With the COVID-19 spreading so fast, many companies are turning to the most reliable marketing channel to limit the risk of further contamination. Yes, you guessed that right. We’re talking about text message marketing (aka SMS marketing). Healthcare organizations, hospitals, health ministries and even pharmaceutical and personal care brands are showing interest in starting their personalized SMS campaigns covering the talk of the town in the most economical of ways possible.

Why Companies Are Relying on SMS Alerts to Increase Awareness About the Novel Coronavirus?

Communication plays a crucial role in how official agencies provide public health information and offer tips and suggestions to deal with an evolving situation. One of the best ways to share this information is using the best technological practices to deliver these important messages. Digital marketing tools and solutions can help companies swiftly and economically scale response.

In this post, we’ll see how government, healthcare organizations and NGOs can use the best practices to share the Coronavirus alerts to general public in order to lower down the risk of contamination and limit the spread.

Unlike other marketing channels, SMS marketing is proven to be the most reliable marketing channel that has massive open rates. Text message campaigns allow companies to talk directly to customers, giving them an opportunity to market their products. At the same time, it helps them to share useful information about the disease.

Benefits of Using Text Message Marketing to Spread Coronavirus Awareness

High Delivery Rates

Text messages will be delivered within seconds, allowing you to spread right information at the right time.

Pre-Planned

There are many SMS marketing services like SaturnText that offer templates and easy-to-use scheduling features, so that you can prepare and send your messages at the right time. This feature can particularly be useful for organizations that want to notify their workers about an off day or other important alerts such as event cancellation, etc.

Using SMS Marketing to Reduce Wait Times

With the growing threat of Coronavirus hitting the entire world with full force, finding a way to broadcast messages is vital, and text message marketing is playing a significant role in making this happen.

When it comes to public health hotline backlogs, one thing is certain that people expect quick and accurate responses. Obviously, no one likes to wait for hours when there’s already a lot of contradictory information circulating the web about the pandemic disease. As a medium that is widely accepted and acknowledged in everyday life where we receive reminders about our appointments, school closure alerts when there’s a bad weather situation, and notifications from our favorite brands about deals and discounts, SMS marketing is an expectation during this difficult time.

Fortunately, the most efficient companies are using this channel to avoid undesired wait times. For instance, many companies have integrated chatbots and IVR to automatically respond to general queries. For instance, they have setup a universal response for the frequently asked questions like ‘what measures should I take to keep my family safe?’

Using chatbots and automated responders integrated with text messages is a great way to share useful public information and answer repeated questions without delay.

Avoid Misinformation with Timely Alerts

Sadly, a lot of information circulating the internet is either incorrect or stemming from uncertainty. Timely text messages enable organizations to keep their information up-to-date on the basis of the most current information provided by the trusted healthcare organizations. As an official government organization or a healthcare service, when you send the most recent and reliable information from your organization into the hands of the general public, you will significantly help reduce speculations and spread of false information and wrong statistics.

Reach More People

As there’s no cure available till date, the only way one can reduce the intensity of the current situation is by providing correct information to everyone in the virus-affected areas. This means broadcasting your message over mediums where users are in need of assistance rather than one-on-one communication. While the seriousness of the situation dictates how the end user would like to get engaged, SMS can be a foolproof way to provide timely information to the users. There are companies that deploy cross-channel marketing approaches to take advantage of all the prominent marketing channels including emails, phone calls, videos, SMS and digital media to get their message across. By choosing this Omni-channel approach, organizations and NGOs are able to substantially widen their reach, helping them to connect with more and more people in the shortest span of time.

Automate Scheduling Process through Text Message Marketing

Managing appointments can be a huge operational burden especially if you’re a doctor who needs to treat patients or guide them about the further testing procedure. SMS marketing is one of the best ways you can keep your patients updated about their appointments. Not only SMS marketing helps organizations communicate directly as well as personally to the patients, but it also lowers down the cost of calling each patient individually.

With SMS marketing, you can set up reminders to reduce no shows and ensure the vacant slot can be allotted to someone else at the right time.

Conclusion

SMS marketing is a proven marketing strategy that can help government, health organizations and NGOs expand their reach and make other’s life a lot easier. The fastest and most effective way to keep your audience informed about the recent virus updates is by working from a template. Simply, create a message and schedule it for all the people listed on your SMS list. You can also add an MMS to make your text more appealing and informative. Don’t forget to add mobile landing pages to persuade people to visit your page. Stay safe…