Editor’s note: This guest post was written by Jared Reitzin, the CEO of mobileStorm, a Communication Service Provider (CSP) that provides digital marketing services including SMS, as well as mobile applications and secure communication technology for healthcare organizations.

Think about it, what other industry or company do you know of that charges you for service every month but you cannot start using the service for 4 months? Go ahead, I will give you a few minutes, please add your comments below. Can’t think of any? It’s because if a company like this existed, nobody would want to do business with them, and they wouldn’t be around for very long.

However if you have a monopoly on the space and people really needed your service to grow their business, they wouldn’t have a choice. For mobile marketers this may sound like familiar territory. We all know that mobile marketing through a short code is ultimately the best way to go. I’m not sold on QR codes yet as the user experience isn’t that great.

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ExactTarget, the Email Service Provider turned “interactive  marketing” provider today announced the debut of its brand new mobile solution at the the MMA Forum in New York.

Dubbed “MobileConnect,” the new self-serve solution allows marketers to easily create, manage, measure and integrate SMS with email, social media and Web advertising.  The new solution works as a standalone application, or integrated with the company’s broader “Interactive Marketing Hub.”  The new solution aims to bring together everything a marketer would need to message their audience across all relevant digital channels, including things like message templates, cross-channel reporting, enterprise management of short/long codes and keywords, as well as cross-channel integration with campaigns across email, social media and the Web.

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Zoove today announced that it’s raised a new $5M round of funding for its “StarStar Codes,” an alternative to SMS calls-to-action.

The new round of funding came from Rogers Ventures and will be used to strengthen its US operations, according to the company.  The startup is the exclusive provider of StarStar codes (e.g. **NFL) for the four largest mobile operators in the United States, reaching over 250 million consumers.  StarStar codes were designed to let consumers directly engage with a brand’s advertising in the same way you would with a text-in campaign, without the fees associated with SMS.

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The following is the weekly guest series by Derek Johnson, Founder & CEO of SMS marketing provider Tatango. You can text him at (206) 334-4012 or email him at [email protected]

There’s been a lot of noise lately in the mobile marketing industry about long codes, some are even questioning if these will be the death of short codes. I’m still bearish on long codes as the carriers have yet to come out publicly and give their approval for long code A2P (application to person) messaging. This post though isn’t about long codes being approved or not approved by the carriers, or even if long codes are a good substitute for short codes. This post is about why I feel text message spammers are on the verge of a mass exodus away from short codes to long codes.

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