I was looking at some of Coke’s SMS campaigns today and realized that unlike other SMS short codes which are 5 or 6 digits, they’re using a 4 digit short code. I couldn’t find much information about 4 digit short codes expect for the following from Qwasi below and that Sprint uses 4 digit short codes for free messages and self-service account management.

To start, if you noticed the short codes used by American Idol, you will quickly notice they use a 4-digit short code. These short codes are not considered to be a cross-carrier CSCs. Instead, that code is only available through that carrier – in this case AT&T. Sprint and Verizon often support these type of programs on their networks too using a 4-digit short code.

Does anyone have any more information on these 4 digit SMS short codes? Do you know if they bypass the Common Short Code Administration (CSCA) or work on all carriers? It would be interesting to see if the CSCA plans on releasing 4 or even 3 digit short codes sometime in the future. How much more would you pay for a 3 digit short code as compared to a 5 digit short code? Let me know in the comments below.

Today we’re excited to announce that our new SMS Autoresponder product has a brand new interface. We’ve cleaned up the interface, removed excess text, condensed features and tried to get everything to fit without forcing Tatango users to scroll down the page.

Below is the new design of our SMS Autoresponder dashboard, beautiful huh?

Below is the old version of the SMS Autoresponder dashboard. What do you think of the new dashboard design? Let us know your feedback in the comments section below.

Create your very own SMS autoresponder with the Tatango FREE 7-day SMS marketing trial.

Want to learn how to allow consumers to download your mobile app from a text message, watch this instructional video.

Here’s a better view of the text message call-to-action, along with the QR code call-to-action. What would you have done to download the app if you were presented with the three options above? How many of you would have completely ignored these three options and just searched for the app on your phone’s app store? Let me know in the comments section below.

Not exactly sure the difference between all of the different products Tatango now offers? Luckily for you I had some time to jump in front of the camera and create the following video, where I’m able to give a quick explanation of how each SMS product works.

You may have also noticed that we completely overhauled our SMS campaign dashboard last week to reflect these new SMS products. Not only is it easier for Tatango customers to sort and manage their SMS campaigns, but it’s now also a breeze to create new ones. You can read more about it here.

In addition to easily being able to sort your SMS campaigns within the new SMS campaign dashboard, you can also quick create a new SMS campaign with our new drop-down menu.

Also, to make it even easier to sort SMS campaigns, we now allow you the option to only display a specific type of campaign in the dashboard. As you can see below, this is what we’ve done by selecting SMS Autoresponders. The best part, you can still sort by SMS keyword and the amount of subscribers within just that one SMS campaign type.

If you have any questions about the new Tatango SMS campaign dashboard, please leave us a comment below, or contact us directly here.

Below is an enlarged version of the call to action, and I think it looks pretty cool. Just wanted to share this, hopefully it may spark some creativity when advertising your next SMS marketing campaign.

FYI – I wouldn’t have used the quotation marks around PEPSIMAX, as that sometimes causes consumer confusion, and would have opened up a little more space to expand the character size of the letters in the keyword.

What do you think? You like the design of this call to action? Let me know in the comments section below.

The Telephone Consumer Protection (TCPA) was passed into law 47 U.S.C. 227 in 1991 by the United States Congress. This law protects consumers from unsolicited advertisements using automatic dialing systems, which include voice, fax and most importantly text messages.

When the law was originally passed, businesses were only allowed to text message you if they received your “prior express written consent”. So why do 68% of consumers still report receiving text message spam, even with the protection of the TCPA? In the law, there was a gaping loophole for businesses that allowed them to send text messages to you, so long as they could prove there was an “established business relationship”. The problem with this loophole was that the definition of an “established business relationship” was left extremely vague, and when you take into account how many businesses you interact with on a daily basis, it hasn’t done much to stop the onslaught of annoying text message spam.

On February 15, 2012 the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) amended the TCPA and removed this exception, making it mandatory for businesses to receive “prior express written consent” before sending you any text messages. Woohoo! Finally a stop to text message spam!

Just to clarify, the term “prior express written consent” means an agreement, in writing, bearing the signature of the person receiving the text messages, that clearly authorizes the business to deliver or cause to be delivered to the person called advertisements or telemarketing messages using an automatic telephone dialing system.

A few more specifics about “prior express written consent” and how it’s obtained.

• The written agreement shall include a clear and conspicuous disclosure informing the person signing that: (A) By executing the agreement, such person authorizes the business to send text messages to their mobile phone; and (B) The person is not required to sign the agreement (directly or indirectly), or agree to enter into such an agreement as a condition of purchasing any property, goods, or services.
• The term “signature” shall include an electronic or digital form of signature, to the extent that such form of signature is recognized as a valid signature under applicable federal law or state contract law. This would include a mobile opt-in, in the case of SMS marketing.

While this new amendment to the TCPA will significantly reduce text message spam from marketers, the amended TCPA still allows text messages from non-profit organizations, political groups/candidates, and for other noncommercial purposes such as school closings, as long as there is an ”established business relationship”. As before though, this term is still extremely vague, still leaving consumers open to text message spam.

What do you think? Should non-profits and political groups have to abide by the same rules when it comes to text messaging your mobile phone as businesses do? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below.

Teens participating in the study held during the last quarter of 2011, each sent on average 3,417 (SMS and MMS), wich is seven messages per waking hour. While these numbers are pretty crazy, I don’t think we’ve even begin to see the peak of messaging volume for this age group. What do you think, how many messages per hour do you think we will see at the peak? Let me know in the comments section below.

The report also shows that teens aren’t making as many calls as before, with voice usage declining from an average of 685 minutes to 572 minutes. Why are teens so obsessed with texting? The report says the top three reasons teens prefer text messaging to calling was because it is faster (22%), easier (21%), and more fun (18%).

It also looks like female teens are holding their ground when it comes to text messaging, sending and receiving 3,952 messages per month versus 2,815 from males. That’s a difference of 1,137 text messages if you don’t have a calculator handy.

Interested in seeing what age groups are most likely to opt-in to an SMS campaign? Check out our awesome SMS marketing infographic we created in 2011 after a survey of 500 consumers.

Good news for businesses that use Tatango to reach customer on MetroPCS, the wireless provider today approved the Tatango short code 68398. This means that businesses using the Tatango SMS marketing platform can now send short code text message promotions to their customers on the MetroPCS network. So exciting!

For those of you that have never heard about MetroPCS, they are the sixth largest wireless communications service provider in the United States, with 9.5 million subscribers. Since they launched in 2002, MetroPCS has been among the fastest growing wireless broadband providers in the United States.

Want the start using the Tatango SMS marketing platform to reach your customers with MetroPCS? Create your free 7-day trial today.

 

Does anyone find it weird that 14% of marketers are currently collecting mobile phone numbers that have opted-in to receive SMS messages, while only 7% of marketers said they are actually sending SMS marketing messages? If these statistics are correct, this means there is a gold-mine of opt-in SMS mobile phone numbers just waiting to be marketed to.

Thanks to Marketing Charts for the awesome chart.