People may not remember whether they’ve opted in for one of your church campaigns. Since it looks interesting or useful, they will opt in again.
Alternatively, some campaigns encourage people to return...but you want to handle ‘returnees’ differently to ‘newbies’.
That’s why the PastorsLine Automated Message Campaign (AMC) is set up with a left-hand side (LHS) and a right-hand side (RHS) workflow.
Video Overview
The video below is from a previous version of PastorsLine.
As a result, the screens look somewhat different. A more in-depth explanation and updated walkthrough begins below the video. But watching the video will give you a good idea of the process, since it has basically remained the same.
Explanation of the two AMC sides
Messages on the LHS are for first-timers only. Messages on the RHS are for returnees — those who have already opted in at least once before.
NOTE: To allow PastorsLine to go back and forth between the LHS and RHS of an AMC, you must toggle on the right side so that the buttons on the RHS are purple. If any of the items on the right side are toggled off (buttons are greyed out), the person will be handled as if they are new, whether or not they have already opted in to your PastorsLine AMC.
Let’s look at the process in more detail...
When someone opts in to your AMC, we take the texter’s phone number and compare it to the numbers already in your AMC. We will either find the phone number or we will not.
If we do not find the phone number, we know that this person is a completely new opt in. We will then automatically add that person to your AMC group. We will process this person using the LHS only (brown box below).
If we find the phone number, we know that this person has already opted in to this AMC. We will process this person using the RHS only...provided it has been toggled on (blue box above, button is "on" and purple).
If the RHS is toggled off (blue circle below, button is “off” and greyed out), your returnee will be treated as if they have opted in for the first time.
If the RHS is toggled on (blue box below) but the message box is left "blank" (blue arrow below), we will not send a message to returnees on that "step".
Pro tip
You can personalize your messages with the name merge field.
LHS idea: So glad you visited us this weekend, [First Name]. We are praying for you and we hope to see you again next week!
RHS idea: We are happy to see you again this weekend, [First Name]! We've been praying for you!
Check out our article HERE that explains the Left and Right hand sides of the data capture too!