When beginning with the mobile coding, it’s essential to sustain control over your mobile distinctiveness – in the present day that begins with owning a short code or your mobile marketing address. A Common Short Code (CSC) can either be committed to your brand name/project or it can be shared among various brand campaigns and applications. The latter presents a lot of recognized, as well as concealed threats for brands and content providers.
Top Goals Enhanced by Short Codes:
- Short Codes kick-start conversations with customers and prospects.
- Short Codes can facilitate Contests, Sweepstakes, Polls, and Surveys.
- Short Codes can collect Opt-ins for Mobile Loyalty and Rewards programs.
- Short Codes can collect E-Mail addresses for E-Mail Marketers.
- Short Codes can link Fans to social media sites.
- Short Codes can provide 1-click installs for App Developers.
- Short Codes can link shoppers to commerce and self-service content.
- Short Codes can normalize Call Center volume with ‘Text-4-Callback’.
- Short Codes can automate lead capture and fulfillment for Trade Show Marketers.
- Short Codes can integrate with Salesforce.com and other CRM data sources.
Shared Short Codes
Dedicated Short Codes
You are not the owner of the code.
No one but you will be able to use your mobile marketing address – the common short code for as long as you have the lease.
You may not have access to a particular keyword as another company may already be using it, thus increasing the number of words your customers need to text (i.e. instead of just “join” you’ll need to have “join bakery”).
There is no middleware application that could mix-up customers or content providers or messages with another company’s.
Consumers must perform multiple interactions to get to your brand’s message.
You have maximum flexibility with keywords, and you determine how to direct customer interactions and deliver messages.
Information captured by the short code is routed to you through the owner of the code; you may or may not “own” the data pertaining to your use of the short code.
Since you lease the code, all of the data and customer information captured belongs to you; you can map directly into your existing database without having to input information from a different source.
If the code is heavily advertised with key words pertaining to other brands, your brand may be associated with another brand.
Dedicated short codes offer a reliable platform for your mobile campaigns since you are the sole owner and content provider on the code.
Sometimes this can be a fast and inexpensive way to launch a campaign, but then you have to train your fan/customer base on a new code.
You can extend your branding with a vanity code or easy to remember number. Consumers will automatically associate your brand with the code since the call to action in your marketing materials is immediate and natural.
There is always the risk that the code may be shut down by a carrier because of another company’s abuse of the code. This may hinder your ability to run future mobile campaigns.
Industry Best Practices requires all short codes to include “Stop” to allow consumers to stop receiving alerts or messages from that short code. When a consumer types in “Stop” they will no longer receive messages – whether they meant to stop your campaign or others on that code they are signed up for.