WebProNews

A recent study showed that spending for mobile advertising was expected to reach over $760 million in 2009. That's about 20% more than last year. Do you dedicate any portion of your budget to mobile marketing? Let WebProNews readers know.

Mike McDonald recently cited these numbers when he told us why we should be marketing via mobile. It seems that marketers are going to have little choice but to market via mobile in the future as devices get smarter, and become must-have items for more people.

People have their mobile devices with them 18 hours a day, Mike Wehrs, President and CEO of the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) recently told WebProNews. "Why wouldn't you want to be able to deliver relevant information to them?" he added. "Because if you do it well, it doesn't become an advertisement. It becomes information that they were looking for anyway."

The MMA has now released the latest version (pdf) of its US Consumer Best Practices Guidelines for Cross-carrier mobile content services. These are essentially the guidelines for services like text messaging (SMS), multimedia messaging (MMS), shortcode programs, Interactive Voice Response (IVR), and the mobile web.

This is the first version of the guidelines that consolidates best practices for the four major US wireless service providers: Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, and T-Mobile. The MMA calls it a milestone toward continued growth of mobile marketing.

Marketers and anybody dealing with the mobile industry should really check out the lengthy document (pdf). Here are some guidelines from it, although they really don't begin to scratch the surface of the amount of information found within the actual document.

"The latest MMA Consumer Best Practices Guidelines are an industry milestone toward meeting the ecosystem’s need for a concise yet comprehensive set of rules at a time when rapid growth increases the challenge of following multiple playbooks," says Wehrs. "By providing a single, industry-standard reference, the new guidelines free carriers, technology companies, brands, media companies and consumer advocates to focus on protecting consumers, providing the optimal user experience and continuing the mobile channel’s growth."

This week, the MMA also announced its new global board members. For an interesting video interview with Wehrs on mobile marketing, check this out.

Are you doing any mobile marketing yet? Tell us how it's going.