KDVR Denver Tests AlertMe Engagement Tool

AlertMe, an audience engagement tool for online content publishers, announced a successful pilot with Tribune Broadcasting’s KDVR Denver (DMA 17).

An AlertMe button at the bottom of stories enables the station’s Fox31 website visitors to click-to-follow any story, allowing users to get updates on specific stories via email or text when new information is published. This creates recurring traffic and regular, loyal readers.

During a pilot of more than 100 days, AlertMe helped KDVR retain the loyalty of thousands of visitors to its website who chose to get alerts about updates to nearly 200 separate news stories, according to AlertMe. Nearly 72% of the email and text alerts led to direct website traffic, as opposed to an industry open rate of less than 8%.

“We had several big local news stories during this period that our viewers wanted to follow, including a series of summer wildfires,” said Joan Barrett, KDVR vice president and general manager. “AlertMe helped our viewers and readers stay up-to-date with coverage from our journalists without having to search for updates.”

“Our experience with KDVR proves that AlertMe can generate up to nine times the reader engagement as email newsletters,” said Adam J. Shapiro, co-founder. “The reason for that is simple — readers click what they care about. If they choose the AlertMe option after reading a story, they care, they want to be updated and they have loyally chosen which news outlet they want to personally deliver them fresh information with return visits to the site.”

The AlertMe button ran below every online story, and was promoted by KDVR’s news anchors. The station also ran 10-second promotional announcements regarding the technology.

AlertMe is now available to consumers on 46 newspaper, television and digital native sites, reaching nearly 60 million unique visitors per month. AlertMe has sent more than 70,000 alert emails to consumers about the content they choose, with readers clicking to the publishers’ sites 47.4% of the time.