In this day and age, church leaders struggle to reach their congregation and those in their community in meaningful ways. What used to be simply church pamphlets or word of mouth have now turned into email lists, social media, websites, and so much more. Whatever medium your church uses when you need to get a communication out, more churches than ever are using text messaging as a way to better reach their audience.
It shouldn’t be a surprise; text messages have a near instantaneous open rate of 90% within the first three minutes – nearly five times the open rate of most emails. Not only that, younger generations are gravitating towards a text-forward communication model rather than phone calls or emails. But don’t let the age conversation fool you. According to research done by top organizations like the Pew Research Center and AARP, 80% of Americans over age 65 own a cell phone and 86% over age 50 actively communicate through text messaging.
With all of this information, it only makes sense that your church utilizes a texting solution so you’re reaching your audience where they are, no matter their age. Ministries that use Realm – combined with Realm Texting Messaging to communicate with their congregation – have gained all these benefits of texting but also get to have additional metrics that pull directly into Realm Church management.
Since not all small groups communicate the same way, Realm allows your church to specify exactly which of your groups need texting. However, chances are your volunteer serving teams can benefit from an integrated text messaging solution as well. By simply turning on Realm Text Messaging for your serving teams, they can stay in contact with one another and easily communicate any changes made to their team.
For church leaders, communications directors or others who oversee your church communications, you’ll gain access to a global dashboard that displays how many texts have been sent, how many you have left for your specified plan, and the remaining days left on your plan.
Within that dashboard, you’ll also see which groups, ministry areas, or volunteer serving teams are actively using text messaging. Best of all, you’re also provided with a customizable graph that displays how many text messages have been sent over a specified amount of time. For example, if your church is continually over your texting limit each month, the graph will display that and you can increase your subscription.
Finally, the beauty of Realm’s communication tools is that your audience can receive your message in whatever way is best for them. For many, that’s via a text message; for others, that may be through an email or even via Realm’s in-app notifications from the Realm Connect mobile app. Regardless of what communication option they choose, your church is only charged for the texts that are received by your congregation. That way, you’ll know that your small groups, serving teams, or congregation are always being communicated to in a way that is best for them.
For churches looking for better ways to communicate with their small groups, serving teams, or congregation at large, Realm, along with Realm Text Messaging, is the ministry tool that gets you there. Click here for more information on how Realm’s Communication tools can help enhance how your church does ministry.
