By 2012 more than 1.5 billion mobile devices will be accessing the Internet, presenting a new opportunity for marketing professionals to deliver information right to consumers´ hands. To speak to this topic, the HSMAI Travel Internet Marketing Special Interest Group (SIG) and Internet marketing company TIG Global have released a white paper titled, ´Mobile Marketing: The New Frontier,´ the second in a planned series published by the HSMAI Foundation and offered free of charge to industry professionals.
´Through our partnership with TIG Global, this series of white papers helps to increase industry awareness and understanding of emerging issues and trends, while identifying opportunities to drive revenue and profit by making smart, strategic marketing decisions,´ said Robert A. Gilbert, CHME, CAE, HSMAI president & CEO.
The white paper is a compilation of ideas and feedback from the Travel Internet Marketing SIG Advisory Board, led by Loren Gray, director of e-commerce at Ocean Properties, Ltd., West Palm Beach, Fla.
´Information is now an ´anytime, anywhere´ commodity, and with this designation comes the opportunity to market more effectively and efficiently than ever,´ Gray said. ´Most cell phones also act as newspapers, social networking sites, blogs, video and digital cameras, and GPS devices. Marketers now have the choice to deliver information within a millisecond to consumers, even when they are on airplanes, at restaurants, or standing in line to buy movie tickets.´
´Just as the Internet completely revolutionized the way consumers book travel, now the immense, growing reliance on mobile devices is causing a second shift in how travel is purchased,´ said Fred Malek, CEO of TIG Global. ´Today, rarely anyone leaves their home without their mobile phone, and twice as many people are using SMS globally compared to email. It is imperative for hotels to tap into this growing market, and as such, TIG Global is rolling out a robust mobile marketing service to allow hotels to leverage the power and revenue potential of this new distribution channel.´
´Mobile Marketing: The New Frontier´ is an analysis of how to tap into what is projected to be a multi-billion-dollar business by 2013. The paper features four case studies and covers topics including ´Getting Started - Determining Your Intent,´ ´Creating a Mobile Web Site,´ ´Building an Opt-In Database,´ ´Text Message Marketing,´ and ´Location-Based Marketing.´ Copies of the white paper, along with the first in the series ´Online Strategies to Gain Market Share in Recessionary Times,´ are available at www.travelinternetmarketing.org .
Upcoming white papers in the series include:
• ´Web 3.0´
• ´Driving Results Through Social Networking´
• ´Driving Results Through Design´
• ´Revenue Management for Internet Marketers´
• ´Groups Online - Attracting and Booking Group Business via Online Channels´
• ´Rich Media´
• ´CRM in a Digital World´
