Text-to-Donate Part II: Send Text Blast

Text-to-Donate Part II: Send Text Blast

1. The Send Text Blast feature allows you to send a text message to your contacts with a link to a "one click," slimmed down donation portal/page.
2. In order to use the Send Text Blast, you must first configured a Text to Donate donation page. See our Text-to-Donate Part I: Configure Text to Donate Page tutorial for more information. Additionally, the user must have permission to access (view and edit) communications and "allow" text blasts in their user roles and permissions.
3. Please Note: the text-to-donate feature, including sending a text blast, is a paid add on. Clients are charged one time fee of $55 and after that $0.02 per text sent AND received (including the automatic "thank you for donating" text that is sent after a donation is made [if configured]). See the Part I tutorial for more information on text-to-donate fees.
4. Please Also Note: in order to be pulled into the Text Blast recipient list, the contact must have a phone number, the phone number type must be set to "mobile" or "cell," and the contact's communication preference for phone calls must be set to "yes" or "not set." You can update phone call communication preference in bulk (for multiple contacts) from the Take Action menu at the bottom of the search results screen. Phone number type can also be updated in bulk from the take action menu.
5. To send a Text Blast, start by selecting Communications on the Main Menu and then select Create New Text to Donate on the sub-menu.

   

6. On the Setup Text Blast tab of the resulting screen, start by filling in the Text Blast Name field (required). This is an internal reference field and will not be seen by recipients.

   

   

7. Next, select which text-to-donate page you wish to direct recipients to in the Select Your Text to Donate Page field (the page must have been previously configured).

   

   

8. In the Text Message field, configure the message you want to send to the recipients. The text message is limited to 140 characters and MUST include the placeholder of the donation page ("{link}").

   

   

   

9. Click the Save button in the lower right to save your changes and return later or Save and Proceed to move to the next tab.

   

10. On the Select Recipients tab, you will select the recipients of  your text blast. By default, all contacts who are not deceased, have a valid phone number (with the type mobile or cell), and have communication preference for phone calls set to Yes or Not Set,will be pulled into your Text Blast as a recipient.

    

    

11. In the middle of the screen, you will see two tabs. The one on the left ("Matched With Criteria + Manually Added") is the INCLUSION list. These are the contacts who will get your Text Blast. The one on the right ("Matched with Criteria but Excluded") is the EXCLUSION list. These are contacts who match the criteria used to generate the recipient list, but who are ineligible to receive the Text Blast due to their communication preference for phone calls being set to no, their phone number on record being bad, or being manually moved from the inclusion to the exclusion list. 

    

12. The Inclusion/Exclusion Reason column on each tab lists the reason why the contact is on that list. On the inclusion tab, the reasons are either that the contact met your recipient list criteria or was manually added by someone on your staff (using the Add Recipient function or by moving them from the exclusion list). On the exclusion tab, the reasons are either that the contact meets your recipient criteria but has a bad email address (bounced/dropped) (these contacts cannot be manually moved to the inclusion list), meets your recipient criteria but has their communication preference set to "no" ("unsubscribed from all communications;" these contacts CAN be manually moved to the inclusion list), or they were manually excluded (moved from the inclusion list).

    

    

13. You can exclude contacts who are on the inclusion list by clicking the Exclude button to the right of the contact's name. A pop-up box will ask you to verify you wish to move the contact to the exclusion list. Click Yes to confirm. The contact will be moved to the exclusion list (where a note will be added as to why the contact is on the exclusion list/who moved the contact to the inclusion list).

    

    

    

14. Similarly, you can move contacts from the exclusion list to the inclusion list by clicking the Include button to the right of the contact's name and confirming. The contact will then appear on the inclusion list with a note as to who manually added them to the inclusion list.

    

    

    

15. You will see the total number of selected/active recipients as well as the total number of contacts who matched your selection criteria (the denominator/gray number will equal the total # of contacts on the inclusion list + the total number of contacts on the exclusion list). You can click on this number to see a list of names. This list is view only; you cannot interact with it in any way.

    

    

16. To narrow the recipient list to just a specific set of contacts that meet certain criteria (such as those that have a particular contact type or tag), click on the blue View/Modify criteria button to add filters to your recipient list. This will open the filters area where you can add your recipient list criteria. See our tutorial on using the Advanced Search interface for more information on setting filter criteria.

    

    

17. Enter your criteria and click Search.

    

18. The number of prospective recipients as well as the names (and number of contacts) on the Inclusion and Exclusion lists will be revised/updated based on those contacts who meet the search criteria entered.

    

    

19. You can also manually add contacts (one at a time) to the inclusion list using the Add Recipient field. Click in the field and start typing a name. A list of matching names will appear. Select a name and then click the (+) button. The contact will be added to the inclusion list with a note that they were manually added along with the name of the staff person who manually added them. Please Note: the selected contact must have a VALID phone number to be added to the inclusion list. Otherwise, an error message will appear alerting you that you cannot add the contact to your recipient list.

    

    

    

    

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20. You can search the inclusion and exclusion lists for a particular contact by name or email address using the Search Recipient field on each tab.

    

21. When you have finished specifying recipients for the newsletter, click the blue Save & Proceed button in the lower right.

    

22. This will take you to Tab #3: Confirm. On the Confirm tab, verify the number of recipients. You can hover your mouse on the magnifying glass next to the first line to see what match/filter criteria was used to generate the recipient list.

    

    

    

    

23. In the right hand side of the screen  you will see a preview of the text you will be sending. If you want to edit the text, return to Tab #1: Set Up Text Blast.

    

24. In the Send Preference area, indicate if you want to Send Now or Send On (schedule a date and time).

    

25. Use the Send Test Text Message button to send yourself or other staff members a copy of the text message for review.

    

26. When you are ready to send the Text Blast out or have set it to be sent at the scheduled time, click the Send/Schedule button in the lower right-hand corner (Send will show if you have the Text Blast set to Send Now; Schedule will show if you have the Text Blast set to Send On/Scheduled to send in the future).

    

    

27. If you selected Send Now, a pop up box will ask you to confirm if you want to send your Text Blast now. Click the blue Send Now button to confirm.

    

28. Once you confirm Send Now or click Schedule, you will receive a confirmation screen.

    

29. If you schedule an e-Blast to send and then need to change/edit or delete it, from the Main Menu, select Communications and then Pending, find the newsletter in the list, and select Edit or Delete from the drop down on the right. Please Note: if you opted to "send now" there is no ability to edit, delete, or stop the text blast from sending.

    

30. A scheduled newsletter can only be edited while it is in pending status. Once the status changes to Sent for Processing, the Text Blast can no longer be deleted/stopped (you'll notice that the Edit/Delete button is no longer present once the blast starts sending). Please Note: Fundly CRM support staff also cannot stop the newsletter from sending once it begins processing. By the time you contact us, we contact the technical team, and they hunt down the newsletter in the outgoing mail queue, it will have already been processed/sent.

    

31. While the Text Blast is processing/sending, it will go through a series of status changes:
    • Scheduled means the Text Blast set-up is completed and scheduled to be sent (Text Blasts set to Send Now will also initially show as Scheduled); this means the Text Blast has entered the job processor server queue and is queued up/has a place in that queue.
    • Scheduled for Generating means the bulk jobs server is generating the Texts to be sent/has begun processing the Text Blast (by "mail merging"/populating the placeholder in the text messages).
    • Sent for Processing means the Texts are actually sending/leaving the server. This status may take some time, even if it's a small number of Texts you are sending, as the texts will be sent in batches (with a required time delay between batches). The jobs server may also be processing texts for other clients at the same time, which will slow down sending as well.
32. After the Text Blast has finished sending, the Text Blast will move from the Main Menu: Communications: Pending index screen to the Main Menu: Communications: History index screen and the status will show as Processed.

    

33. After the Text Blast is sent, you can access metrics and the recipient list and resend the Text Blast. See our Part III: Review Sent Text Blast and Part IV: Resent Text Blast tutorials for more information.
34. Please note also, after the Text Blast is sent, you will also see an entry added to each recipient's Engagement History. Clicking the magnifying glass next to the entry will bring up the content/text that was sent to the contact (the automatic thank you text messages will also show in engagement history). You can also see this content by going to Main Menu: Communications: History and selecting View Summary from the drop down to the right, and then click the Preview button.