Mobile travel concierge: It's not what you say, it's how you say it

If you want to provide your customers with a mobile travel concierge while they're on the move, then be aware that although the content you provide (the what you say) is important, the dialogue you create with your customers (the how you say it) is even more critical.

Today, you can get hold of travel-related content, that's been optimised for mobile, from many organisations. Many of these publishers will offer to deliver their information to your customer's too.

If you're looking for a tactical mobile solution (e.g. we just want to give our customer some flight updates; or we just want to tell our customers about events and activities at their destination) allowing the publisher to deliver your content can be very seductive.

However, I'd argue that the strength of publishers is collating and categorising content ... not in delivering it. And, by heading down this route today, you're storing up problems for the future. When your customers start asking for more mobile content (and it's a great idea to survey them before you start your mobile project to get an idea of what they want) you could be tied to a publisher who specialises in 1 or 2 areas and who isn't geared up to support your new more sophisticated requirement.

I'd (obviously!) argue that delivering mobile content to travellers is best left to specialists. A mobile travel specialist will help you create a customer focused mobile dialogue by performing a number of roles for you:

• They'll aggregate content for you. And, they should be content agnostic. So, if you have a preferred supplier for particular types of content, they should be willing to deliver this for you, even if this means swapping out some of their existing content
• They'll allow you to offer your customers a choice from a number of packages of mobile content, each matched to the customer's profile
• They'll allow you to control the dialogue with your customer to ensure any communication is timely and relevant
• They'll handle content delivery for you across multiple channels (e.g. SMS, mobile-web, and mobile applications) and in multiple languages

So, content is important, but it's how you deliver that content that determines whether you give your customers a good mobile experience or not.

Make it relevant: using mobile advertising to reach travellers

We've just published a news release publicising our latest mobile advertising case study which shows how Bristol International Airport increased the average spend in its Tax and Duty Free store by 50%.

You may recall an earlier case study we published showing how TTT Moneycorp achieved a 10.5% redemption rate with a mobile advertising campaign.

Together, these studies show that if an advertiser has a relevant departure day message for travellers, then mobile is an excellent vehicle through which to reach this audience to raise awareness and drive action.

Relevance works for advertiser and recipient.

Ian Hughes, MD of Consumer Intelligence, writing in DMI News picks up on this theme (and thanks, Ian, for mentioning easyJetText!):

"SMS marketing, done well, is not an unwelcome intrusion but actually a, ‘Hmm, thanks for that; I’ll check it out’ tool.

The trick is to get the context right; to align the receipt of the message with an opportunity for the recipient. Make it meaningful, relevant, useful, timely and accurate. If you know I have to be in a certain place at a certain time, then you know it’s timely and accurate. It has a high chance of meaning, relevance and usefulness."

When it comes to creating an opt-in dialogue with travellers, whether you're providing marketing offers or travel assistance, it's essential to engage in a relevant dialogue. And, a relevant dialogue in travel is: time-sensitive, location-based, and context-aware.