Build a virtual “Short Code” Fence around your business

Location, location, location. Yup, from real estate to mobile phones the customers’ location seems to be one of the prized assets for online retailers’ onboard affordable hosting platforms offered by Midphase.
But, if you thought the names Foursquare or Google Places were going to be mentioned next you’re wrong. One of the hot new technologies being tried and tested by some very big brand names these days is called Common Short Codes or CSC.
Also fondly referred to as SMS or text messaging, these 160-character Twitter like messages are purposely designed to have short phone numbers with strong call-to-actions associated with them. Common Short Codes (CSCs) are short numeric codes to which text messages can be sent from a mobile phone.
“Common short codes are easy to remember and they are compatible across all participating carriers. CSCs are either five-digit or six-digit numbers. CSCs can be leased by anyone interested in interacting with nearly 200 million wireless consumers,” said the CSCA, the United States governing body for Short Code purchasing and assignment.
In recent years, leading retailers such as the North Face has successfully deployed the Short Code marketing devices, using an interest strategy referred to as Geo-Fences.
When a customer is nearby a North Face store, opt-in customers automatically receive a coupon, discount or promotional text message on their Smartphone.
This virtual fencing technology is driven by the application provider Placecast which offers white-label ShopAlerts to web savvy e-retailers on US hosting platforms.
What’s more the technology is not actually limited to a Smartphone: the technology also pushes alerts to Facebook and mobile-friendly websites
“On the consumer side, ShopAlerts will only send maximum number of 3 messages within a given week from a retailer. And users can opt out of the program by texting “stop” back to a text message,” said TechCrunch.
If you are interested in deploying text-based marketing from PlaceCast, checkout their Brand page for more information.
Remember that by 2013 most consumers will spend more time accessing web pages from their Smartphones than from laptops or desktops.   This means your website should be powered by a rock-solid cheap, powerful hosting platform and start exhibiting mobile-centric features, including CSC technology mentioned above.