Why should churches pay for texting ?
Compare free texting to Text-to-Church
By Boyd Pelley
In
this blog post , we surveyed the history of business ( A2P ) texting . We learned that initially A2P texting was available either for thousands of dollars per month using short codes or free using email . That left a wide gap for the innovation that rolled out in 2021 called 10-digit long code ( 10DLC ) texting . Churchteams provides both free ( through email ) and paid ( through 10DLC ) texting that we branded Text-to-Church ( T2C ). But when should you use free texting and when should you use T2C ?
HERE ARE SOME THINGS TO CONSIDER
If your church has a huge value for excellence and consistency in communication and the budget to carry it out , then you might want to use T2C all the time . The benefit is that all texts will come from your 10-digit number rather than an email . That consistency and familiarity of messaging might make it worth the extra cost .
We ' ve gotten used to not paying for communication because of email and free texting , but many of us remember the days when everything was sent by snail mail . Budgeting for texts is nothing compared to that .
If your church just doesn ' t have the budget , then we still have you covered . Free texting using email is a great way to communicate , understanding the limitations listed below .
There is also a middle ground for churches that want the functionality of T2C for some things but also want to limit costs for other types of communication . This table can help you figure out the pros and cons of both types of texting based on how you want to use it .
Let ' s do some quick math to help think about budgeting . These numbers are all monthly . 1 . 500 = $ 10 ( monthly fee ). 5 texts to 100 people . 2 . 2,500 = $ 50 ( fee plus 2,000 x $ 0.02 = $ 40 ). 5 texts to 500 people . 3 . 12,615 = $ 252.30 ( fee plus 12,115 x $ 0.02 =$ 242.30 ). 5 texts to 2,523 people . Compare that to 500 postcards at the first-class rate of $ 0.40 = $ 200 ! And that doesn ' t count material and production costs .
All of these might be factors you want to consider when budget preparation time comes around .
Boyd Pelley is co-founder of Churchteams . From 1990 to 2008 , he served as a discipleship , administrative and family pastor at churches in New Mexico , Nebraska and Texas .
14 CHURCH EXECUTIVE