Using Broadcasts to send personalized messages to large groups of people is one of Gloo’s most popular features. They’re quick to set up, easy to use, and a huge time saver. Here are 5 great tips that will help take your broadcasting to the next level.
✨ Tip #1 – Know your audience!
People are much more likely to tune in and engage with content that feels specific to them. When broadcasting, always make sure you are getting the right information to the right people in the right way.
Personalize your messages so that each person receives the message with their name in it.
Strike a tone that matches your audience. Are you sending a broadcast to your church about giving or finances? Maybe keep your tone more on the formal side. Are you a youth pastor? It’s probably good to be more casual and maybe throw in an emoji or two. The key is to make sure you’re communicating with people in a language they’re familiar and comfortable with.
Make sure your broadcast gets to exactly the right people each time. Instead of always sending broadcasts to everyone, you can choose groups or individuals, or create groups on the fly by selecting different combinations of groups and individuals.
Pro Tip: Use the handy Exclude groups or individuals button to further customize your broadcast recipients. For example, if you are sending out event info to the church but don’t need to send it to the volunteers group, simply use the Exclude button to remove that group from the broadcast. Also note that if your account includes Explorers, those Explorers will automatically be excluded from your Broadcasts so that you aren't accidentally interrupting sensitive conversations with random announcements.
✨ Tip #2 – Have a clear call to action
Craft your broadcasts to get people to engage with you, not just to communicate static information! Use your broadcasts to encourage people to do something clear and simple in order to engage with you:
If you are sending info about an event, include a link to a signup sheet.
If you are checking in on how people are doing, tell them to text “PRAY FOR…” to collect Prayer Requests.
Introduce a new Workflow by sending a broadcast like “text ADVENT” to join our church-wide Advent devotional!
Pro Tip: If you need inspiration, be sure to check out our Workflow Templates!
✨ Tip #3 – Don’t be overly repetitive, and keep it short and sweet
In an age where we’re constantly bombarded with emails, phone calls, and notifications on our phones, no one wants to feel like they’re being spammed. Remember that people don’t necessarily opt into your broadcasts, but that you can send them to anyone at any time. We recommend sticking to just 2-3 per week.
It’s also important to keep things fresh with some variety! Try not to use broadcasts the same way every time. If you broadcast out info for a Bible study sign-up, try to make sure your next broadcast is different, like asking people how you can pray for them. More variety will keep people regularly engaging with you and keep your opt out rate low!
Finally, often keeping things short and sweet is most effective. If your Broadcast message is longer than 160 characters, it will still send, but may come to people's phones broken up into smaller messages, or it may be delayed. These changes are based on carrier restrictions we can't control, so keeping things short will ensure a smoother experience for everyone. And if you want to send out long-form content, try our Memos feature!
✨ Tip #4 – Schedule sets of Broadcasts to save time
If you have a long set of content or information to send out, then creating a Workflow would be a fantastic idea. But if you know of a few broadcasts to send out each week, consider sitting down on Monday and scheduling them all at once to save time later and make sure nothing falls through the cracks.
Or maybe you have an event a few times a year, like baptisms, and you want to announce those times to the church once they get closer. Scheduling all of those broadcasts at once is another great time saver. That way, if life gets crazy in the meantime, your messages will already be scheduled and ready to go out before each baptism!
Pro tip: If you have a Gloo+ subscription, you can schedule Recurring Broadcasts to go out at set intervals!
✨ Tip #5 – Use Email Broadcasts when appropriate
Because of their extremely high open rate, text messages are often the best way to communicate. But sometimes the amount of information you need to communicate can feel too bulky to fit in a nice little text message. That would be a great time to send your broadcast as an email instead of a text message! Emails can handle much more content without making people feel overwhelmed. But a word of caution here- emails generally have much lower open rates than texts, so if you’re sending important information via email, keep in mind that likely fewer people will end up seeing that information.
