Short Codes vs Long Codes

Posted on August 29, 2011 by ccstudio
SHORT VS LONG CODES!

Something that’s important to understand is the difference between a shortcode and a longcode. A shortcode is a 5 or 6 digit number that the subscriber sends their text message to in order to subscribe or interact with the SMS system. Like tv voting where a viewer texts the word “vote” to 54545. The 54545 number is the “shortcode”.

Shortcodes

have to be approved and accepted by each mobile company for it to work on their

network. The process takes weeks or months and is very expensive.( $3,000 – $4,500 / 3 months, for a short code.) For this reason, an SMS marketing/list company will buy and

set up the shortcode and then lease “keywords” on their system to marketers like you. A keyword is how their system knows what member to send the text message to. If you want to market a pizza shop, there’s a good chance you might want to use the word “pizza” in a campaign, like textthe word “pizza” to 54545. Well, on a typical shortcode system, someone else probably is already using the keyword “pizza”, which means you can’t use it. This means keywords are precious and there’s a lot of competition. This also means keywords cost a lot of money. Not so with longcodes.



A “longcode” is just a regular local phone number. Longcodes are very inexpensive

only $2 per month and it belongs to only you. That means you can use any keyword you want and as many as you want and NEVER PAY MORE.

Another nightmare I’ve seen with shortcodes is that since they are typically shared with hundreds or thousands of other users, someone might be spamming or abusing others with the same shortcode you’re using. I saw a shortcode get dropped by the mobile companies for this very reason and EVERYONE lost the service. This affected countless businesses.

Question:

I heard that long codes e.g full phone numbers are not as reliable as
shortcodes, there’s a reason why shortcodes are so expensive.
What’s your take on this?

Answer:

I had to laugh at this one because the truth is that short codes are
much less reliable than local phone numbers.
You have to understand that each short code has to be approved by
every single phone carrier in order for them to work. I recently had to
drop a service that used short codes because they simply wouldn’t
work on my cell phone carrier.

Long codes always work – short codes may or may not work, you
never know if they have been activated and accepted by your
customers cell phone company.

The public has been sold on short codes but I personally think they
suck.

Let’s just say the trust factor of a local number and unlimited
keywords are enough to make me stay with long codes. I used
to use them if forced to by people who’ve been sold a bill of goods on
shorties. But I don’t anymore, I’ve never had a problem getting messages delivered, but I’ve seen problems with shortcodes getting shut down. I’m not
anti shortcode, but longcodes have some unique advantages.

Remark:

This is an answer to a problem I was experiencing here in Florida (I’m sure others are having this problem too).

The smaller carriers like MetroPCS, Boost Mobile, etc. aren’t yet set up
for all shortcodes yet and I was going through the roof because many of our customers carry these phones and couldn’t subscribe to my present text system.

Thanks,

Brad Dixon
www.ccstudiositecreator.mobi