The costs associated with using a shared short code

An SMS short code is simply a shortened number. Usually five or six digits this phone number is used for sending and receiving automated text messages to and from mobile phones. These SMS short codes can be a dedicated short code, a random dedicated short code or a shared short code. The price of leasing short codes vary. It depends on your business needs.

In this article, we’ll focus more on the cost of a shared short code. To put the costs in perspective, we’ll compare the cost of a shared short code with the cost of a dedicated short code.

Shared Short Code Versus Dedicated Short Code

Average Cost of Using  a Dedicated Short code

A dedicated short code, also known as a vanity code is usually more expensive and harder to setup. Requiring a sizeable amount of paperwork and provisioning.

The cost of leasing a dedicated vanity short code around $1,000/month. While the cost of leasing a non-vanity short code stands at $500. These monthly costs don’t include your  SMS messaging fees, application provider fees or provisioning fees.

With this perspective in place, let us move on to the costs associated with using a shared short code.

Average Cost of Using a Shared Short Code

Unlike dedicated short codes, shared short codes are more affordable and easy to setup. This is because the cost of set up is spread among many businesses sharing the same short code. These rates depend on the text message service provider you decide to use. This is combined with the number of messages you’ll be sending monthly. SMS application providers, like AvidMobile, charge a setup fee, monthly fee,  and overage fees if you go over your monthly SMS allotment.

• Setup fees range in price between $99-$199
• Monthly fees range between $10- $100 per month for direct clients
• SMS white labeled reseller pricing from $99-289 per month
• Most providers offer unlimited keywords
• Pricing plans also included text messages with overages ranging from $.01 – $.04

Please be aware that these are average prices. So you may find providers that charge more than the average. While you’ll still find other providers with costs that are much less than the average.

Keywords and your Shared Short Code

To avoid messaging issues, SMS users choose a unique keyword on their short code. This allows customers to opt-in to receive their specific SMS marketing message.

For instance, let’s say there’s a fitness store and an office equipment company both using the shared SMS short code 72727. If consumers want to interact with the fitness store they’d first have to text FITNESSSTORE to the short code. For consumers that want to interact with the office equipment company, they’d have to text OFFICEEQUIPMENT to the short code. This ensures the correct text message reply is delivered to the interested party.

Final Words On Using a Shared Short Code

It’s pertinent to note that short code SMS is and should done strictly on an opt-in basis. You must obtain the permission of the user before sending them any message or face paying stiff fines of up to $500 per message. If you’d like to find out more about text message marketing and obtaining a shared short code we can help you out. Click here to get in touch with us.