The travel and tourism industry should adopt SMS as a complement to its email marketing strategies, according to an executive at online marketing firm Lyris.

SMS has been used effectively in conjunction with a variety of advertising and marketing tactics to help increase consumer engagement. Online marketers should take note, and use SMS calls to action to activate event-based promotions in email newsletters, according to Blaine Mathieu, chief marketing officer of Lyris, Emeryville, CA.

?Travel and tourism is an industry that is reaping the benefits of email/mobile marketing,? Mr. Mathieu said. ?Many use regular e-newsletters that drive customers to sign up for mobile updates.

?These customers then use SMS marketing to promote exclusive, real-time offers ? only available to SMS subscribers ? that allow them to redeem the offer right then and there via their wireless device,? he said. ?Many utilize mobile for polls and surveys to gather customer feedback to improve their services.?

In the second installment of a series focused on the integration of mobile and email marketing, Mobile Marketer?s Peter Finocchiaro interviewed Mr. Mathieu about Lyris? use of SMS tactics to bolster its multichannel marketing strategies. Here is what he had to say:

What is Lyris doing in the mobile space? How is the company tying in mobile with email?
Lyris HQ, our flagship email marketing solution, is integrated with search, social and mobile channels and enhanced by embedded email deliverability.

Our mobile marketing software utilizes existing email marketing functionality and a robust API to enable clients to execute SMS campaigns that are seamlessly integrated with existing marketing campaigns to ensure synergy.

Is the emphasis on SMS or beyond?
Lyris HQ offers users the ability to execute SMS campaigns, with complete SMS tracking and SMS reporting and seamlessly integrates these campaigns with existing email and social campaigns.

How will Lyris sell its mobile services to clients? What advantage does it have over purely mobile service providers?
Lyris? mobile marketing software is part of the LyrisHQ suite of marketing and analytics tools.

Lyris HQ features complete SMS tracking and SMS reporting: providing details on message status, individual response rates and bounce rates to invalid mobile numbers.

This enables customers to very quickly interpret which campaigns are working, and which need to be reevaluated to maximize performance.

The advantage of deploying mobile marketing campaigns using Lyris HQ is that marketers can take advantage of our suite of analytics tools ? which now include real-time conversion tracking ? and can quickly determine which campaigns produce the best results at the lowest cost.

If it turns out that mobile is not the right channel to reach their desired targets, customers can deploy their campaign via another channel, such as email or Facebook, and continue to tweak their strategy until they achieve their desired result.

Plus, with Lyris HQ SMS Marketing there is no annual contract so you can build on your success as you go.

How are you working to resolve image rendition issues plaguing emails on phones such as the BlackBerry and Nokia models?
The Inbox Snapshot module of Lyris HQ?s EmailAdvisor tool allows users to preview their email messages on smartphones to see how they actually appear.

This allows our customers to optimize the design of their email messages prior to deploying them, for better results.

Both mobile and email are targeted, highly personal, permission-based channels of communication and marketing. Are these two channels a natural fit?
Absolutely. Marketers must pay close attention to giving people what they want, when they want it, where they want it ? whether their email inbox, cell phone or social network.

And, it?s also their job to make it as easy as possible for their customers to quickly experience the value of their information and offers.

This is achieved when marketers apply the right blend of preference center and CRM thinking to help identify wants and needs, and deliver content that is expected and perceived as valuable to each individual recipient ? not one-size-fits-all to the entire list.

Further, Lyris HQ uses a double opt-in SMS tracking process, which means our customers stay on the good side of their subscribers and their strict wireless carriers.

Messaging in general is taking on new forms via a variety of inboxes across channels, not only email and mobile, but social too.

Marketers need to remember that their campaigns and content can get more mileage across channels ? which can lead to better engagement with audiences at lower costs to marketers.

Call it repurposing or just better orchestration, marketers stand to save money and improve campaign results by thinking in terms of a "tri-messaging" approach via email, social and mobile.

Which client categories are ideal for the email/mobile integration?
Retailers see fantastic results from these types of integrated campaigns ? for example, to drive in store traffic.

Retailers can email a timed promotion to their opt-in email list, inviting subscribers to opt-in to receive an SMS reminder on the day of the promotion, reminding them of the offer.

SMS integration can increase email campaign opens and conversions: follow up an email with an SMS notification to subscribers who have signed up to receive emails but may have yet to check their inbox.

This works particularly well for newsletters.

SMS can also be used to reactivate stagnant email subscribers: Email a special invitation to your opt-in email list, inviting subscribers to opt in to a ?mobile-only? SMS list to receive exclusive offers.

Corporations that frequently attend and exhibit at trade shows can use an email/mobile marketing approach to drive attendees to their booth, again by sending a well-timed email to their opt-in email list that invites subscribers to opt-in to receive SMS updates throughout the conference.

Here is a screen grab of a mobile call to action in a campaign Lyris managed for Eldorado Hotel Casino: