church customers include Saddleback Church (yes, that's Rick Warren's megachurch) and Third Reform Church. Over 450 customers have left reviews on G2 Crowd with an average of 4.5 stars (out of a 5-star total), and over 140 reviewers on Capterra delivered an average of 4.3 stars.

2. ChurchCast

ChurchCast is a multi-channel communications platform designed to provide churches with voice, email, and SMS message capabilities. ChurchCast is a branch of High Ground Solutions, a company that provides various technological tools for Business, Higher Education, EMS, Government, Non-profits, and Ministries. This church texting software offers message translation, keyword texting, and Alertus and Panic Button systems integrations. Currently, no testimonials or case studies for ChurchCast are available on their website.

3. Text in Church

Founded in 2013, Text In Church is the newest platform on our list. Two reviews on G2 Crowd averaged 4.5/5 stars. Some of the features of this church texting platform include email capabilities, group management, integrations with Planning Center, and automated workflows. There are several testimonials on their website. Church customers include Fellowship Church, The Table, and Good News Church.

4. TextMagic

TextMagic is a UK-based business with a unique pay-as-you-go pricing model with no monthly obligations. The company has an average of 4.3 out of 5 stars on G2Crowd with 27 reviews. There are no church-related reviews or case studies available on their website. TextMagic features include two-way SMS chat, SMS distribution lists, email to SMS, virtual mobile numbers, and a Zapier SMS integration.

5. Flocknote

Flocknote is a text messaging email tool created for ministries, churches, and other community organizations. The company averages 4.6 out of 5 on G2Crowd with 53 reviews. There are no church-related reviews or case studies available on their website. Flocknote is 100% employee-owned, believes in ditching advertising and social media for email marketing and mass texting, and growing by customer referrals, not advertising.

How Bulk Text Messaging Works for Churches

Now that you know a few ways to use text messaging for your church, let’s go over bulk text messaging and some of the primary terms and features you will use to implement your messaging plans.

Short Codes & Keywords

What are short codes and keywords concerning text messaging services? Short codes are five or six-digit numbers used to send and receive bulk text messages. For instance, (fictitious) Grace Church might put a sign at the welcome center saying, “Text ‘GCUPDATES’ to 858585 to receive church updates and event notifications.” In that church texting example, “GCUPDATES” is the keyword, and “858585” is the short code. Everyone who texts GCUPDATES to 858585 will be subscribed to updates from Grace Church.

While the “UPDATES” keyword is commonly used, other churches are getting creative with keywords to interact with members and visitors.

Saddleback Church, for instance, recently ran a trivia contest before their Easter services. Attendees were encouraged to text in codes corresponding to various answers (SB1, SB2, etc.). When they texted in their answer to the various questions, an automated text response encouraged them to sign up for alerts and notifications from the church.

Read the full Saddleback Church case study.

Reports

Successful church text messaging includes time spent monitoring data as you go and adjusting to future campaigns. The best bulk text messaging services include easy-to-use and intuitive reporting features to see what’s working and what isn’t. These reports should give you options to change the types of reports you view, including campaigns, keywords, and contacts, and tools to adjust the data date range in view. This image is a sample screenshot from our reporting interface.

Scheduling

One of the benefits of SMS messaging services is that you can schedule messages to go out at any date and time. So, if you want to send a reminder to attend a service on Sunday morning, you don’t have to be in front of a computer when the text goes out. Use this feature to schedule important reminders and ensure that messages are sent out at the time and intervals that make the most sense for your congregation.

The EZ Texting platform makes scheduling group texts as easy as clicking on the “Schedule” bar and selecting a date and time!

SMS and MMS

Mass text messaging services offer both SMS and MMS functionality in message campaigns. SMS messages, which are capped at 160 characters, should be used for brief and important information, such as event reminders, service cancellations, and venue updates. MMS texts, including up to 1600 characters and images or videos, can add flavor to other messages. However, remember that not all rich media files will reach each contact. MMS texts cost more than SMS messages, so look at the pricing details before sending media-rich messages.

Getting Congregants to Opt-in

Remember, bulk text messaging is a permission-based activity. Just because you have someone’s phone number doesn’t mean you have permission to send them mass texts.

The best text message marketing strategies worldwide are useless unless your contacts have permitted you to send text messages, otherwise known as “opting in.” Let’s review a few approaches churches are taking to help encourage their congregants to opt-in.

Delivering Sermon Outlines During the Service

One creative way churches use to get attendees to opt-in to their text messages is to use a text messaging platform to deliver sermon notes during the service. For instance, before the service starts, you can post a message on the screen to “Text ‘SERMONNOTES’ to 858585 to get today’s sermon outline sent to your phone.” When an attendee text in, an automated follow-up message delivers the sermon outline and asks the recipient if they’d like to receive future church updates.

Putting It in the Bulletin

Use your printed bulletin to cross-promote your text messaging service. Devote a bulletin section on an ongoing basis to get members and guests to opt-in.

Mentioning Text Services in Emails and Social Posts

If your church uses email or social media to stay in touch with congregants, occasionally mention your text updates on these platforms. Once folks have opted in, you can do the reverse and use text messaging to promote the email and social channels to ensure all your followers see updates regardless of where their eyes may be online.

Including Text Mentions in Announcements

Carve out just a short moment during announcements to promote your text updates. Stress that text messaging is the best way to ensure you can alert members of last-minute changes, cancellations, etc. For example, make a statement like, “We’d love for you to attend the Wednesday night men’s fellowship. Don’t forget to sign up for our text updates to get reminders and updates on events like these. Text ‘GCUPATES’ to 858585 now to subscribe.”

Making Mention In Visitor Packets

If your church hands out visitor packets or gift bags, include a note touting the benefits of subscribing to text updates. You can even set up a drip campaign to provide more information about your church's programs and philosophy. For example, you may include a note that states, “If you’d like to learn more about our congregation, text ‘NEWVISITOR’ to 858585, and we’ll send info about our activities and beliefs.”

Resource Stewardship: Evaluating the Efficacy and Cost of Text Messaging for Churches

Because resources can be limited and an emphasis is placed on the wise use of funds in churches, investing in a church text marketing service is a big decision that you should consider. In this section, we'll compare bulk text messaging with other marketing channels that can perform some of the same tasks.

But first, how much does church texting cost? The cost of church texting varies depending on the service provider you select and what features you want. You may find free church texting services that suit your needs, but you will also come across more expensive yet robust church text messaging services that better align with your goals. With so many affordable church texting services available, you’re certain to find the ideal one for you and your church.

Text Messaging vs. Church Mobile Apps: As you consider how to stay connected with your congregation, consider how many people will use the channel. Church mobile apps have some nice features but realize that only a few people will download and use the app.

Remember that all modern mobile phones come equipped with text messaging capabilities out of the box, so members don't have to go to an app store, find the app, download it, and learn how to use it. Some mobile apps include a text alert service as an add-on, but only a small percentage of your attendees will download the app and set up alerts.

Costs for templated church mobile apps average about $200 for a one-time setup and $50 per month in ongoing fees. Customized mobile apps will easily top $10,000 for setup and will require a considerable investment to maintain.

Text Messaging vs. Email

Email has a place to serve in almost any organization's outreach strategy, churches included. Some of your contacts will prefer to use email to keep up with church happenings rather than other channels. But remember that many of your younger or more tech-savvy contacts will opt for text over email, with a growing percentage of older generations prefer text.

Emails can get lost in a flood of non-personal inbox correspondence. Most members consider church messages to be more personal in nature and prefer text messaging as their personal communication channel. Read rates are much higher for text over email partly because messages are shorter, so recipients know they will not have to spend a long time reading them.

And finally, texts are consumed more immediately than email—90% are read in the first three minutes. Text will be a better channel for time-sensitive alerts such as service cancellations.

Costs for email marketing from MailChimp, one of the industry leaders, can range from free for limited functionality and lists with up to 2,000 recipients to $75 per month for the full feature set and 10,000 contacts. Incrementally, the price steps up to $225 per month for 30,000 contacts, and so forth.

Text Messaging vs. Social Media

Social media can be an effective way to spread information to members and grab the attention of new prospective attendees. By posting interesting, relevant, and timely material, you can engage your current fans and get them to share this content with their social circle.

Again, remember, only a small percentage of your contacts will see your organic (posts with content that you create) posts on Facebook and Twitter. While you can boost these posts by paying for advertising, you don't know who and how many will see them. You will be at the mercy of the algorithm of whichever social platform you choose to use. You will also have to hope that your members will regularly use these social channels to see updates and other last-minute changes.

So, like email, social media has a place in church outreach. But text messaging can serve a different purpose and be a better channel for messages that are more urgent and immediate in nature. In some ways, you can think of text messaging like the old FedEx slogan, "When it absolutely, positively has to be there…". You can rely on text messaging to deliver when you have to be in touch with your congregation right now.

Although there is no financial cost associated with organic posts on social media, time and resources must be spent to properly deploy messages. Each social platform has a unique interface, not to mention image specifications. Depending on the size of your congregation, you may have members across Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and TikTok, and reaching all of them at once means posting across these platforms. Finally, boosted or promoted social posts can cost anywhere from $50 to hundreds of dollars, depending on your following size.

How to Find the Right Text Messaging Platform for Your Church

We've been helping churches grow and maintain close ties with their members for over a decade. So, we've talked with many church leaders to understand what they need most from a bulk text messaging service. Here are some considerations as you try to find the best texting service for your church.

How do I get started with church texting?

To get started with church texting, it helps to do your research. Look into some of the best church texting services and explore their features to determine if they align with your goals and budget. For instance, a simple solution might do the trick for a small-scale church, but a larger congregation might need more bells and whistles. Furthermore, when researching church text messaging marketing platforms, ensure they’re easy to use and work with other churches.

Make Sure It's Easy to Use

Bulk text messaging is not a complicated process. So the text messaging platform interface shouldn't be complicated or hard to use. Over the years, we've worked to make sending mass texts easy through innovation, user testing, and analytical research. As a church administrator, you have enough to do already. Trying to master an unnecessarily difficult application shouldn't be something you must add to your plate.

Make Sure They Work with Other Churches

As you know, churches are different from all other types of organizations. They work with sensitive subjects and passionate people while carefully following non-profit legal guidelines. Ensure your provider understands the factors that will impact your texting outreach. One easy way to find out if a platform regularly works with churches is to look for church text messaging case studies on their website. Another way is to ask if the platform offers pre-set templates for church messages.

If you'd like to see if our platform is easy to use and take a peek at our church text messaging templates, you can start a free trial today. Our sign-up process is simple, even for those who do not consider themselves tech or digitally savvy. Most church trials take less than five minutes to set up, a testimony to their ease.