Campaigns: email and text

A campaign sends one email or one text to everyone in an audience, such as “Youth parents” or “Downtown campus members”. Before anything goes out, HoW shows how many people it will actually reach and who it will miss, and a large campaign needs a second person’s approval.

Before you start

A campaign is built from two things you make once and reuse, both under Communications:

• An audience (the Audiences tab, New audience): who it goes to. You build it from filters such as Has a tag, Home campus, In a group, Membership standing, Household role or Custom field. An audience is worked out again every time it’s used, so someone who joins the group next week is in it next week. Open one to see Matched, Reachable, Not agreed, No phone (or No email) and Children, By text or By email.
• A template (the Templates tab, New template): what it says. Choose Text or Email, write the Text (and, for an email, the Subject), and use {{first_name}} or {{church_name}} to fill in each person’s name or your church’s. Leave Offered to new campaigns on so it shows up when you make a campaign.

For email, your church also needs at least one confirmed sender under Communications → Email senders: the Name people see and the Reply-to address. The person at that address gets a confirmation email and must confirm it first. For text, DCX Logic sets up your church’s texting number (see “What DCX support can do”).

How to use it

1. Open Communications, then the Campaigns tab, and choose New campaign.
2. Give it a Name (only staff see it), and choose the Channel: Text or Email. The channel can’t be changed once the campaign is created.
3. Choose the Template (“What it says”) and the Audience (“Who it goes to”). For an email, choose who it’s Sent as, or leave it empty to use your church’s default sender. Replies go to that sender.
4. Choose Create draft. The campaign is now in the list as Draft; open it again to carry on.
5. Check who it reaches. Under Who this reaches today, HoW counts the audience right now: “This reaches 412 of 1,208 people in “Members”.” If some people won’t get it, a warning below says how many and why (see “When some people can’t be reached”).
6. Submit for approval. Choose Submit for approval. The status changes to Awaiting approval. (A small campaign doesn’t need this step; see “Who needs a second signature” below.)
7. Approve. Someone else who may approve opens the campaign, reads it, and chooses Approve. The person who created the campaign can’t approve it; the button is greyed out for them. Once approved, the campaign shows What was approved: the exact words that will go out.
8. Send now or schedule. Someone who may send opens the approved campaign. Leave Send at empty and choose Send now, or pick a date and time in Send at (in your computer’s time zone) and choose Schedule. HoW confirms “Scheduled: 412 messages queued.”
9. Read the report. Open the campaign while it sends or afterwards. What happened shows Recipients, Delivered, Waiting (handed over but not yet confirmed) and Failed, and, for a text, how many text segments it used in all. The figures update by themselves while it sends.

Unsaved changes hide Submit for approval, Approve and Send now: choose Save changes first.

When some people can’t be reached

Not everyone in an audience can always be messaged. HoW tells you who, and why, before you send and again afterwards.

Before you send. Under the count, a yellow warning names the people the campaign will miss, in plain words. For example:

28 of 40 won’t get this text: 19 haven’t agreed to texts (or replied STOP), 7 have no mobile number on their record, and 2 are children, who are never messaged.

The reasons are:

• Haven’t agreed to texts (or replied STOP), or for an email, haven’t agreed to email (or unsubscribed). HoW only messages people who have agreed to that kind of message. Someone who replied STOP to a text, or used the unsubscribe link in an email, counts here too.
• No mobile number on their record, or no email address on their record.
• Children, who are never messaged. A child is left out whatever the audience’s filters say. To reach a family, message the adults.

You can still send: everyone else gets it.

When nobody can be reached. If nobody in the audience can get it, the warning turns red, explains why, and Submit for approval, Send now and Schedule stay greyed out. For example:

Nobody in “Youth volunteers” can get this text: 12 haven’t agreed to texts (or replied STOP). Add a mobile number or their agreement on their record, or choose another audience.

If the audience has nobody in it today, the warning says so. To fix it, either choose another audience, or update the people’s records: open a person, and in the Communication section choose Opt in next to Text messages or Email. Only record agreement the person has really given you, on a form or in person. Never opt someone back in who replied STOP or unsubscribed unless they asked you to.

After you send. The report shows a yellow “skipped” line with the same reasons, for example:

3 skipped: 2 haven’t agreed to texts (or replied STOP) and 1 has no mobile number on their record.

Skipped is not a failure: HoW left those people out on purpose, because it may not or cannot message them. Messages that were tried and did not arrive are counted under Failed instead.

In the Campaigns list, a campaign that skipped anyone shows it in its status, in yellow: Sent · 3 skipped (and the same on Scheduled and Sending). When everyone skipped had simply not agreed, it says Sent · 3 skipped (no consent). Point at the status to see how many were skipped for each reason, or open the campaign for the full report. Children aren’t in that count, because they’re never recipients at all.

Who needs a second signature

• Large campaigns need approval. A campaign that reaches 50 or more people (counting only the people who can actually get it) needs a second person to approve it before it can be sent. If you try to send it without, HoW says “a campaign reaching 120 people needs another person’s approval first”.
• Small campaigns can go straight out. Below that number, someone who may send can send it straight from the draft, without the approval step. HoW still records who sent it.
• Editing an approved campaign undoes the approval. Change its name, template, audience or sender and it goes back to Draft; submit it and have it approved again.
• What was approved is what goes out. The wording is fixed when the campaign is approved. Editing the template afterwards doesn’t change an approved campaign.
• The number is set by DCX Logic for HoW as a whole, not church by church.

Good to know

• Who can do what. These are the built-in roles; a custom role does the same through its Communications level.

  What	Who
  See campaigns and their reports	Owners, administrators, communications managers, ministry leaders
  Create, edit, submit, cancel, delete	Owners, administrators, communications managers, ministry leaders
  Approve a campaign (never your own)	Owners, administrators, communications managers
  Send or schedule a campaign	Owners, administrators, communications managers
  Record someone’s agreement	Owners, administrators, communications managers, membership coordinators

  A custom role with Communications at View sees campaigns; Edit creates and submits them; Manage also approves and sends.

• Who gets it is decided when you press Send now or Schedule. A scheduled campaign goes to the people in the audience at that moment. Someone added to the audience later isn’t included; cancel and schedule again if that matters. Agreement is checked once more just before each message goes out, so someone who replies STOP in between is skipped.

• Timing. HoW starts due campaigns every minute, so Send now begins within about a minute. HoW doesn’t hold texts back at night: pick a sensible time when you schedule.

• Every text ends with your church’s name and “Reply STOP to opt out”. That line counts toward the text’s length. A long text is sent in several segments, which carriers count separately; the template editor shows how many.

• Every email has an unsubscribe link. Someone who uses it stops getting your church’s campaign emails at once.

• Templates. Up to 1,024 characters.

• Cancelling. Before sending starts, choose Cancel campaign (awaiting approval or approved) or Cancel the send (scheduled). Once a campaign is sending, it can’t be stopped.

• Deleting. Only a draft or a cancelled campaign can be deleted, with Delete. Sent campaigns stay, with their reports.

If something isn’t right

• Send now is greyed out. Check that the campaign has a template and an audience, that there are no unsaved changes, and that the warning isn’t red (nobody can be reached).
• “a campaign reaching … people needs another person’s approval first”: choose Submit for approval and ask a colleague who may approve.
• Approve is greyed out: you created the campaign. Someone else has to approve it.
• “the church has no email sender yet: add one under Communications, Email senders” or “the sender … has not confirmed their address yet”: add a sender under Communications → Email senders, or ask the person at that address to open the confirmation email. Use Send the confirmation again if it’s lost. A sender shows “(not confirmed yet)” in Sent as until then.
• “a campaign is scheduled for now or later”: the time in Send at has passed. Pick a later time.
• Many people “haven’t agreed”: your records may not yet show who agreed to texts or email. Gather agreement on a form, or record it on each person’s record, then check the count again.
• Failed in the report: the carrier or mail provider refused the message, often because the number or address is wrong. Check the person’s record.

What DCX support can do

DCX Logic sets up and runs your church’s texting: the number your texts come from and its registration with the phone carriers. If texting isn’t set up yet, write to support@dcxlogic.com. With your permission, DCX support can open a support session on your church to look at a campaign with you and see why people weren’t reached or why messages failed. Recording who agreed to be messaged stays with your church: only you know who said yes.

How this compares with Planning Center

If you’re coming from Planning Center People:

• Same idea: in Planning Center you email or text a list; in HoW you send a campaign to an audience. Both work the audience out from rules, and both can send now or at a time you choose.
• Agreement is built in. Planning Center asks you to gather text consent in a custom field and add a condition to your list so only people who answered Yes get texts. HoW keeps each person’s agreement for text and for email, and leaves out anyone who hasn’t agreed, with no list condition to remember.
• You see who’s missed before you send. HoW names how many people won’t get it and why, and blocks a campaign that would reach nobody. Planning Center lets you uncheck people on the list before sending; HoW has no unchecking, so change the audience instead.
• Approval. Planning Center has no approval step. HoW asks for a second person’s approval on campaigns of 50 or more people.
• Who gets it. Planning Center sends a scheduled email “to anyone on the list at the time of send”; HoW decides the recipients when you press Schedule.
• Timing. Planning Center only sends scheduled texts between 8 a.m. and 9 p.m. and lets you schedule up to a month ahead. HoW has neither rule: choose the time yourself.
• STOP. In both, replying STOP stops a person’s texts. Planning Center doesn’t let administrators resubscribe someone; in HoW, staff who manage preferences can record a person’s agreement again, and should do so only when the person asks.
• Email. Both send from a shared address with your church’s chosen name and reply-to (a confirmed sender in HoW). Planning Center asks you to send lists of more than 500 people through Mailchimp; HoW sends every campaign itself.
• Texts. Planning Center People charges a credit per text and sends from a toll-free number; replies to People texts are not received. HoW texts come from your church’s own number, set up by DCX Logic.