Short Code Messaging and the SMS Gateway

Short codes form part of SMS gateway functionality and provide your customers with a memorable number to interact with your business. As with their longer counterparts, the integration of short codes remains a simple feat, enabling businesses of various sizes to get their share of the short code ‘pie’.

While short codes are usually associated with premium-rate mobile content that allow people to download ring tones, wallpaper, etc., short codes can also be used to distribute standard-rate mobile content through an SMS Gateway to your customers too. In Australia, short codes are either six or eight digits long, start with ‘19′ and are suffixed with an additional four to six digits, for example 19xxxx.

From Your Audience’s Perspective

Using a short code in your mobile SMS campaigns can be beneficial, for the simple reason that they are easier to remember than their longer counterparts, enabling more people to get in touch with you through the SMS gateway. This is especially beneficial when:

• You are running a campaigns and competitions focused around a short code (e.g. “SMS 19-HELLO-2 for an inspirational quote”).
• Your target audience might include individuals to whom SMS is new. A short code simplifies the data entry process and will allow more people to participate.
• You supply a mobile-based service (e.g. an information directory).

Behind the Short Code Scene

The key to the effective use of a short code lies in the technology behind it. You can send and receive SMS messages and content by connecting to the SMS gateway with the right API (Application Programming Interface). Because of the variety of available API’s and their function, this becomes a highly scalable operation, which will allow you to seamlessly integrate SMS technology with your existing software infrastructure.

Due to the fact that short codes are intended to make it easier for your customers to get in touch with you, the use of a two-way API is required, if only to receive these messages. Currently, the SMPP and the HTTP API allow two-way functionality via the SMS gateway, with the former specifically intended for high-volume and rapid messaging.

It is, however, possible to combine the API’s to fit your business or marketing campaign model. For instance, if you’ve got a text-delimited file with the numbers of 10,000 individuals, who have opted in to receive SMS communication from you, the FTP API can be used to upload the file in question and send the messages out. The HTTP API can then be used to receive incoming messages, of which the data is analysed and stored by your database server.

Available API’s for SMS Gateway communication are:

• Inbound & Outbound Messaging: HTTP, SMPP
• Outbound Messaging: HTTP, SMPP, FTP, XML, SOAP, SMTP, .COM

On a Legal Note…

The use of short codes is regulated by the Telephone Information Services Standards Council (TISSC). Companies who wish to make use of short codes to enable efficient client communication through the SMS Gateway can click here to download the 72 page Code of Practice document.

For more information on the various API’s that will allow you to integrate a short code campaign into your business, click here.

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Tags: API connections, bulk SMS gateway, Developer API's, SMS enable, SMS gateway, SMS Gateway platform, two way SMS messaging, two-way API