Setting up automated notifications for sales enablement in Bigtincan

If you're tired of sales reps missing updates—or worse, getting bombarded with useless alerts—this guide is for you. Whether you're a Bigtincan admin, a sales enablement manager, or the person everyone bugs when “something's broken,” we'll walk through setting up automated notifications that actually help. No fluff, just clear steps and real talk about what works, what doesn't, and how to keep things sane.

Why Bother With Automated Notifications?

Done right, automated notifications can keep your team on track: new content, updated pricing, or must-know changes—delivered straight to the right people, at the right time. But set up wrong, they're just more noise. The goal here is to use Bigtincan to make your notifications timely, relevant, and actually read.

A few honest truths before you start: - More notifications ≠ more engagement. Quality wins. - One-size-fits-all alerts? Usually ignored. - If your reps start ignoring notifications, you’ve lost the game.

So, let’s set up the good kind: automatic, targeted, and not annoying.

Step 1: Decide What Actually Needs an Automated Notification

Before clicking anything in Bigtincan, make a list. What are the events or updates your sales team genuinely needs to know about? Some typical triggers:

  • New or updated sales collateral
  • Price changes or promo launches
  • Training deadlines
  • Product launches
  • Changes to compliance documents

Pro tip: Ask a few reps what notifications they actually want. You’ll get valuable, sometimes surprising, feedback. It’s easy to overestimate how much info people want pushed to them.

Step 2: Organize Your Content and Teams in Bigtincan

Automated notifications in Bigtincan depend on how your content and users are organized. If your folders and groups are a mess, notifications will be too.

  • Content Folders: Make sure your sales docs, product sheets, and training materials live in logical folders.
  • User Groups: Set up groups (e.g., “Enterprise Sales,” “Channel Partners,” “New Hires”) that match how you want to target notifications.

Take a few minutes to clean up before trying to automate. If you skip this, you'll end up sending irrelevant notifications or missing people who need the info.

Step 3: Find the Notification Settings

Here’s where some folks get tripped up. Bigtincan has a few different notification options, and they’re not all in the same place.

  1. Log in to Bigtincan Hub as an admin.
  2. In the left menu, go to Admin > Notifications (sometimes called “Alerts” in older interfaces).
  3. You'll see options for:
  4. System Notifications: For platform-wide alerts.
  5. Content Notifications: For specific folders or files.
  6. Task/Workflow Notifications: For things like training or approval workflows.

For sales enablement, you'll mostly care about Content Notifications and sometimes Task Notifications.

Step 4: Set Up Automated Content Notifications

This is the meat of it. Here’s how to set up an automated notification for new or updated content:

  1. Go to the folder or file you want to watch.
  2. Find the option to Manage Notifications (usually a bell icon or in the “...” menu).
  3. Choose Add Notification Rule.
  4. Select your trigger:
    • When a new file is added
    • When a file is updated
    • When a file is deleted (use sparingly)
  5. Pick who gets notified:
    • By group, role, or individual users. Stick to groups when you can—easier to maintain.
  6. Decide how they get notified:
    • In-app alert
    • Email
    • Push notification (to mobile)
    • Don’t default to all three unless it’s truly urgent. Start with in-app or email, and adjust if people miss things.

Pro tip: Less is more. Only set up notifications for high-impact content. For everything else, trust that people can check in when they need it.

Step 5: Test Your Notifications (Seriously, Do This)

Don’t assume it works. Here’s a quick way to test:

  • Add or update some “dummy” content in your chosen folder.
  • Check that users in the target group actually get the notification (ask them, or check their Bigtincan inbox if you have access).
  • Confirm the notification says what you want it to say. Vague alerts (“Content Updated”) get ignored.

If something’s off—wrong people getting alerts, weird subject lines, delays—fix it now. Otherwise, you’ll spend weeks untangling notification spaghetti.

Step 6: Write Better Notification Messages

Bigtincan lets you customize the notification text (depending on your setup). Don’t just stick with the generic “A file has been updated” message. Instead:

  • Say what changed: “Updated: Q2 Product Pricing Sheet.”
  • Say why it matters: “Please review before next week’s sales calls.”
  • Keep it short. No one reads paragraphs in a notification.

What to ignore: Don’t bother writing long, detailed notifications. The point is to get attention, not explain everything in the alert itself.

Step 7: Automate Workflow and Training Notifications (Optional)

If you use Bigtincan for onboarding or sales training, you can set up automated notifications for assigned tasks.

  • Go to Tasks or Workflows in the admin menu.
  • Create a rule: When a new training is assigned, send an alert to the assignee.
  • Set up reminders for overdue tasks if needed—but don’t go overboard. Too many reminders and people just start tuning out.

Honest take: Automated training reminders are helpful, but only if your managers actually follow up. Automation can’t replace accountability.

Step 8: Review and Adjust (Yes, This Is Ongoing)

After a week or two, check in:

  • Are people reading the notifications?
  • Are they acting on them?
  • Did you get complaints about too many alerts?

It’s OK to dial things back. Disable or fine-tune notifications that aren’t getting results. Ask your team what’s working and what’s just noise.

Metrics worth tracking (if you have access): - Open rates for email notifications - In-app message reads - Engagement with the linked content

Don’t obsess over the numbers, but if you see a pattern—like everyone ignoring a certain type of alert—take the hint.

Honest Pros and Cons

What works: - Automated notifications save time when set up right. - Group-based targeting keeps things manageable. - Custom messages get more attention.

What doesn’t: - “Spray and pray” alerts—everyone gets everything—just leads to tuning out. - Over-automation. If every file triggers a push, your reps will mute you.

What to ignore: - Don’t waste time perfecting every notification. Focus on the high-impact stuff.

Keep It Simple: Less Noise, More Signal

Automated notifications in Bigtincan can make your sales enablement smoother—or just add more clutter. Start small. Pick a few key updates to automate, get feedback, and tweak as you go. If a notification isn’t helping, kill it. The best system is the one your team actually pays attention to.