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New Message Tool

Send a Text

Important: Text messages are a great way to communicate, but proceed with caution when sending bulk text messages – nobody likes spam! Be sure to keep texts relevant to your audience, let people know they can opt out, and honor those opt-out requests. We recommend asking your audience to opt-in prior to sending your first bulk text message.
  1. Launch the New Message Tool:
    • If you want to search for each individual to select as a recipient, go to your Home page, and click the My Messages tab.
    • If you want to select a group of people as recipients, go to the relevant page, and make your selection. Then, from the Actions menu, select Message.
    The New Message Tool opens.
Prepare your text:
  1. For Message Type, select Text Message.
    Note: If your system is not configured to send text messages through Twilio, you won't see the Message Type options. You will only be able to send an email.
  2. If you haven't already selected your recipients, you can enter each person's name or click the magnifying glass icon to search for and select individuals. See Message Recipients for additional options.
  3. Click the Recipients drop-down list to review your options.
  4. To send the message to the the parents of the selected recipients (that is, any Head of Household who has a valid email address and is not inactive/deceased as well as any Non-Custodial Parent associated via Other Households), select Send to Parents.
  5. Enter the content of your message. This is required to send the message.
    • Click the Insert menu to include any Templates or Fields.
    • Keep an eye on the number of characters you have remaining for your message.
  6. If needed, click the Attachments tab to upload files to attach to your message.
Review your text:
  1. Read over your message content.
  2. To change the From SMS Number, click the Advanced tab and select a number from the list.
  3. If you need to save your message so you can return to it later, click Send > Save As Draft.
    The draft is saved under the My Drafts view on the My Messages tab of your Home page.
Send your text:
  1. To schedule your message to send at a later time, click the Advanced tab and enter the date and time for Schedule Send.
  2. To send a copy of the message to yourself for review before sending it to your recipients, click Send > Send To Me.
    You'll receive a copy of the message. If you included any merge fields, they will be rendered using the first Recipient's information. Files added as Attachments are included, but files added as Links are not.
  3. When you're ready to send the message to the selected recipients, click Send > Send.

The Message sends within about five minutes of clicking Send (unless you've scheduled it to send in the future).

Want to see who actually received your message after it was sent? Go to Communications > Messages and check out the Action Status.

Note About Replies: If you send a text message using the New Message Tool and a recipient replies to it, the reply is logged in Twilio. By default, it is not recorded in MinistryPlatform. However, you can set up a webhook on the Twilio side to send any replies to the Platform for easy reference. This will only log the incoming message.

Also note that no automatic response message is sent to the recipient if they reply to your text message. You can work with Twilio to update the auto-response sent to people who respond to texts sent via the New Message Tool. You can also work with a third party to create a custom web service that could do something more custom, like forward the message onto another number or auto-respond based on various criteria. For more on auto-responses, please see Twilio's article, Set up an SMS Auto-Responder with TwilioStudio. Reach out to Twilio Support for assistance!

Text - Message Tab

Define what you want to say in your text message.

New Message Tool with Message Type selected as Text Message showing all options available for texts

1 - Message Type
Select how you'd like to send your message, either by email or text.
2 - To
If launched from a selection, the selected records are grouped here. You can click the search icon to select additional records. Each individual will receive a unique email and cannot see who else received the same message.
3 - Recipients
This list presents records related to Views for Subpages associated with the selected Page. The selected View will be applied to the selection, allowing you to further filter the records you send to. For more information, see Message Recipients.
4 - Send to Parents
Selecting this checkbox sends the message to the parents of the recipients. "Parent" is defined as any household member with Household Position of "Head of Household" who has a valid mobile phone number and is not inactive/deceased. It also includes any Head of Household associated via Other Households with Household Type "Non-Custodial Parent" unless the relationship is end-dated. If the selected recipient is a Head of Household, they will not receive an email, nor will the other Head in their Household.
Note: If the parent has opted out of receiving bulk emails, they are not included when the message is sent. To include them, you may consider selecting the Include recipients who have opted out of bulk email option on the Advanced tab.
5 - Insert Menu
Templates:

You can select a Template as a starting place for your message. This list is organized based on the Template's Pertains to Page and the Page your recipient list was selected from. Any edits you make to a Template in the New Message Tool only apply to this specific Message and do not update the Template record. Templates are available to users with at least Read level permissions on the Templates page. Users will see Templates they have access to based on the Template User and Template User Group fields on the Template record. For more information on using templates, see Templates.

Fields:

We do not recommend using merge fields in text messages because it will cause every text to be a different length. This could affect the appearance and cost of sending your texts. But, if needed, you can include different types of merge fields in your message.
  • With Contact Fields, you can personalize your message for the Recipient. For example, the [Nickname] field automatically adds the Recipient's Nickname to the message.
  • The From User Fields are similar to Contact Fields but they merge in values related to the Sender (the current authenticated user or delegate of user) rather than Recipient. For example, the [From_User_Nickname] field automatically adds the Sender's Nickname.
  • With Data Fields, you can add page-specific data to a message.

For more information on using these fields, see Contact, From User, and Data Fields.

6 - Character count
Text messages sent via the New Message Tool have a limit of 160 characters for the body of a message. The character count indicates how many characters you have used. Wondering why you only get 160 characters?
  • It is industry standard and best practice.
  • It respects your recipients.
  • It reduces the likelihood of your mass texts being flagged as spam.
  • It increases the processing rate and thus the speed at which Twilio can deliver your texts.
  • It saves you money. Math says that one segment x 5,000 texts is half the cost of two segments x 5,000 texts - that adds up fast! See the "Texting Segments" section on the Twilio integration page to learn more.
  • It forces you to be brief and to the point. Think tweet, not blog!

Need more room to fully express your message? Get creative, use abbreviations, drop the formal greetings and salutations, and create a short link to direct recipients to more information! And if your message still doesn't fit, the Email option is just a toggle away.

7 - Send / Save
Hover over the Send button to see the Save as Draft, Send to Me, and Send options. A message can be saved as a draft at any time. Once complete, a message can be sent.
Note: If no Contact Fields or Data Fields are used in the message, duplicate texts will automatically be removed. For example, if a husband and wife have the same mobile phone number in each of their Contact records and both of their records are in the selection, one text would be sent to that number. (The Send count shown is calculated prior to duplicates being removed.)

To receive a copy of the message for review before sending to all recipients, select Send to Me. If you included merge fields, they will be rendered using the first recipient's information. Attached files are also included. This gives you an accurate preview of what you're about to send!

Note: Replies: If you send a text message using the New Message Tool and a recipient replies to it, the reply is logged in Twilio. By default, it is not recorded in MinistryPlatform. However, you can set up a webhook on the Twilio side to send any replies to the Platform for easy reference. This will only log the incoming message.

Also note that no automatic response message is sent to the recipient if they reply to your text message. You may be able to configure Twilio to automatically send responses to incoming text messages. Review their documentation or reach out to Twilio Support for assistance!

Text - Attachments Tab

Add files to send with your text message.

Attachments tab of the New Message Tool showing examples of files uploaded and added as attachments

Did you know you can send attachments to a text? Well, you can if you're using the New Message Tool to send them. The Attached Files tab of the New Message Tool allows you to attach, open, and remove file attachments.

When attaching, you can:

  • Add as a Link.
  • Add as a Attachment.

If you have multiple attachments, you can even mix and match! When at least one attachment has been added, a current count of attachments is visible via the badge icon overlaid on the Attached Files tab. This icon will also display a count if a selected Template contains attachments.

Text - Advanced Tab

Manage details of your text message or schedule it for later.

Advanced tab showing options for From SMS Number, Schedule Send, and Bulk Text

1 - From SMS Number
Indicates which Outbound SMS Number the text message will be sent from. This is the default number set on the Outbound SMS Numbers page. If multiple numbers are configured, the From SMS Number drop-down list includes additional numbers. Users have the option to send from Outbound SMS numbers associated with a User Group they are in.
2 - Schedule Send
Schedule the text message to be sent at a future date/time according to the authenticated user's timezone set in their user account. If no value is set for the user, the Domain timezone is used. You can schedule Messages to send within the next six months. For steps, see Schedule a Message.
3 - Bulk Text
If absolutely necessary, select this check box to include recipients whose Contact records have Do Not Text set to Yes. By default, this option is cleared and these recipients are not included.
CAUTION: We recommend you do this sparingly or only for very important messages that those who have opted out really need to be aware of.
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Last updated: May 17, 2024