Chad: So, when it comes to keywords and we are talking about join, the one thing I see
often is people try to get cute, right?
People try to get fancy with like, all right, I could pick a keyword, it could be anything
to send, I'm going to make it like some long thing, right?
What advice do you have when it comes to picking keywords?
So, now, I'm in the position as like, okay, I definitely want to show, like, I know as
a business or as an entrepreneur, or I know I want a short code situation, whether it's
shared short code or dedicated.
Now, I can pick a short code where people can text into this number and they join my
list.
What advice do you have for picking the right short code for your business?
Or pitfalls, what to stay away from.
Derek: So, the short code you know, is either going to be shared, which means you're going
to have, you know...
Chad: I'm sorry.
Not short code, I'm sorry, keyword.
Derek: Okay.
So, if you're on a shared short code, which is the five to six-digit phone number, you
know, if it's used by other brands, so if you see it around town and you're using it
too, that means it's shared.
And some of these shared short codes have tens of thousands of business organizations
all running on the same short code.
Dedicated means it is your phone number and only your phone number.
So, if you have a dedicated short code you own all of the keywords, every single word
that comes into the system is yours.
So, you know, even if they text "Clown" or something, if you want to accept that, you
know, or you want to accept anything, you can trigger an opt-in.
If it's a shared short code, it has to be pretty much identical to what you set up in
the software.
So, most shared short code don't have the keyword "Join" available because somebody
is already taken it.
Chad: Someone has it, right.
Derek: So pizza or pizza one, two, three, or savings, VIP coupons, anything like that.
So, then it gets a little harder.
You know, there's so many different trains of thoughts and also test on your software
too.
So, like Tatango software, if you, you know, VIP pizza and you put a space in between,
it will accept that as VIP pizza without a space or with a space, if you put quotation
marks around it on your phone.
So, you know, because many people advertise and text "pizza," and then people put quotation
marks, we accept those too.
So, you kind of want to play around with your software and see what they accept, what they
don't.
What I don't like is when people have to shift on their phone from you know, from the letters
to then the characters.
So, because it just...you're like, you know, you gotta text in and you gotta remember all
the stuff.
So, I try to keep it as simple as possible.
You gotta watch out also for autocorrect.
Chad: That's big.
Derek: Yeah.
It's a big one.
Especially if you have a weird sounding business name, like there's a pizza place here in Seattle
called Pagliacci's, like, there's no way I know how to spell that even though I eat there
all the time.
And there's no way my phone is not going to try to autocorrect that.
And then if it autocorrects it, it's sending in some random thing to the software and then
the software doesn't know what it's trying to do.
So, I would try to...if you can pick the restaurant name, if it's a, you know, a very easy to
remember, easy to spell restaurant name, if not, try to find something like if you sell
meatballs, you know, text "Meatballs."
And also, if you can keep it the same as the incentive, that sometimes helps.
So, if you're giving away a free cookie, you could say, you know, text "Cookie" to 12345,
you know, to opt-in to receive the free cookie or whatever.
So, you got to kind of play with it and then also just do it on your phone.
Like, it's amazing how many people are like, "I picked a real bad keyword because I didn't
do it on my phone and now I'm doing it on my phone."
Chad: Yeah.
[inaudible 00:03:47], be the consumer.
Be the consumer.
I mean, the autocorrect thing is huge.
Like plain...like I always like to say plain English, right?
Just like the most simplest word that you could come up with that has some correlation
to your business, service, offering, brand, whatever that you could send in, and then
capture that information about.
But anytime you want people to do what you said, it's like find special characters or
type something long.
Like, the longer it is, the more chances there are for error and, you know, keep it short,
concise, and then you'll have the best opt-ins.
You know, the best opt-ins.
Derek: It's hard though.
Because like some of these short code providers...shared short code providers have literally been around
since we started and they're using the same short code.
Chad: Yeah.
And all the good ones are gone, right?
Derek: Not all the good ones, all the good ones and the bad ones are gone.
So, it's like, I feel that if you...now, that's why people go to a dedicated short code because
then they own the whole thing.
But a dedicated short code is gonna run you like $500 to $1000 a month just for the phone
number.
So, for most small businesses, I would never recommend a dedicated phone number because
you will never get the ROI out of SMS if you have one location and you have a sunk cost
of $1000 a month.
Like it just doesn't make sense.
I would love to sell you, but it just doesn't make sense.