Getting started with text messaging
Guided Fundraising enables you to engage in 1:1 text message conversations with your prospects, coordinated through multi-channel outreach. Before you can start texting in Guided Gundraising, there are a few things you'll need to set up.
How text messaging works in Guided Fundraising
Some text messages are sent automatically through Guided Fundraising, and some text messages are sent by Agents. A text message conversation starts when you include a Text Message step in your campaign's Play. As prospects reach the step, they receive the template you created for that step in the Play. The text messages that are sent out as a part of a Play are automated - the Agent doesn't need to take any action to send those messages. Just like Emails and Mailing lists, those messages will send as long as the Play hasn't stopped for some reason, like a completed result, a donation, or a response to a previous text message.
As soon as a prospect responds to a text message, the assigned agent will see the response in their My New Messages section, and will begin to reply 1:1. All text messages from that point on in the campaign will be sent by the Agent. Once a prospect responds to a text message, the Play also stops. That means that no further actions that were included in the Play, such as addition emails, automated text messages, mailing lists, and follow-up calls, will occur. The Play is built with the assumption that you haven't engaged with the prospect yet, so once the prospect chooses to engage through Text Message they no longer progress through the Play.
Setting up Text Messaging
Before you can start texting in Guided Fundraising, there are a few things you need to set up:
Select your SMS Numbers
Before you can send text messages through Guided Fundraising, you need to select the phone numbers that will be used for sending messages. There is a large pool of available phone numbers to choose from, so you can select ones that match closely to your organization's main phone number. Guided Fundraising uses regular 10 digit phone numbers for sending text messages, to encourage response and conversation from prospects. Since carriers impose limits on how many messages can be sent by a single 10 digit number, you are able to select a pool of numbers Guided Fundraising will use for sending text messages. You need to select these numbers before you can start sending text messages in Guided Fundraising.
Set up your business profile
Before you can send text messages through Guided Fundraising, our provider requires you to enter your business information. On the Business Profile page, you are required to fill out all of the fields.
Load your Constituents' Mobile Numbers
Guided Fundraising users the Mobile Phone Number field as the phone number for sending text messages in Guided Fundraising. If a constituent's Mobile Phone Number is blank, then that constituent will skip any text message steps in the campaign Play.
If you load files to Guided Fundraising, ensure that the correct number is being provided and mapped for the Mobile Phone Number field.
If your organization also uses Fundraiser Performance Management, all of your data, including mobile phone numbers, is synced from Fundraiser Performance Management. Double check that you are providing the correct Mobile Phone Numbers in Fundraiser Performance Management.
Create Play Templates
Play Templates are the text message templates that will be sent automatically based on the Play you designed for your campaign. To start texting in Guided Fundraising, you first need to create a Play Template and link it to your Play.
Create Reply Templates
Reply Templates allow you to provide consistent responses to your agents for frequently asked questions from your constituents. Create some Reply Templates to help Agents reply quickly and consistently to your most commonly expected questions and responses.
Add Texting to your Play
Before any text messages will be sent from Guided Fundraising, you will need to set up a Play that includes text messaging. The default Play when you create a new campaign already includes text messaging to help you get started.
Review your Agent Permissions
You can decide which Agents are able to access texting, and whether each Agent can see their own messages or all messages for your organization. By default, Agents have texting enabled with access to only their own messages. You should ensure that at least some of your agents are able to see all messages so that they can respond to prospects for other agents when they aren't available. If you are a Manager or a Supervisor, you should also create an Agent account for yourself with access to all messages so that you can review messages and respond to messages for other agents.