Innovation

How Players Can Opt In And Receive Text Message Alerts

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By LeagueApps
June 18, 2014
4 min

In our latest release we’ve added the ability to send text messages to participants. Sending a text message is a great way to get time sensitive announcements such as field changes or game cancellations to your players.  Many times email notifications can get buried in your inbox.  Studies have shown that 90% of text messages are read within 3 minutes of receiving them. Using this feature will help make sure your players don’t end up in the wrong location or show up for a cancelled game. (Learn how to enable the Text Messaging App here.)

At the same time we want to make sure that we are following industry and legal standards in regards to privacy.  Taking that into account we’ve built an opt-in and verification process for players to grant leagues permission to send text messages to their phones. We’ve also created tools to help make the opt in process as quick and easy as possible. The following tools highlight the features we’ve created to help get your players signed up.

Dedicated Opt In Page, URL and Phone Number

Your pubic site(s) will have a dedicated URL for players to opt-in to receive text messages.  The page will only be available if you have enabled the the Text Message App on your particular site.  The URL for the page will be CustomURL.com/sms.  So if your domain is PlayLeagueApps.com your dedicated opt in URL is PlayLeagueApps.com/sms.   This page has been mobile optimized as well, to allow your users to easily opt in while on the go.  You can post this link on your website, send it out via an email, or ask participants to visit it when seeing them in person at a meeting or on the field.

All messages from your site will come from the same phone number. When you setup your app you will be able to enter your area code and select from a list of local numbers to use for your site.  You can encourage your players to save that number in their phone’s contact list so they know that the message is coming from your league.

2 Step Verification

After a player enters their phone number and opts in to receive text message notifications, they will immediately be sent a verification code to that cell phone.  In order to complete the opt in process they will have to enter that verification code on the screen they are viewing in their browser.  This is an industry standard for security and privacy – and helps make sure the player is guaranteed to receive the notification on their proper device.

Easy Opt Out

A player can easily opt out of receiving text message notifications by simply sending the text STOP to the number.  We only want to send text messages to those people who want them and we have to respect their decision to opt out.  If they want to stop receiving text messages – then all they have to do is say so.  The user can also opt out by visiting the same dedicated url used for opting in.
 

Website Notifications

We’ve created an automatic banner and call to action that displays on  the bottom of your LeagueApps public website when text messaging is enabled.

If you want to turn off the banner, you can add the following to your custom CSS in the Theme Editor:   #apps-enabled{display: none;}

We’ve included an additional call to action on the registration confirmation page.  After player signs up for a new program they will be encouraged to opt in to text message notifications from your league.

Widgets

If you host your site outside of LeagueApps, you can include a call out to sign up for text messaging using one of our widgets.  The widgets are available on the configuration page of your Text Message App.

We are excited to roll out text messaging to our partners.  We hope you and your players will find this new feature as exciting as we do!

If you have any questions, be sure to check out our Help Site, including our FAQ page for Text Messaging.