Dead simple group texting for ministry with Tatango
November 4th, 2009 | 
A while back I wrote a gushing blog post about a company called Tatango, whose aim is to make it dead simple for anybody to harness the useful technology of mass or group text messaging. Those of us involved in youth ministry are undoubtedly aware that text messaging is an indispensable tool for effective communication with our students, so I wanted to give another push for Tatango and the services they offer. And because I love you so much, at the end of this post you will find a code for 15% off of any plan Tatango offers.
Below is a short tutorial video that covers the basics of Tatango. Since the service has recently gone under a moderate redesign/update, I’m sure that current users will find the video helpful as well:
Let me say a few quick words regarding other youth ministry texting options.
If you’ve bought into Doug Fields’ Simply Youth Ministry Simply Txt, then I laud you for knowing that texting is important, but I promise you that Tatango is a better bang for your buck. Just compare Simply Txt’s $30/mo plan with Tatango’s $20/mo plan. For $10 less per month, you get 280 more group messages, unlimited more contacts, and two keywords (which, as far as I can tell, Simply Txt doesn’t offer).1
I’m also aware that TXT Signal was all the rage in youth ministry circles for a while, but it simply can’t keep up with the services Tatango offers. A quick comparison of pricing plans for TXT Signal and Tatango will convince you more quickly than I could here.
Anyway, if you’re still on the fence about whether or not Tatango’s group messaging service is a good fit for your ministry, try it out free for 30 days. When your trial is over, the good people from Tatango have offered readers of JakeBouma.com a code good for 15% off any plan (The 15% is continuous, and is good for the lifetime of the plan). Just enter K7D0TRCL when you check out and enjoy the savings!
If you have any questions about Tatango’s services, be sure to check out their Frequently Asked Questions page, follow them on Twitter, and/or leave a comment below.
- Keywords allow you to choose words that users can text to join the group. For example, I have “EIKON” set up as the high school keyword ↩
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Great post, Jake – we appreciate the love!
Readers – customer service is king at Tatango, so if you have any questions or if there is anything I can do to help, please don't hesitate to contact me.
Look forward to having some of you on the site!
Cheers,
Andrew Dumont
VP of Marketing at Tatango
andrew@tatango.com
360.319.1387
Jake- I keep telling them that people probably think I'm on their payroll or something. I'm not! I just love this service and I know it will help people do their job better. I agree with your review. It's the only texting service I recommend. You didn't mention this, but they are one of the few true SMS options. The others are actually just email services that are sending short emails to cells.
Thanks for the comment, Adam. I did know that the other options aren't true SMS services… That's probably becase TXT Signal isn't as big a company as Tatango (they can't afford the SMS fees) and Simply Youth Ministry has too many things going on to dedicate to a great SMS service.
Actually Simply Youth Min is using a white label version of TXT Signal. TXT Signal does all the work for Simply. I've been using Tatango for 7 or 8 months now and it has been FLAWLESS.
Oh wow… I didn't know that. Thanks for the info. And yeah, Tatango is pretty sweet! :)
Yeah, I originally used TXT Signal, then took the free trial with SYM and found them to be so similar that I actually asked them if that's what they were doing, found out that I was right!
Not to rain on everyone's parade, but I'll just suffice it to say that my experience with Tatango's marketing department to be incredibly pushy, even offensively so. I get irritated just thinking about it. Their service may be great, but I can never recommend nor support the guys behind the service… and they definitely know that.
Thanks for weighing in, Tim… sucky to hear that your experience wasn't good. Do you care to elaborate? If not (it sounds like a touchy subject), no worries.
But their marketing department is so good looking…
I have Sprint, and they offer free group texting through an interface called Zipwhip. You can find it at http://sprint.zipwhip.com/ You need to log into your Sprint account that you otherwise use to check your minutes and pay your bills.
Another service that I have and use for group texting is Jott at http://jott.com This service enables you to send voice messages transcribed to text to individuals or groups, to e-mail addresses or text messages to phones. You can also send these messages by typing them directly from your PC. The plan I have is about $3.50 per month when paid annually, otherwise $3.95/mo.
Thanks for the tips, Mark. I used to use Jott for group texting as well… I don't actually remember why I stopped using it…
Tim,
I'm really sorry about your experience with Tatango. My name is Derek Johnson, the CEO here at Tatango. Please give me a call at 206.334.4012 and lets figure out what we can do to make you a happy customer. Customers are #1 here at Tatango and it's very rare to hear comments like this, but when it does, we do our best to turn them around :) Look forward to talking to you.
- Derek Johnson
Tim,
I'm really sorry about your experience with Tatango. My name is Derek Johnson, the CEO here at Tatango. Please give me a call at 206.334.4012 and lets figure out what we can do to make you a happy customer. Customers are #1 here at Tatango and it's very rare to hear comments like this, but when it does, we do our best to turn them around :) Look forward to talking to you.
- Derek Johnson