The largest problem with SMS marketing is that the majority of people only use it to send out ads, coupons or product announcements. That's a glorified RSS feed at 160 characters. You would be much better off going back to the previous costly, dead media outlets that weren't working before. 

Imagine a room of a thousand current and potential customers all talking about you and you choose to go somewhere else, or worse -- you show up, stand in the middle of the room and talk about you and your product then finish with handing out flyers and then leave without even a single thank you. This is what you're doing when using SMS marketing and only use it one way. 

It's also not e-mail list 2.0 if all your opt-in list is receiving is a constant barrage of discounts you have pushed and pray will generate some return. 

Now, if you’re really ready to turn your marketing into tangible results, then buckle up.

Your brand engages people directly every day, but more importantly, your brand engages with more people indirectly all the time. It's the indirect opportunities that you should be using SMS more often for. The indirect opportunities are the ones who want to be engaged, they want to be heard and most of all, they want to be validated. Using SMS marketing with long code allows you to be present with these opportunities. Providing people with this way to interact and know you’re there, you won't have to worry about asking for your fans to opt-in; they'll run to do it and tell all of their friends to do the same. 

If you want to be successful (I mean REALLY successful) with mobile marketing using SMS, then you have to build up your text message currency. Using long codes as your SMS platform instead of short code will deliver those desired results without hitting you in the pocket. 

Now, for those with the “deer caught in the headlight” look on what I am getting at, let me relate this to money. Think of it like this: when you started your business and opened the banking account for it, you did not immediately go up to the teller asking to withdraw $1,000, did you? The teller would have looked at you like you were nuts. This is unfortunately what most business's and marketers attempt and then complain when they get horrible results when using text messaging wrong whether it’s with short code or long code. 

You're going to have to invest in your mobile marketing in order to withdraw your rewards. Investing your text message currency means investing your time, your knowledge completely before trying to withdraw anything worthwhile. This means abandoning the stinkin' thinkin' and ancient philosophy of marketing and not treating this awesome way of communicating like some newspaper ad or weekly flyer. 

If you stop trying to push ads and coupons, and instead use this as a way to reach out to those potential and current clients to connect and listen, then you can almost instantly speak and react to what is required and necessary right at that moment. 

Doesn't that seem better than the potentially harmful alternative of letting your current and future clients go to the other guy because you just weren't there?