The Ultimate Guide to Text Alerts

All kinds of businesses and non-profits use text alerts to improve sales and efficiency.

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If you’re thinking about using text alerts, check out this ultimate guide to learn:

• What text alerts are
• How to get started using text alerts
• How to send text alerts
• Who uses text alerts

Definitions

What Are Text Alerts?

Text alerts, also known as SMS alerts, are text messages that are sent to large numbers of people using mass texting software. Text alert services are typically offered on a subscription basis and are available online or via mobile app.

Text Alert Examples:

“

30% off any orders over $30, today ONLY! Click here to access this deal: [link]

“

We’re going live with new inventory in 30 minutes. Don’t miss out on these stellar new pieces!

“

Reminder: Your appointment with Dr. Gregory is tomorrow at 1:10pm. Please arrive 15 minutes early to check in and fill out paperwork.

What Are Emergency Text Alerts?

Emergency text alerts are a subset of overall text alerts that involve notifying large numbers of people about urgent information. Businesses and non-profit organizations send these text messages in cases of true emergencies, such as to alert field staff of dangerous weather, or in cases of highly time-sensitive information, such as last-minute changes in shift hours.

Emergency Text Message Examples:

“

Offices are closed today due to severe weather. Stay safe!

“

Safety alert: There is a security incident in the parking lot. Please remain in your seats until further notice.

“

ALERT: Hazardous spill reported. Please avoid Building A until further notice.

What Can a Text Alert Service Do?

A text alert service allows the user to send out mass text blasts to large numbers of people through a computer or mobile device. Typically, text alert services are accessed online or through a mobile app and include both database management and message sending capabilities.

Text Alerts for Businesses: How to Get Started

How often do you text your friends and family?

If you’re like most, the answer is at least daily.

For many, it’s multiple times a day, and for some, it’s multiple times hourly!

That’s why text alerts are an excellent solution for businesses looking to ramp up their sales and tighten internal organization.

But we’re sure you already knew that!

The question is, “Where do I start?”

After all, adding any new tool can be overwhelming.

If you’re not tech-savvy, it can be especially stressful. But even if you’re a tech king or queen, who has the time to spend hours learning new software?

“Not me!” we hear you say.

That’s why you need something that’s simple - simple to try out, and simple to get started. Something that won’t cause even more stress and hassle in your life.

There are 2 steps to getting started with that kind of simple text alert system:

• Sign up to test the waters
• Get people to subscribe

Sign Up for a Free Trial to Test the Waters

Try a hassle-free and risk-free test account right now and get a quick feel for how text alert services might work for you and your business.

You just might find that it’s exactly what you needed.

Get People to Sign Up for Text Alerts

Ever thought about how text alerts are kind of like cherry pie?

Everyone knows about cherry pie.

Everyone likes it once they get it.

But not everyone thinks to ask for it. (Usually, you go for apple or pumpkin or something like that.)

It’s the same with text alerts:

• Everyone has received a text alert at some point (for example, an appointment reminder from the dentist, or a promotion code from a favorite online store)
• Typically, everyone likes to receive that text (the reminder text helps you remember to make it to your dentist appointment; or the promotion text helps you save some hard-earned cash)
• But not everyone thinks to sign up to receive these texts

So how can you get people to sign up to receive your valuable alerts?

You’ve got useful content you want to send to them that will benefit them and which they’ll enjoy. But how do you get them to agree to receive it?

The best way to get people to sign up is to incentivize them.

An incentive, particularly an immediate one, provides an enticing motivation for people to opt in to your texts.

So offer a free item, a random drawing, a discount, or another irresistible incentive to anyone who signs up for your text list.

And then make sure you’re sending valuable content to keep them interested and hooked!

How to Send Different Kinds of Messages

Setting up and sending different kinds of texts through your text alert system is as easy as cherry pie (see the “Get People to Sign Up for Text Alerts” section above if you don’t understand the reference 😃).

Here’s how to do it.

Step 1: Make sure you have a text alert system account.

Sign up for free here if you haven’t already. (Really, give it a quick try! It’s no hassle and no risk).

Step 2: Add in some subscribers.

There are several ways to add contacts as subscribers on your account, but for testing purposes you can quickly add your number under the Manage Subscribers tab.

Step 3: Schedule a message.

Once you have at least one subscriber, all you need to do is head over to the Send a Message tab and you can easily send or schedule a message.

See? Easy as pie!

There are several different kinds of messages businesses will send, and you can check out below for instructions on how to send them.

How to Plan and Schedule Marketing Texts

Who wants more engagement and sales for their business?

(Raises hand.)

Text marketing is an effective tool to draw people’s attention to your marketing efforts.

You’ll approach the planning aspect of sending marketing texts the same way you approach other marketing efforts:

1. Brainstorm ideas
2. Make a plan
3. Write up the copy
4. Go into your text alert system and schedule the message

Once you have the copy for your marketing texts, all you need to do is select the recipients for your messages, choose the date/time you’d like your message to send, input the message copy, and click to schedule.

How to Send an Emergency Text Message

Sometimes time is of the essence.

In the event of some kind of emergency or urgent situation, you don’t have bandwidth to sit down and plan a whole campaign.

In situations like that, you need some way to easily blast out mass text alerts with little hassle.

You can send these types of messages by either…

• Quickly logging into the online platform, selecting recipients, typing out the message, and hitting “send”
• Accessing the mobile app and following the “send message” steps from your phone
• Texting in a message to the system phone number

How to Set Up Reminder Texts

Can you guess another major use for businesses and organizations to use texts?

You probably read this section header (cheater 😉), so you may have guessed “reminders.”

And you’re right!

Reminder texts can help boost attendance to events, increase engagement with a promotion, prompt someone to complete a checkout, and much more.

So, understandably, reminder texts make up a large portion of text alerts.

Here are some examples of how to set them up!

How to Set Up Reminders for Appointments

Do you work in a health office, salon, or other business at which people schedule appointments with you? (If not, feel free to skip ahead to the next section.)

If so, you know the benefit of sending appointment reminders - helping reduce no-shows and thus have a more productive and profitable workload.

In fact, you probably have already started incorporating text reminders for appointments.

With text alerts, all you need to do is select the recipient for the message, as well as the date/time you’d like the reminder to go out.

Your text alert system will then send out the message automatically.

How to Trigger an Appointment Confirmation Text

On a similar note to appointment reminders, you can also send out appointment confirmation texts.

You can input the information you’d like to send out to your client, ask them to respond with something like “Yes” to confirm, and hit “Send.”

When you see that they’ve replied, you can add their appointment to your schedule.

Organizations That Use Text Alerts

You may be trying to decide whether text alerts are right for your organization specifically.

It’s helpful, then, to see examples of organizations that use text alerts and see if any of them match your intended use case.

So then, who actually uses mass text alerts?

The short answer is: everyone!

But that’s not very helpful, so we’ll give you some more specifics.

Businesses

Showcasing promotions, engaging in customer support, and boosting efficiency in internal company communication are just a few of the reasons businesses use text alerts.

“Businesses” is extremely broad, so here are some particular types of businesses that use text alerts:

• Banks
• Boutiques
• Coaching
• Construction
• Fitness
• Healthcare
• Manufacturing
• Online businesses
• Real estate
• Retail
• Restaurants
• Stock tips
• Transportation
• Webinar sales

Need some examples of how text alerts help particular businesses?

Sure thing!

Here’s an example of how text alerts save a manufacturing company heavy expenses during power outages.

Here’s another example of how to send text alerts to your entire Procore directory for construction companies.

Direct Sales

Are you a direct sales retailer or an independent consultant?

You may find that text alerts are your bread and butter to engage with your customers and downline, thus allowing you to grow your business!

Here are some specific direct sales companies whose retailers benefit from text alerts:

• LuLaRoe (here are 5 ways to increase your LuLaRoe sales with text alerts)
• Paparazzi
  • Here’s how Bethany’s Bomb Bling owner increased her live sale attendance by 50% using text alerts.
  • Here’s how Beautifully Blessed Boutique owner saves time and boosts her live sale attendance with text alerts.
  • Here’s what happened when Anna’s Bling Boutique owner stopped using text alerts.
• Scentsy (here’s how Beauty n Scents owner simplifies her life as a business owner using an internal text alert system)
• Young Living
• Bomb Party
• Doterra
• Pomifera
• Tupperware
• Mary Kay
• Younique
• Pure Romance
• Color Street
• Monat
• Norwex
• Anything in between!

Churches

Did you know that our services here at Mobile Text Alerts began as a result of meeting a need in a local church in Lincoln, Nebraska?

The founder recognized that churches need a way to notify members about events, cancellations, updates, and announcements.

And sometimes they need to get these notices out quickly! Enter text alerts.

(You can check out our Ultimate Guide to Text Alerts for Churches for some more info on how text alerts relate to churches.)

Schools

You know how vital communication is when it comes to schools.

Event reminders, updates, weather cancellations, employee notices - there’s so much going on at schools, and text alerts are the best way to get a lot of these notifications out to parents, students, and employees.

Local Government

Government entities are unfortunately notorious for being inefficient.

Text alerts help change that when it comes to communication.

Local government entities including municipalities, government agencies/institutions, public parks, or any other public organization send texts to boost effectiveness and efficiency.

Here’s an example of how the City of Pueblo in Colorado found text alerts to be a better way to communicate.

Other Non-Profit Organizations

We all need reminders and “nudges” to help us remember things.

That’s true in churches, schools, government entities, and non-profit organizations in general.

That’s why non-profits can boost their reach and efficiency through text alerts.

What better way to remind people about events, programs, changes, announcements, weather closures, or any other types of notices?

Here’s an example of how FCA (Fellowship of Christian Athletes) uses text alerts to notify donors, coaches, and volunteers.

Mass Notification Systems

Need help sorting through all the text alert systems out there?

Here are some tips on what to look for.

Mass notification systems will provide an online platform and/or a mobile app that you can access to send text alerts to your audience at your convenience.

You’ll also want to look out for useful features to help you organize your account, build your subscriber text list, and provide a better experience to your text recipients.

Some features that can help accomplish those goals include:

• Simple opt-in methods such as text-to-join keywords, QR codes, and web forms, so that people can easily add themselves to your text list
• Easy contact management with group segmentation and account administration options
• Message automation (including API options) to free up your time and hassle
• Reports that will help you be informed about messages you’ve sent and contacts who have been added to your text list
• Friendly and accessible customer support so that you can get help when you need

Determine which elements are important to you and make sure the text alert system you choose offers those features.

Get Text Alerts Set Up for Your Own Business

Ready to give text alerts a shot for your own business or organization?

Give it a try for yourself today to see how an easy-to-use text alert system can boost your sales and bring more efficiency to your communication.

TRY IT NOW FOR FREE