Sometimes you don't want to message your whole congregation — you want to reach a specific slice of it. Maybe the men's ministry, everyone in a particular city, or people who joined in the last month. From the People section you can filter down to exactly that group and send them an SMS or email in a few clicks.
Message a filtered group in People
Head to the People section and narrow the list down to the group you want to reach:
Apply your filters. Filter by fields such as gender, age group, marital status, city, state, zip, birthday, joined date, or any custom fields you've set up. You can combine several filters to zero in on the exact segment you're after. For a full walkthrough of the filtering options, see Using Advanced Filters in People.
Select the people you want. Tick the checkbox on each row you'd like to include, or use Select all members to include everyone matching the current filter.
Send your message. Click Send SMS or Send Emails to message just that group.
Because the recipient list is built from your filter, you're only messaging the people who matched — not your entire database.
Important: SMS silently skips people with no phone number
There's one gotcha to know about before you send a text. Recipients who have no phone number on file are silently skipped — they simply won't receive the message, and the confirmation screen won't tell you how many people were skipped.
So for SMS specifically:
Make sure the people in your targeted group actually have phone numbers on file, so no one gets left out unexpectedly.
To reach anyone without a phone number, send those recipients an email instead.
For more on sending texts this way, see How to send SMS from the People section.
Before you send SMS
Texting isn't on by default. SMS uses credits, and it must be activated for your account before you can send. To get set up and understand how texting is billed, see Why do I need to activate SMS for my account? and Understanding SMS credits and how to use them.
Still need help? Start a chat with us.