Who makes for a good SMS Client? Churches that's who.

laird · 15th Apr 2012, 04:05 PM

Sent a letter out to several churches offering them a 30-day trial of SMS Broadcasting for their congregation. Only one took me up on the offer. At the time of this writing, they haven't signed up to extend their service, but they are using me during this trial period and have made recommendations to other pastors...

Long story short, I just picked up 3 churches for my SMS text broadcasting service.

Church 1: 3 keywords - one keyword for the main congregation (service announcements) and two keywords for their ministries.

Church 2: 2 keywords - one keyword for the main congregation (service announcements) and one keyword for their youth group.

Church 3: 1 keyword - main congregation (service announcements).

Key points to address when speaking with pastors and ministers:

1) This does not replace their neighborhood outreach marketing campaigns.
2) Text Broadcasting reduces current cost expenditures (live outbound reminder calls, printed/mailed flyers or postcards) and has a huge open rate.
3) Can be delivered exactly when you want rather than dealing with the postal service or outbound calls going to voicemail.
4) They can create different "groups" to send texts to specific people rather than the entire congregation.

The cool part is that youth ministers love this stuff and talk to other youth ministers. Pure authentic referral marketing.

Darrett · 15th Apr 2012, 05:12 PM

Wow, this is an amazing idea!

So how exactly would you approach a pastor/youth pastor and discuss SMS marketing?

gallus · 15th Apr 2012, 05:28 PM

Bless you laird, that is a great idea.
Many thanks for sharing

laird · 15th Apr 2012, 05:48 PM

Originally Posted by Darrett

Wow, this is an amazing idea!

So how exactly would you approach a pastor/youth pastor and discuss SMS marketing?

They haven't signed up, however, one of their youth pastors shared the info at a meeting last week with other youth pastors and the next thing you know, I get contacted. Granted, they wanted the free offer too, but I shared with them that was a one time offer to show how effective SMS Broadcasting is for religious organizations.

What's funny is they, the youth pastors, sold the other pastors on the idea. I did no heavy lifting.

BrianFL · 16th Apr 2012, 12:58 AM

Originally Posted by laird

They haven't signed up, however, one of their youth pastors shared the info at a meeting last week with other youth pastors and the next thing you know, I get contacted. Granted, they wanted the free offer too, but I shared with them that was a one time offer to show how effective SMS Broadcasting is for religious organizations.

What's funny is they, the youth pastors, sold the other pastors on the idea. I did no heavy lifting.

That's a pretty ingenious referral marketing idea. One sells the others, and then the others sell the decision makers.

I'm guilty of not seeing opportunity earlier, but I know the churches I attend have more than a few business owner connections. A testimonial and referral from them could mean a lot. I'm sure this is the case for others as well.

DiamondLaneDesigns · 16th Apr 2012, 06:50 PM

Thats a great idea for a niche market! Opens the door for other marketing ideas as churches suffer congregation losses.

beeswarn · 16th Apr 2012, 07:02 PM

Laird, I'm interested in this market in my area.

Has any church in your pipeline passed the trial phase and converted to a paying client yet?

beeswarn · 16th Apr 2012, 07:43 PM

Thank you for answering so quickly.

What is their cost to convert to a paying client? Do you charge a setup fee? What is your proposed first-month charge?

beeswarn · 16th Apr 2012, 07:57 PM

Thanks again. Keep up the good work.

madeinheaven · 24th Apr 2012, 02:16 PM

I've been trying to tell people about churches for a long time. I've had more success with churches than any other niche. Plus it lead up to doing other things for them too, Such as Websites, Fliers and mobile websites.

The Church has more money than most mom and pop store and a budget of a large corporation. They are a business, they have to advertise and market just like any other business.

ejunkie · 24th Apr 2012, 03:33 PM

This is a nice insightful info. Thanks for sharing.

I stay in India and here there are like 100s of religions and millions of religious centers & congregations... i am just brimming with ideas now :-)

Young Samurai · 24th Apr 2012, 07:20 PM

Thanks for sharing this degree of detailed info.

This thread has sparked a lot of ideas.

ejunkie · 25th Apr 2012, 06:25 PM

Originally Posted by laird

This segment of my business really surprised me...

One of the original youth pastors asked me last week if we could meet. We talked for a bit and he asked if he could be a sales rep for me in return for commission (plus residuals). I agreed since he's got the connections in this area.

He lets me know that Monday-Thursday of this week, a pretty large religious event was going on and he planned on talking to pastors there. (1,100 pastors in attendance. Speakers, Training, Booths, etc.)

He made 3-fold brochures and brought them with him. (He's does web design and print work.)

He's been there Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday (today).

On Monday, he had 50 conversations, 23 want to have additional consultations/information and 8 want to start the service.

On Tuesday, he had 30 conversations, 11 want additional consultations/information and 5 want to start the service.

He just let me know that today so far he's had 25 conversations, 18 want additional consultations/information and 5 want to start the service.

Now granted, none of these are signed, sealed and delivered - and churches tend to have to speak with their committees before paying someone money (especially for marketing) so they may take 30 days to come into fruition, BUT, I'm pretty darn happy...18 new clients.

All this from ONE event. And I didn't have to attend.

That's a great development laird!

Congrats. You have an excellent plan going there. And may I add the young pastor is admirably entrepreneurial. So you have the right evangelist for your business & brand :-) Hallelujah!

earman · 1st May 2012, 04:59 PM

Laird

How much are you charging them after the free trail?
What is included for that price

laird · 1st May 2012, 05:30 PM

$249/month for one keyword and 3,000 text messages
$25/month for each additional keyword
$.03/text overage

qu4rk · 2nd May 2012, 10:29 AM

laird-

How many times are you texting per week? Does this equate to 1 text per week (i.e. Sunday service)? And how do they get the info to you to text. Do you set it up to where they email you the text message by a certain time/date in order for the text to go out on x time/date?

laird · 2nd May 2012, 05:35 PM

Originally Posted by qu4rk

laird-

How many times are you texting per week? Does this equate to 1 text per week (i.e. Sunday service)? And how do they get the info to you to text. Do you set it up to where they email you the text message by a certain time/date in order for the text to go out on x time/date?

1 text per week per keyword.

I have them log into a client page where I have a form set-up that collects their broadcast message (message, date and time to send). I grabbed a javascript that counts the characters in the message and warns them if they go over...I give them 140 characters. The form is then emailed to me for input.

I am, however, considering getting an Avid or Lime account to handle user-level scheduling to offload time requirements on my part. I don't want to trade income for hours. That's a job again.

qu4rk · 2nd May 2012, 06:18 PM

Originally Posted by laird

1 text per week per keyword.

I have them log into a client page where I have a form set-up that collects their broadcast message (message, date and time to send). I grabbed a javascript that counts the characters in the message and warns them if they go over...I give them 140 characters. The form is then emailed to me for input.

I am, however, considering getting an Avid or Lime account to handle user-level scheduling to offload time requirements on my part. I don't want to trade income for hours. That's a job again.

Look into Twilio & SMSWordpress. Seems like your tech savy or have access to it & with a little customization, you can do simplified version of Lime/Avid for a fraction of the price.

Kevin Z · 3rd May 2012, 08:00 AM

@laird amazing imitative.

Religious groups are a great target for mobile marketing.

I love to see when people think outside the box to provide mobile marketing services to unique clients. Not only that but religious groups can see HUGE benefits in mobile marketing in general.

Keep up the great work!

samlouiseroberts · 3rd May 2012, 10:03 AM

Hi Laird.. this is a great marketing idea. But it would be a hard method if you don't know anyone in the church. But really it's a great idea!

laird · 3rd May 2012, 05:56 PM

Originally Posted by Kevin Z

@laird amazing imitative.

Religious groups are a great target for mobile marketing.

I love to see when people think outside the box to provide mobile marketing services to unique clients. Not only that but religious groups can see HUGE benefits in mobile marketing in general.

Keep up the great work!

I hope you meant imaginative rather than imitative. I'm unaware of anyone else targeting this vertical and sharing this info on WF. Lol.

I'm letting a single youth pastor (with lots of connections) do the sales calls and close the deals. He's enjoying it too as it helps churches get more attendees to their service and ministries...plus it gives him some nice income.

Hoping to have 40 church clients by middle of June.

xlfutur1 · 3rd May 2012, 08:23 PM

One idea is to send out a text blast every week with a recording of the sermon (or homily) to the list. I know many churches (including mine) have recordings available on their website, but its a pain to go to the desktop site and try to find it. A text could just have the link in it to the recording. So as soon as you get the text you could be listening to the sermon on your phone.

laird · 4th May 2012, 05:59 PM

xlfutur1:

One of the churches does a podcast and they copy the sermon to their website. I'm sending their SMS broadcasts with a short message and URL to the sermon. :-)

TribalStyleMarketing · 4th May 2012, 10:21 PM

Originally Posted by laird

Sent a letter out to several churches offering them a 30-day trial of SMS Broadcasting for their congregation. Only one took me up on the offer.

I'd like to see this *exact* letter that you used. All you need is one to pick it up & call, & now you've got referrals. PM me with that letter.

Great job!

xlfutur1 · 5th May 2012, 07:16 PM

Originally Posted by laird

xlfutur1:

One of the churches does a podcast and they copy the sermon to their website. I'm sending their SMS broadcasts with a short message and URL to the sermon. :-)

Yes, that's a terrific and useful app for churches. I made a short video showing how to "roll your own" app usingTwilio whereby people can get the latest homily or sermon sent to their phones any time they'd like. Very simple to set up, newbie friendly. You don't even need your own web server.

SMS Foot in the Door With Churches | Mobile Marketing | Grand Rapids, MI

thehypnoguy · 6th May 2012, 03:00 PM

Originally Posted by laird

I hope you meant imaginative rather than imitative. I'm unaware of anyone else targeting this vertical and sharing this info on WF. Lol.

I'm letting a single youth pastor (with lots of connections) do the sales calls and close the deals. He's enjoying it too as it helps churches get more attendees to their service and ministries...plus it gives him some nice income.

Hoping to have 40 church clients by middle of June.

I think he meant initiative - get ur done

Martin

WaynesWorld · 6th May 2012, 05:05 PM

Great post! I recently helped my church set up a SMS campaign. It is a great idea to bring the church together. Most of them use flyers to bring more attendees to the next congregation or special events. Now with an SMS provider, they can text everyone so that they can be in direct contact. Also, if they were having a last minute update to the church, a text is a lot more efficient than emailing everyone.

earman · 1st Jun 2012, 05:12 PM

Just wondering how many Churches you have converted to paying customers.

beeswarn · 1st Jun 2012, 05:56 PM

So am I. Let us know

laird · 2nd Jun 2012, 09:25 AM

With all follow-ups (phone, email and in-person), the youth pastor closed only 11 churches from those he spoke with at the event.

Some of the churches that originally said yes didn't get approval of their board or staff teams to allocate a budget to the program. Others just blew us off. We sent materials to the "interested" churches and followed-up with both email and phone calls.

There are other major events like this one all over the place and we're reaching out to learn more about dates, costs to attend and if they're any major SMS providers attacking this space in those respective states.

sodomojo · 2nd Jun 2012, 09:41 AM

Originally Posted by laird

With all follow-ups (phone, email and in-person), the youth pastor closed only 11 churches from those he spoke with at the event.

Some of the churches that originally said yes didn't get approval of their board or staff teams to allocate a budget to the program. Others just blew us off. We sent materials to the "interested" churches and followed-up with both email and phone calls.

There are other major events like this one all over the place and we're reaching out to learn more about dates, costs to attend and if they're any major SMS providers attacking this space in those respective states.

So you signed up 11? What is your most cost/profit for those? Great job.

laird · 2nd Jun 2012, 10:33 AM

Single keyword and 3000 texts NETS $218 per month.

Each additional keyword is $25/month. (all profit)

Each additional text beyond 3000 is $.03. ($.02 profit)

Handled via Twilio.

sodomojo · 2nd Jun 2012, 02:46 PM

Originally Posted by laird

Single keyword and 3000 texts NETS $218 per month.

Each additional keyword is $25/month. (all profit)

Each additional text beyond 3000 is $.03. ($.02 profit)

Handled via Twilio.

And you have 11 clients? Any luck in growing that? Are you letting then manage the campaigns?

15th Apr 2012, 04:05 PM	#1
laird Offline Warrior War Room Member Join Date: 2008 Location: Left Coast, USA Posts: 236 Thanks: 39 Thanked 115 Times in 47 Posts	Who makes for a good SMS Client? Churches that's who. Share on: Sent a letter out to several churches offering them a 30-day trial of SMS Broadcasting for their congregation. Only one took me up on the offer. At the time of this writing, they haven't signed up to extend their service, but they are using me during this trial period and have made recommendations to other pastors... Long story short, I just picked up 3 churches for my SMS text broadcasting service. Church 1: 3 keywords - one keyword for the main congregation (service announcements) and two keywords for their ministries. Church 2: 2 keywords - one keyword for the main congregation (service announcements) and one keyword for their youth group. Church 3: 1 keyword - main congregation (service announcements). Key points to address when speaking with pastors and ministers: 1) This does not replace their neighborhood outreach marketing campaigns. 2) Text Broadcasting reduces current cost expenditures (live outbound reminder calls, printed/mailed flyers or postcards) and has a huge open rate. 3) Can be delivered exactly when you want rather than dealing with the postal service or outbound calls going to voicemail. 4) They can create different "groups" to send texts to specific people rather than the entire congregation. The cool part is that youth ministers love this stuff and talk to other youth ministers. Pure authentic referral marketing.

15th Apr 2012, 05:12 PM	#2
Darrett Entrepreneur Join Date: 2011 Posts: 118 Thanks: 145 Thanked 10 Times in 8 Posts	Re: Who makes for a good SMS Client? Churches that's who. Share on: Wow, this is an amazing idea! So how exactly would you approach a pastor/youth pastor and discuss SMS marketing?
	If you want to reach for your dreams, first you've got to roll up your sleeves

15th Apr 2012, 05:28 PM	#3
gallus Active Warrior Join Date: 2006 Location: United Kingdom. Posts: 88 Thanks: 15 Thanked 13 Times in 12 Posts	Re: Who makes for a good SMS Client? Churches that's who. Share on: Bless you laird, that is a great idea. Many thanks for sharing

16th Apr 2012, 06:50 PM	#6
DiamondLaneDesigns Active Warrior Join Date: 2012 Posts: 32 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	Re: Who makes for a good SMS Client? Churches that's who. Share on: Thats a great idea for a niche market! Opens the door for other marketing ideas as churches suffer congregation losses.

16th Apr 2012, 07:02 PM	#7
beeswarn Advanced Warrior Join Date: 2011 Location: USA Posts: 550 Thanks: 228 Thanked 166 Times in 108 Posts	Re: Who makes for a good SMS Client? Churches that's who. Share on: Laird, I'm interested in this market in my area. Has any church in your pipeline passed the trial phase and converted to a paying client yet?

16th Apr 2012, 07:43 PM	#8
beeswarn Advanced Warrior Join Date: 2011 Location: USA Posts: 550 Thanks: 228 Thanked 166 Times in 108 Posts	Re: Who makes for a good SMS Client? Churches that's who. Share on: Thank you for answering so quickly. What is their cost to convert to a paying client? Do you charge a setup fee? What is your proposed first-month charge?

16th Apr 2012, 07:57 PM	#9
beeswarn Advanced Warrior Join Date: 2011 Location: USA Posts: 550 Thanks: 228 Thanked 166 Times in 108 Posts	Re: Who makes for a good SMS Client? Churches that's who. Share on: Thanks again. Keep up the good work.

24th Apr 2012, 02:16 PM	#10
madeinheaven Active Warrior War Room Member Join Date: 2010 Posts: 86 Thanks: 0 Thanked 15 Times in 14 Posts	Re: Who makes for a good SMS Client? Churches that's who. Share on: I've been trying to tell people about churches for a long time. I've had more success with churches than any other niche. Plus it lead up to doing other things for them too, Such as Websites, Fliers and mobile websites. The Church has more money than most mom and pop store and a budget of a large corporation. They are a business, they have to advertise and market just like any other business.

24th Apr 2012, 03:33 PM	#11
ejunkie The Mercenary War Room Member Join Date: 2011 Posts: 144 Thanks: 47 Thanked 40 Times in 29 Posts	Re: Who makes for a good SMS Client? Churches that's who. Share on: This is a nice insightful info. Thanks for sharing. I stay in India and here there are like 100s of religions and millions of religious centers & congregations... i am just brimming with ideas now :-)

24th Apr 2012, 07:20 PM	#12
Young Samurai In search of knowledge Join Date: 2010 Location: N. Ireland, the Golfing capital of the world Posts: 473 Thanks: 68 Thanked 56 Times in 48 Posts	Re: Who makes for a good SMS Client? Churches that's who. Share on: Thanks for sharing this degree of detailed info. This thread has sparked a lot of ideas.
	*Kyle*

1st May 2012, 04:59 PM	#14
earman Active Warrior Join Date: 2011 Posts: 41 Thanks: 11 Thanked 11 Times in 9 Posts	Re: Who makes for a good SMS Client? Churches that's who. Share on: Laird How much are you charging them after the free trail? What is included for that price

1st May 2012, 05:30 PM	#15
laird Offline Warrior War Room Member Join Date: 2008 Location: Left Coast, USA Posts: 236 Thanks: 39 Thanked 115 Times in 47 Posts	Re: Who makes for a good SMS Client? Churches that's who. Share on: $249/month for one keyword and 3,000 text messages $25/month for each additional keyword $.03/text overage

2nd May 2012, 10:29 AM	#16
qu4rk HyperActive Warrior Join Date: 2011 Posts: 425 Thanks: 214 Thanked 115 Times in 85 Posts	Re: Who makes for a good SMS Client? Churches that's who. Share on: laird- How many times are you texting per week? Does this equate to 1 text per week (i.e. Sunday service)? And how do they get the info to you to text. Do you set it up to where they email you the text message by a certain time/date in order for the text to go out on x time/date?

3rd May 2012, 08:00 AM	#19
Kevin Z brickandmobile.com War Room Member Join Date: 2010 Location: Toronto Posts: 309 Thanks: 60 Thanked 106 Times in 64 Posts	Re: Who makes for a good SMS Client? Churches that's who. Share on: @laird amazing imitative. Religious groups are a great target for mobile marketing. I love to see when people think outside the box to provide mobile marketing services to unique clients. Not only that but religious groups can see HUGE benefits in mobile marketing in general. Keep up the great work!
	[ brick&mobile Click here to start your Mobile Marketing business

3rd May 2012, 10:03 AM	#20
samlouiseroberts Warrior Member Join Date: 2012 Posts: 13 Thanks: 0 Thanked 3 Times in 3 Posts	Re: Who makes for a good SMS Client? Churches that's who. Share on: Hi Laird.. this is a great marketing idea. But it would be a hard method if you don't know anyone in the church. But really it's a great idea!

3rd May 2012, 08:23 PM	#22
xlfutur1 Senior Warrior Member War Room Member Join Date: 2005 Location: Michigan Posts: 1,112 Thanks: 13 Thanked 249 Times in 154 Posts	Re: Who makes for a good SMS Client? Churches that's who. Share on: One idea is to send out a text blast every week with a recording of the sermon (or homily) to the list. I know many churches (including mine) have recordings available on their website, but its a pain to go to the desktop site and try to find it. A text could just have the link in it to the recording. So as soon as you get the text you could be listening to the sermon on your phone.

4th May 2012, 05:59 PM	#23
laird Offline Warrior War Room Member Join Date: 2008 Location: Left Coast, USA Posts: 236 Thanks: 39 Thanked 115 Times in 47 Posts	Re: Who makes for a good SMS Client? Churches that's who. Share on: xlfutur1: One of the churches does a podcast and they copy the sermon to their website. I'm sending their SMS broadcasts with a short message and URL to the sermon. :-)

6th May 2012, 05:05 PM	#27
WaynesWorld Warrior Member Join Date: 2012 Posts: 20 Thanks: 0 Thanked 1 Time in 1 Post	Re: Who makes for a good SMS Client? Churches that's who. Share on: Great post! I recently helped my church set up a SMS campaign. It is a great idea to bring the church together. Most of them use flyers to bring more attendees to the next congregation or special events. Now with an SMS provider, they can text everyone so that they can be in direct contact. Also, if they were having a last minute update to the church, a text is a lot more efficient than emailing everyone.
	[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC] Trumpia's Affiliate Partner Program: "Best Affiliate Program" TRUMPIA FREE WEBINARS & TUTORIAL VIDEOS ON SMS MOBILE MARKETING CONTACT WAYNE KAO FOR WARRIOR COMMISSION RATE! Wayne@MyTrum.com / Phone: 415-484-4219

1st Jun 2012, 05:12 PM	#28
earman Active Warrior Join Date: 2011 Posts: 41 Thanks: 11 Thanked 11 Times in 9 Posts	Re: Who makes for a good SMS Client? Churches that's who. Share on: Just wondering how many Churches you have converted to paying customers.

1st Jun 2012, 05:56 PM	#29
beeswarn Advanced Warrior Join Date: 2011 Location: USA Posts: 550 Thanks: 228 Thanked 166 Times in 108 Posts	Re: Who makes for a good SMS Client? Churches that's who. Share on: So am I. Let us know

2nd Jun 2012, 09:25 AM	#30
laird Offline Warrior War Room Member Join Date: 2008 Location: Left Coast, USA Posts: 236 Thanks: 39 Thanked 115 Times in 47 Posts	Re: Who makes for a good SMS Client? Churches that's who. Share on: With all follow-ups (phone, email and in-person), the youth pastor closed only 11 churches from those he spoke with at the event. Some of the churches that originally said yes didn't get approval of their board or staff teams to allocate a budget to the program. Others just blew us off. We sent materials to the "interested" churches and followed-up with both email and phone calls. There are other major events like this one all over the place and we're reaching out to learn more about dates, costs to attend and if they're any major SMS providers attacking this space in those respective states.

2nd Jun 2012, 10:33 AM	#32
laird Offline Warrior War Room Member Join Date: 2008 Location: Left Coast, USA Posts: 236 Thanks: 39 Thanked 115 Times in 47 Posts	Re: Who makes for a good SMS Client? Churches that's who. Share on: Single keyword and 3000 texts NETS $218 per month. Each additional keyword is $25/month. (all profit) Each additional text beyond 3000 is $.03. ($.02 profit) Handled via Twilio.