SMS short codes are a combination of many digits that shorten as compared to a mobile number, used by different marketers in their short messaging service system as well as the multimedia messaging system. Well, the number of digits may vary from one country to another in an SMS.
SMS short codes are mainly incorporated into advertising materials like billboards, media, TV ads, printed, and others. The short-digit messages are used to provide value-added services such as two-factor authentication, confirmation of services, ordering services, television contest voting, charity donations, and much more. Most important of all, short code perfectly fits when it comes to bulk SMS marketing campaigns. The main advantages of SMS short codes for businesses are:
It is most likely to be read immediately and remembered with ease, thanks to the shortness of embedded digits.
It allows customers to choose or choose not to receive additional text messages on the product or service.
It covers the entire world. SMS short codes can be forwarded within seconds to hundreds of thousands of people across the world.
SMS short code is an efficient and cost-effective component of text marketing at relative high conversion and delivery rates.
By answering with a specific keyword, customers communicate with your SMS easily. It's the responsibility of the companies to figure out which keywords to choose or use for every particular case. For example, if you receive a message back with "End" and "Stop" to a short text message code, this implies that they don't want to go with your campaign any further. It's a bold move to send a text message back which confirms that the subscription has been completed.
In essence, there are two types of SMS short codes: shared short code and dedicated short code. The former belongs to and only is used by one business or organization. SMS is owned by the supplier of SMS software that shares the codes between businesses and organizations.
SMS short codes are categorized between short vanity codes and short non-vanity codes as well. Instead of being randomly selected by the frequent short code administration (CSCA), Vanity short codes will be specifically selected by an organization or corporation. Rather than being selected by a particular business or organization, non-vanity shorter codes are randomly produced by CSCA.
How to Get?
It would be best if you considered getting an SMS short code once you have decided to get started with a mobile marketing campaign. There are two methods to get short codes, either by yourself or by leaving them to an SMS API supplier like SMS broadcaster.
If you decide to do it yourself, you will have to take the following three essential measures:
Lease Short Code: It includes leasing and makes appropriate payments a vanity or non-vanity SMS code from the Common Short Code Administration.
Fill Out Short Code Form: Once you get your short codes, a quick code request will need to be submitted which a long paper or document that requires attention to detail. That is the critical component because the short code request is refused if something goes incorrect, and a fresh short code request has to be re-submitted.
Provisioning of Short Code: Unfortunately, you are not permitted to send and receive SMS codes if your request has been submitted successfully. You need to go through another complicated process which is short code provisioning.
Many brands or companies today opt for the second option, to skip any roadblocks in the way of receiving SMS short codes. Thus, it saves time and effort. The advanced SMS broadcaster machine is well-aware of the procedure, knows how to professionally create and install SMS short code and interestingly, it doesn't set users back a lot.