UChurch Arizona State University Text Message Case Study

This Non-profit Signed Up 250 New Members In One DAY… And improved event attendance while saving 2 hours of work!

When Melanie Shepard heard about Betwext.com she said “It was an answer to my prayers! Melanie is an active member of UChurch, a national religious organization.

Her division is based out of Tempe Arizona. She’s tasked with outreach to new members, and also handles the digital outreach to existing members.

Her big recruiting event is Club Day at Arizona State University (ASU).

During the event, thousands of students wander by various tables and booths sponsored by clubs and organizations.

After signing up for Betwext.com Melanie set up “ASU” as a keyword. Then she made a banner telling anyone interested in UChurch to simply text “ASU” to her phone number.

She offered a gift card to one lucky winner to encourage people to join. In just a few hours she collected over 250 new contacts.

In prior years, they had passed around clipboards asking people to signup. This resulted in many of the interested people never being contacted due to typos, and bad handwriting!

“The system was easy to use, especially for collecting contact info” said Melanie.

UChurch is now stepping into some advanced texting usage… for example they include a link to a survey in their welcome message.

It allows them to better understand why someone signed up for the text list, segment users, and give them information they’re looking for.

But that wasn’t her only breakthrough. Prior to finding Betwext, Melanie and her team would try to text current members.

“We’d sit in a group of about 7 or 10 people and send individual text messages from our own phones… it took 2-3 hours to send the messages.”

Worst still, they had to track the members who didn’t want text messages manually.

Needless to say, Her team was burnt out… After signing up for Betwext, Melanie is now able to send a message to the entire group, now numbering more than 300, in less than 5 minutes.

“I spend a little extra time on the message because I want it to be perfect!” Often times she uses the built in scheduler to tee-up messages a few days in advance, saving even more time and effort.

Better still, since Betwext tracks everyone who wants to unsubscribe from text messages automatically, she doesn’t need to worry about errant messages!

The Team at UChurch is very creative in their use of text messaging. First, the send about one message a week, enough to keep people engaged, but not too much to scare them away.

For special events, a few times a month, she will send an event reminder which members appreciate.

The big text is the weekly reminder on Sunday, encouraging people to attend their events. They’re toying with the idea of sending a weekly inspirational message as well.

The most creative use she mentioned was how they now use texting right in the Sunday service! Every few weeks, UChurch does a “You Asked For It!” service, where anyone in attendance can text in an anonymous question.

The Questions are sent in rapid fire, and the pastor addresses as many as he can. The event was such a success they’ve repeated it a number of times.

The bottom line is, using a text messaging service like Betwext.com has helped UChurch better connect with members, increased engagement, and improved attendance at events.

When asked about Betwext.com Melanie had one final thought “I love it…”