Articles on: People

Send e-mails and SMS

Go to People and select Messages in the black bar on the left-hand side. Here you have a set of options as depicted below:



New message to contacts / lists: Choose the green button "Create". Read more about sending messages further below.
Overview: Get an overview of all the messages, which you have sent, scheduled or have in draft. For each message you find summary information, such as title, who have sent the message, at what date and time, as well as key statistics on the messages.
Statistics on messages: For each message you can see detailed statistics. Select the button with a graph icon. Here you can see how many messages were successfully delivered, bounced, opened, clicked as well as how many have unsubscribed to the newsletter.
Search and reviewing messages: You can search messages that you have already written by using the search field in the upper-right corner. Click on the single message to review content.

Send an e-mail



Create an e-mail by clicking the green button "Create" after which you select e-mail to create a new e-mail.



From: You can select your own user name as the "From-sender" or you can use your church's name as the sender. Replies to the message will go to your user email or to the church email, if you chose to send in the church's name
To: You can create a message to an individual contact or an entire list. You can even send to multiple lists at the same time.
Image: Hover the mouse over the grey area with the image icon in the middle. Here you can choose to add an image from Files in Intranet or upload an image directly from your computer.
Title: Give your message a great title by clicking the top "Click here to edit" in large fonts.
Body:  Below the title you can click again to add your message body. In the body text you have formatting options. Bold (B), Italic (I), line to separate sections (line icon), insert a link (link icon) or insert receiver first name, last name or full name by selecting the attributes icon (three dots)



Upcoming events: In ChurchDesk the different applications work together. That means you can add upcoming events from your calendar in your newsletter by clicking "Add" next to the headline upcoming events in your email builder. Note that it is only future public events that will appear in your search result. If you want to share an event from another church, that also has a ChurchDesk calendar, you can click on 'Church' and chose the church you want to share an event from
Latest news: Choose the button "Add" next to Latest news to easily add blog post from the Intranet to your newsletter. You can only add blog posts where the visibility is set to "Website". If you want to share a blog from another church, that also has a ChurchDesk calendar, you can click on 'Church' and chose the church you want to share a blog from
Forms: Choose the button "Add" next to Forms to easily add forms to your message and share it. You can also share forms from other churches, byt changing the church in the field "Church"
Send: Click the button "Send" and you have three options for sending your newsletter:

Send a test message
Send later
Send immediately

Send a SMS



Send a SMS by clicking the green button "Create" and then select SMS. This type of messaging is great for sending quick updates or changes to a schedule. It is particular useful with people who rarely check their e-mails, such as seniors or the youth team.



From: You can change the sender under settings. Alternatively click here. If you want to get replies directly to your mobile phone, then select your own name, and type in your mobile number
To: You can send to lists or individual contacts.
Body: You cannot format text in a SMS message. You are not limited to the 160 characters for a standard SMS - ChurchDesk automatically chain together text messages, so you can if necessary write quite long messages. However, note that a longer SMS message will count for more messages. At the bottom of the text area you can see "# of characters left" before counting an additional message and you can see "# message" on the right.
Send: Click the button "Send" where you have three options for sending your text message:

Send a test message
Send later
Send immediately

What does a SMS cost?



When you start with ChurchDesk - you automatically get 100 free SMS. 

Once you have used these you can buy packages of SMS with a discount. This allows you to easily control your SMS-usage. Furthermore, the more SMS you buy the larger the discount. We will naturally notify you when you are about to run out of SMS. Read all about pricing here.

You can buy any of the SMS-packages by contacting support@churchdesk.com

Updated on: 02/05/2023

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