What are SMS Alerts & How Can You Use them in Your Business?

Do you want a reliable and effective way of reaching your customers? Explore SMS alerts right now!

Despite the massive popularity of social media platforms and direct messages, the importance and popularity of text message alerts have remained relatively high. SMS text alerts remain a popular form of marketing for both small and large-scale businesses.

So, if you are not fully familiar with the exact SMS alerts and how to use them, you are in the right place!

Overview of SMS Alerts

Before we dive into the detailed benefits and usage of SMS alerts, it is important to get familiar with some basics.

What is an SMS Alert?

An SMS alert, also called an SMS notification, is a short text message sent directly to a specific phone number. Many organizations and government authorities use text message alerts to inform the recipient about an important event.

Since businesses are always looking for ways to expand their customer reach and make more sales, SMS alerts are an integral part of marketing and outreach campaigns. Brands can use SMS text alerts to promote a specific product, service, a new launch, discount offers, or even personalized deals for an existing customer base.

Source：https://www.spcdn.org/

Pros and Cons of SMS Alerts

SMS alerts, like any other marketing strategy, have both pros and cons.

Working of an SMS Alert System

The specific working of an SMS alert system is dependent on the type of software you are using and the goals you wish to achieve with SMS marketing. Generally, an SMS alert system works by allowing you to send mass text messages.

Businesses that aim to promote their products or services through SMS alerts need to have a large database of target recipients. Their phone numbers can be obtained by any past purchases they might have made in the company or lead generation through social media channels.

It is also important to keep in mind that sending SMS alert messages does not mean spamming the recipients with constant messages. The SMS alerts must be scheduled to be sent at suitable times with significant intervals between them. Otherwise, the recipient can block the number and you can lose a potential customer.

Why and When Should SMS Be Used For Alerts And Notifications?

Benefits & Applications of SMS Alerts

You are probably thinking why should a business use SMS for alerts and notifications instead of e-mails and other communication channels? The answer is simple: SMS alerts have a much greater trust factor than emails because they come directly to your phone number.

Nowadays, most of the communication channels are flooded with marketing material and spam regularly. While emails still have an impressive open rate, they are losing their credibility quite quickly due to massive competition.

Therefore, businesses need to stand out from others by paying attention to crafting a diverse and relevant list of phone numbers of the target audience and sending alert text messages.

When to Send Text Message Notifications

Another important factor to consider about SMS alerts is when should you send these text message notifications.

Some of the common situations in which you can send SMS alerts are:

• Emergencies situations in which you want to provide an important piece of information to the recipient on an urgent basis.
• Promote new features of your software.
• Inform the recipients about your upcoming products or services.
• Promote upcoming events.
• Internal communication between employees of an organization.
• Encourage users to purchase if they have abandoned the cart.
• Provide information about appointments to your patients.
• Confirm reservations.

Use Cases & Examples of SMS Text Messages in Businesses

The vast reach of SMS alerts and notifications makes them a great tool of communication and marketing for businesses of all types and sizes. Let’s discuss some specific examples of how businesses in different industries can use SMS text messages.

Banks and Financial Institutes

Banks often use SMS alerts to provide quick information about ATM transactions, large transactions, and other financial activities. These text message alerts are also great for informing the recipient about any suspicious transaction or failed login attempts from a device.

Similarly, other types of financial institutions and organizations use SMS to inform recipients about loan programs, mortgage payments, new investment opportunities, and any other service you might be using.

Here’s an alert text message example from a bank:

Retail & E-Commerce

The e-commerce and retail industry uses SMS alerts to inform customers about new discounted offers, upcoming events, promotions, and new products. They can also use text messages to confirm orders placed online and provide shipping or delivery updates.

Using SMS notifications is a great strategy for the e-commerce and retail industry to always keep the customers in the loop and let them know the progress of their orders. It ultimately leads to greater customer satisfaction.

Source：https://trumpia.com/blog/

Healthcare

Hospitals, medical clinics, pharmacies, and the overall healthcare industry are also benefitting from SMS alerts. They can send appointment reminders via SMS or provide information about the text results through text messages.

Companies operating in the fitness and wellness industry can also use SMS to send personalized health tips and information about fitness goal motivations. Overall, SMS alerts allow the healthcare industry to provide better and more efficient patient care.

Here’s an example of an SMS text alert sent after a patient missed his appointment:

Source：https://www.eztexting.com/

Tourism & Travel Industry

SMS alert notifications are an efficient communication channels for the businesses operating in the tourism, travel, and transportation industry. Similarly, public transport companies and ride-sharing platforms like the well-known Uber user SMS notifications to give updates about any delays, cancellations, or major changes to the users.,

Hence, using SMS alerts allows transport-related businesses to provide better services to customers and keep them up-to-date on a trip.

The following is an example of multiple SMS alerts from Uber:

Source：https://stfalcon.com/en/blog/

Public Safety

Security and public safety is another important area where SMS text messages are extremely popular. Government authorities and different non-profit organizations use SMS alerts to alert people about emergencies, such as during hurricane season and other safety-related incidents.

Here’s an example of an SMS alert generated to warn recipients about a potential tornado:

Source：https://www.eztexting.com/

These are some of the many different types of businesses, authorities, and organizations that can use SMS alerts to connect with their target audience and provide greater customer satisfaction.

How to get SMS Alerts started with EngageLab?

We have now established the fact that SMS alerts have usage across all types of organizations. So, the next step is to learn how to create and implement SMS text messages within your communication strategy to enjoy its numerous benefits.

EngageLab is the perfect customer engagement platform to create a comprehensive and reliable SMS marketing campaign. It allows you to implement the best customer engagement strategies and ensure high delivery rates to ensure your messages are reaching the target audience.

Benefits of EngageLab

The following are the key benefits of using EngageLab to send SMS alerts:

• High delivery rates to a diverse global audience.
• A completely stable, secure, and reliable system capable of sending more than 10 billion text messages per day.
• User-friendly interface and easy configuration system to ensure anyone can create an SMS campaign.
• 24/7 customer support system to help you set up and configure SMS alerts.

How to Setup SMS Alerts with EngageLab?

Here’s how you can setup SMS alerts with EngageLab:

Open EngageLab and log in to your account or sign up for a new one. Choose SMS.

Open the SMS Template section and choose to Create a new template.

Add the details of your SMS and Create a template as per your requirements.

Add your phone number(s) or an entire list of target recipients under the Contact section to ensure you can send your SMS.

Once you have created the SMS alerts, you can get significant information about them and their delivery under the Analytics section. These detailed statistics are important in tweaking your SMS marketing campaign from time to time and optimizing its effectiveness.

Conclusion

The bottom line is that SMS alerts are an effective communication channel. Whether you want to give a warning about an incoming storm or just promote your products and services, SMS text message alerts can fulfill your requirements.

But you can only enjoy all the benefits of SMS alerts if you are using a modern and reliable customer engagement tool like EngageLab. Sign up for a free trial of EngageLab today and use it yourself to determine its effectiveness in implementing an effective SMS alert campaign.

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