Short Codes, The Only Successful Way To Do SMS Marketing

In today’s SMS industry, there are a variety of ways to both build databases and deliver your text message promotions to an end user. However with all of the options available, comes a list of gimmicks that may not necessarily work and will likely result in low delivery rates and struggles to build a list of permissible customers you can market to.

First let me start off by asking you a question. When you look at a piece of promotional material, what are you going to remember first; text “pizza” to “72727” OR text “pizza” to “8165367345?” In this industry, the simpler your promotion the easier it is for a customer to retain, resulting in higher opt in rates. What I just mentioned is referred to as a long code. Compared to SMS Short Codes, they are much more difficult to promote. Additionally, they limit how many messages you can send out minute by minute.

Another form of marketing used is referred to as SMTP messaging. Does anyone remember those old bulky Nokia phones from roughly 1998? Do you remember sending a picture to a friend? Those messages may get their immediately, may get their 6 hours later, they may never arrive all together. With SMS Short Codes you do not run this risk. When you send out a promotion, you have a 95% open read rate within the first 5 minutes of the promotion going out. Also, when you utilize SMTP, it has a double opt in process where it asks members if they want to receive just the present promotion, or receive all future promotions. When you text into a short code, you are a part of the database until you opt out.

As this industry continues to grow and expand, different tricks will come up that seem outrageously beneficial. However, short code messaging will hands down remain the most consistent and reliable. If you want to give yourself the best chance to make the most amount of money possible in this industry, there is no other choice worth making.