3 New Options for SMS Opt-ins

eAdventist provides SMS messaging (at no cost) for your church to send text messages to:
– People – the members and nonmembers in your church “family”
– Contacts – the visitors, guests, community interests and members elsewhere that are your church “friends”

To meet the new “verification” requirements for businesses and non-profits, eAdventist is discontinuing our “Invitation” opt-in method and replacing it with 3 new opt-in methods:

1. Paper Form

If you collect contact information from People or Contacts on cards or paper forms, be sure the paper form includes something like the following:

I agree to receive informational text messages from the Rock Solid SDA Church.

Be sure to keep the paper forms on file, since the fines for SMS “spamming” are significant!

2. Web Form

If you collect contact information from People or Contacts on your church web site, be sure the web form includes a similar message:

I agree to receive informational text messages from the Rock Solid SDA Church.

To record opt-ins by Paper Form or Web Form. click the “SMS Opt-ins” link the Audience box.

For each Person or Contact, (1) select the Opt-in method. Be sure not to enter it for anybody who hasn’t opted in yet.

To save these changes, (2) click the “Permission” toggle, and (3) click the “Update Opt-ins” button.

eAdventist will send a Welcome message to each of these subscribers and you will be able to start sending Text Messages to them right away.

3. Text-to-Join

Your members can also opt in by texting JOIN to your SMS number. eAdventist will look for a Person with the sender’s mobile phone number. If a member is found, they will be opted in.

Display the following:
– on signs in the church lobby
– in the church bulletin
– on screen in the sanctuary
– on church web site

If a member is not found, you will see the sender’s number in the “JOIN Requests”. You can choose the member to automatically add the “Mobile phone” to their record and complete the opt-in process.

Visitors, guests, community interests and members from other churches can opt in as Contacts by texting GUEST to your SMS number. eAdventist will look for a Contact with the sender’s mobile phone number. If a Contact is found, they will be opted in.

If a match is not found, eAdventist will create a new Contact with the sender’s mobile phone number. eAdventist will also send a link that the sender can use to add their name and email address to the Contact.

Text-to-Join provides an easy way to collect mobile phone numbers and email addresses for your members and guests.

Coming soon – Contact Cards

We will be adding Contact Cards. They will be web forms hosted on eAdventist that you can link to with a link or QR code, or embed directly on your church web site. This will be similar to “Web Forms” but will allow people to opt themselves in – more like Text-to-Join.

You will also be able to create Contact Cards for specific events.