One of the most frequent questions we get asked is, “What is the difference between a Long Code and a Short Code?”.
A Long Code is the term used when someone texts a Keyword to a phone number. An example of this would be “Text Coupon to 294-0001″. Each of our Packages comes with at least one Long Code phone number. You can run Unlimited Campaigns from just this one phone number. You can run a different campaign by just changing the Keyword:
(These are Live if you want to test them)
Text SWFL to 239-294-0001
Text COUPON to 239-294-0001
Text VIP to 239-294-0001
and so on…
The benefit of using a Long Code is that you can run unlimited campaigns using just the one phone number. This allows you to build several lists while paying for just the one phone number. You are also the only one using the number and control all of the Keywords. One of the drawbacks is Long Code technology is a little bit older than the Short Code technology and has a slower sending rate of around 1 per second. This can be a problem if you are sending out a time sensitive message (half price drinks for the next hour) to a very large list (500). Another potential problem is people may not remember the phone number if they don’t, or can’t, text in the Keyword right away.
A Short Code is when you text a Keyword to a “Special Number”. Ours is 69696. An example would be the one we use “Text GEEK to 69696″. Each of our Packages comes with a least one Short Code Keyword. You can only run one campaign at a time with a Short Code.
Want to try the Text Geek Text Marketing System?
Just text “Geek” (no quotes) to 69696. You will receive our sample Welcome Message. Your Welcome Message will contain the information you want to send to your customers.
We will also send Trivia Games, Polls and other samples to show you more of our features.
The benefit of using a Short Code is that it looks more professional and is easier for people to remember so they can text it in later. This makes it better to use in advertising on the radio, tv or other print media. Another benefit is that Short Codes can send out campaign blasts at 30 texts per second. This is great when you need to get a time sensitive message out to a large list in a very short period of time.
The main drawback is that a Keyword can only be used once per Short Code. This means that some of the most popular Keywords (pizza, coupon, hamburger) have probably already been taken. If the Keyword you want is already taken you will need to come up with a “variation” of your keyword that may not have been taken yet. Something like “pizza239″, “239pizza” or any other variation that you can think of. Also, you can only run one campaign at a time, and Short Code Keywords can be expensive.