This post was last updated on February 22nd, 2024 at 04:32 pm.
Send mass texts to your congregation or groups and keep everyone informed.
We’re excited to announce that IconCMO now has the ability to send direct text messages to members of your congregation.
Have you ever had a last-minute change in plans and had to let a lot of people know fast? A mass email would be far too slow, and how often do people check it? What then? Start a make-shift phone tree to spread the word?
IconCMO’s mass texting feature gives you the power to let everyone know fast. You can quickly and efficiently keep your congregation or staff up-to-date about changes in plans and other announcements.
All you need is to save someone’s number as a mobile number in your IconCMO account, and you can include them in mass texts.
The new SMS messaging is based on a monthly subscription starting at $5 / month. For updated pricing visit our pricing page.
Give us a call at (218)236-1899 to learn more or add direct text messaging to your IconCMO account, or send us an email at sales@iconcmo.com.
Are recipients able to reply? If so what number do replies go back to, and does everyone see the reply or only the church sender number?
Currently our texting is one way only. All texts will come from the same number and recipients will not see any other recipients listed. Two Way texting is on our to-do list, and we hope to provide that in the near future!
Does this option send JPEG’s? Will you send the text message from either a household or Individual group? I don’t see a place it says mobile but I do see cellular on their main profile. If that where we would ensure a phone number is listed?
Hello Melanie,
The individual groups has text messaging. Households do not. If you select an individual group, then there is a button at the bottom that says ‘text message’. Pictures are not included at this time for text messaging.
The names the church uses for their ‘phone type’ is up to the church. The organization may have used the word cellular instead of mobile. What is important is to ensure the phone type is set correctly. If you need help with this please call us at 218-236-1899
What # of recipients will I have available to sent text before I’m charges over the $5 monthly subscription fee? At what point will I be charge more than $5?
You will never be charged more that $5.00 if that is the limit you signed up for. Once you reach the limit, the system will alert you with a message that you do not have enough messages left to send the email.
Are the number of text messages we are charged for determined by the number of messages we send to a group OR the number of recipients that receive one message?
Connie, it charges by the number of texts to be recieved (recipients).
Does the new SMS texting allow me to send jpegs? Also, are there any additional fees besides the monthly fee of $5? How does this impact us if we subscribe to text to give?
If the person only has a land line and we list that as a “mobile” will a message be left?
I am I understanding this correctly?
Sandy,
We will attempt to send a text to any phone that is listed as “mobile” in the system. It is up to every phone company how they handle texts that come in to a land line number. Some have a system that will read the text to them in a voicemail, some have have a system that will convert it into an email and send to the contact on the account, some will reject it completely. We have no way of knowing how each phone company handles this.
Could you explain how the subscription service for texting works differently than the current option we have been using by clicking Send Text Message and sending a mass text to the recipient group we have created?
Karen,
The new direct SMS texting has more benefits that our customers have been asking for. Those benefits are mainly that:
1. It is quicker and more reliable for the recipients to receive the text,
2. You no longer have to know/add carriers for the individuals, and
3. Most importantly since the cell phone carriers are cracking down on the regulations more and more texts using the old way (email-to-text) are being blocked, and the new way would allow for these previously blocked texts to be sent.
If you do not contact Icon Systems to add the new direct texting to your subscription, then the old way of texting is still in place (and still free).