Which messaging option is right for you?

Toll free phone number, local phone number or short code?

A major question in the corporate world arises when it comes to questioning the means of contacting with the customers in a specific industry. Which of these ways adopted will actually engage a customer? For any business, it is essential to weigh in the cost of messaging the customers while it ensures that the message actually makes it way to the customer.

Understanding P2P and A2P messaging?

It is proven that SMS is most successful communication medium in today’s world. Messaging options are broadly categorized into 2 categories – A2P (application-to-person) and P2P (person-to-person). P2P is exchange of messages from one person to another. Whereas A2P is application to person. Unlike P2P, A2P actually helps businesses automate SMS/MMS messages. It is widely used to send appointment/meeting reminders, customer verification, alerts, promotional messages and numerous other messages. Businesses can choose a toll free number or a land line number also known as 10DLC or short codes to send messages. However, there are benefits of using one over the other.  Let’s look into what those differences are.

Know the difference between Local number vs Toll free vs Short codes for SMS:

Now that you understand P2P and A2P messaging we are going to look into which option is best for you to use when determining the phone number for SMS.

Looking at the facts associated with each form of messaging option you can choose which options works best for yoru business. Toll free number in general has been the most widely preferred phone number by your businesses to send bulk messages. 10DLC has recently started gaining the momentum and is now being used by various organizations to send mass messages. Shortcodes on the other hand are believed to be slowly fading away. With higher cost and longer time to implement more and more businesses are considering between toll free numbers and 10DLC’s.