Outbound: Series Guide

Shepherd your church beyond Sunday with content delivered right to their phones.

Brian Knollman avatar
Written by Brian Knollman
Updated over a week ago

Use Rolling Series for guest follow up, go at your own pace devotionals, and more!

Rolling Series are messages that go out in the order they are set up. To subscribe, someone texts in the associated keywords. Messages then go out based on the day someone subscribes. If Joe subscribes on Tuesday to a Rolling Series with daily messages, he will get his welcome message on Tuesday, message 1 on Wednesday, and so on; if Sally subscribes on the following Thursday, she will get here welcome message that Thursday, message 1 on Friday, and so on, so no one misses the full content.

Use Fixed Series to set up church wide devotionals, holiday devotionals, and more!

Fixed series are messages that go out in the order they are set up and are based on exact date. To subscribe, someone texts in the associated keywords. Messages then go out based on the date they are scheduled for so everyone receives the same message at the same time. Keep in mind if someone subscribes late, they will miss the content sent prior to their subscription date.

Setting up a Series

  1. Under your Messaging menu, navigate to Series in Outbox. Then click Create New Series.

  2. Name the Series. Select Rolling or Fixed for the type of Series.

  3. Set up a keyword(s) - this is what someone texts in to subscribe to the Series. Next, write a description for the Series. This description is for internal use only; no subscribers will see it.

  4. Create your "Message sent when subscribed". This message is the automatic reply a person will receive when they text the series keyword into your Gloo phone number. Then when everything is set up the way you want, click Create.

  5. Click Add New Message to start adding content to your Series.

  6. Click Create your first message.

  7. Create your message content. The icons underneath can be used to add emojis, shorten urls, personalize the message with recipients' names, and add images and videos.

    Important: Make sure to select the correct Series type (Rolling or Fixed) before beginning to create your content. You will not be able to change types once you've added additional messages.

  8. For Rolling Series - Edit the day and time you want the messages to go out. Remember, days are relative to the subscription date, which is counted as Day 0. The time will be set to whatever time zone your computer is in when you create the Series.

    For Fixed Series - Select the date and time you want the message to go out. If someone subscribes after the date of a scheduled message, they will not receive that content, but only the content scheduled after the subscription date.

  9. Click Add New Message and continue adding messages and content for whatever length you want the Series to be. When you've added all of your messages, click Save.

    Note: You can come back any time to add, delete or edit Series messages, so don't feel like you have to have all of your content 100% ready to go on the first try.

  10. Make sure your Series is turned on to make the keywords live and ready for people to text in.

Managing your Series

Series can be edited any time by clicking the green Edit button.

Delete any of the messages by clicking the red trash can.

Turn any series on or off by clicking the black toggle button.

Note: Turning off a Series will stop new users from subscribing, but those already subscribed will get to finish it!

Delete any series by hitting the red trash can icon. If you delete the series, active subscribers will not finish the content.

View Subscribers

You can see the Message number someone is on for Rolling Series.

You can see if someone is active for Fixed Series.

Export a list of series subscribers and related information

Click the three dots next to the list of subscribers, then click Export People.

Automatically add series subscribers to a group

  1. Click the three dots next to the list of subscribers, then click Add People to Group.

  2. Select the group you want these subscribers to be added to. Click Add to Group.

You can also add people to a group using Effects. Add effects to your series easily to simplify your job.

  1. Click Add Effect under the Series information.

  2. Choose which Effect(s) you want to accomplish by someone texting in your series keyword. In this case, we want to use the first Effect to automatically add anyone who subscribes to this Series to a specific group. Then click Create.

Note: If someone texts in to subscribe to a Series as their FIRST text in, Gloo will respond with your message that's sent when subscribed and automatically amend the response sent back with onboarding path 1.

You'll never have to worry about someone falling through the cracks no matter what they text in the first time!

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