What are the differences between alerts and custom emails?

At a very high level, uConnect's custom emails are:

uConnect provides a standard email function, which allows you to create customizable messages to your subscribers and track analytics. Within an email you can draft static text, add imagery, embed dynamic content straight from your platform, and choose your recipient list based on your core platform tagging structure, (i.e. send only to 'Juniors' who've identified an interest in your 'Healthcare' career community).

At a very high level, uConnect's Automated Alerts are:

uConnect's automated alerts, while sent via email, function differently than normal email. They follow a content-focused template, which can be adjusted (see instructions here), but the goal of these is not to act as a text-heavy newsletter, rather; to proactively share relevant content with your subscribers so that they have high visibility into the opportunities and resources available on the platform. These alerts are comprised entirely of dynamic content from your platform, and intelligently pick the most relevant pieces for each individual subscriber based on their identified interests. You can read more about how this process works, here. Automated alerts are also sent out automatically every day, week, or month (depending on the frequency you set) without any maintenance required.