Promoting Your Notifcation & Emergency Alert Program

A notification program by its nature requires action by diverse groups of people…and people don’t take action unless there’s a compelling reason. They have to be convinced to respond…in other words, sold on it.

Think of the notification/alerts/warning program as a product that needs promotion. First, brand it. Give the program a name people will remember, a name that will stick in their memory. Then, decide what message you would like to convey and craft the message. Again, think about a message that will "stick". Then, determine how to get the word out…in other words, the marketing campaign. (Suggested reading: Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die; Chip Heath & Dan Heath (Random House, 2007)

The need to promote the program is not only necessary for public notifications; it applies to internal notification programs, too (i.e. first responders). Cooperation required for updating data alone justifies an internal “sales” program. People will need to know what the notification program does, why it does it, and what part they play to make the program successful. They’ll need to be educated, even if their only role is to receive messages. If their role is to activate messages, they’ll need a different level of education.

So, to properly promote your program, remember these three things:

1. Brand it
2. Create a "sticky" message
3. Develop a "marketing plan"

Leave any of these elements out, and your program could easily fall on deaf ears.

Note: Excerpted from the Galain Solutions, Inc white paper, "Notifications, Alerts, Warnings: The Next Generation". For a copy, please send a request to info@galainsolutions.com. And, if you need more info beyond the paper on how to successfully sell your notification program, let us know. We'd like to help you.