Getting a Mass Emergency Notification (aka Emergency Alert) System is a great way to keep your community informed and safe when an emergency occurs. However, without having your citizens signed up for emergency alerts your chances to reach out to them will be greatly diminished. Even if you use a landline database for making telephone calls, it will have huge gaps, because most people use only their cell phones nowadays.
That’s why a powerful and compelling registration campaign is critical for a successful public notification program. It will get more citizens registered for alerts and increase your notification reach and community preparedness. In our experience, folks often do not know that there’s a notification system or that they can sign up to receive emergency notifications. And in most cases, the community enrollment link for the web-based form is hard to find.
Here are some communication steps that will help you get the word out about your Emergency Notification System:
1. Use multiple communication channels:
- Add a Sign-up button on your county/city website. Make sure it’s noticeable and easy to find. It’s preferable to place it on the main page and the pages that are most commonly visited by your citizens.
- Publish some press-releases in local news sources about the ENS and how community members can sign up for alerts. Cross-post it on your Facebook and Twitter news feeds.
- Distribute informative leaflets to your citizens during public events, such as city festivals, fairs, marathons to remind them to register for emergency alerts.
- Include a registration form with a QR-code linked to the web form on utility bills, or send a postcard.
Check out the tri-fold and postcard we did recently for our clients in Cayuga County, NY and Iredell County, NC:
2. Publish and share stories about successful use of the ENS. For example, our recent story about Phillip Roar, a 39-year old Kentucky state inmate who decided to escape the work crew he was on. Thanks to the timely use of the Hyper-Reach integrated emergency notification system, he was captured the next day and returned to custody: https://www.hyper-reach.com/escape-convict-situation-shows-the-power-of-integrated-emergency-notification-services/
3. Run thematic Sign-Up campaigns. For example, we held a Mother’s Day Sign-Up campaign for our clients last year. We used Mother’s Day as an occasion to remind citizens to register for emergency alerts and asked moms from Burke County, NC (a Hyper-Reach client) to help us to encourage their communities to sign up. The posts were published on Facebook pages of our clients.
If you’re an existing Hyper-Reach client and want to try a campaign like these, just let your Hyper-Reach sales or service representative know. We’ll be glad to help!
We hope these suggestions will help you increase your community’s enrollment in your Emergency Notification System.
If you do not have such a system and would like to learn more, please Request A Demo and we’ll show you how it all works!
