By Michael Becker

Mobile marketing, the practice of communicating, delving and exchanging value with and through the mobile channel with one's audience, is transforming the practice of marketing and our relationship with consumers.

Brands, in-house marketers and enterprises of all sizes across numerous verticals have integrated mobile marketing practices into their business with great success.

One simply needs to read the daily news headlines from Mobile Marketer (http://www.mobilemarketer.com) to get a sense of all the new and exciting programs being launched.

Just in the last few days of late April numerous campaign stories were highlighted in Mobile Marketer:

? Starbucks runs mobile coupon loyalty program
? Monopoly at McDonald's Game wins Best Mobile Campaign
? Kraft Foods uses mobile for new instant coffee brand
? Amstel Light rolls out multichannel campaign
? Carl's Jr. runs trivia game via SMS
? Comedian Dane Cook launches iPhone app
? WhitePages adds mobile site to app presence
? Coldwell Banker real estate franchise goes mobile
? Mobile commerce trial works with Jack in the Box and First Data

Mobile Marketing works. It is successfully used by marketers to generate brand awareness, convert prospects to customers, maintain customer relationships, enhance customer care, stimulate viral marketing and produce tangible, measurable, contributions to a firm's bottom line.

Not convinced?

On a national scale, Papa John's reported in December that they it had generated more than $1 million in sales in less than six months via its mobile Web site (http://mobile.papajohns.com).

On the local scale, Cold Stone Creamery in March reported it used mobile marketing to promote a store opening to drive store traffic and awareness. Twenty-six percent of the program participants redeemed their coupon for a free ice cream at the store.

The Cold Stone Creamery and Papa John's are just two of the many examples that demonstrate the effectiveness of mobile marketing. They are the tip of the iceberg.

Many pieces of mobile marketing
At first glance, mobile marketing can appear to be complex, overly so in fact.

There are many paths through the mobile channel to choose from -- SMS, MMS, email, voice, Internet, mobile Internet, Bluetooth, and applications.

A plethora of tactical programs can be launched through and with these paths to engage one's audience, such as voting, polling, standard and premium branded content, user-generated content, trivia and quizzes and sweepstakes.

Other programs include charitable donations, applications for the iPhone, Android, BlackBerry and Palm, mobile Internet sites, broadband Internet sites, alert services, mobile rebates, product fulfillment via mobile, couponing (text, 2D, 3D) and mobile commerce.

You can even advertise within and around all these mobile marketing methods. The list goes on. You are really only limited by your imagination. All the possibility of mobile can be overwhelming.

In fact, many marketers do not know where to start -- how to begin embracing the possibility of mobile marketing and begin integrating it into their marketing operations in order to generate positive results for their firm.

Considerations for getting started
This may not be obvious, but when thinking about getting started and using mobile in your marketing you should not start with mobile.

Rather, you should start by asking yourself 1) who is my audience, 2) what value do I deliver to members of my audience; and 3) what objectives am I trying to achieve with my marketing and how will I measure my programs so I know when I have achieved by objectives.

? Your audience: Before you even think mobile, you need to understand the needs, concerns and desires of your audience. Who is listening, watching and engaging your brand? Who do you want to be engaging you? Who are your existing customers, prospects, evangelizers, supporters and detractors?

Also, where do they reside and congregate, both physically and virtually (we can no longer ignore the convergence between the real-world and virtual-social media realms)? What physical and virtual media do they use -- TV, magazines, Facebook, Twitter? When they look to fulfill their needs, where do they go, where do they start their search?

The more you know about members of your audience, your community, the better chance you have at fulfilling their needs and having success with your mobile marketing programs.

? Your value-proposition: What value are you offering? What value do your consumers get from your products and services? How might mobile be an appropriate medium to communicate and deliver this value?

Also, what other channels can you use do deliver this value? Where do they all intersect? Can you use them to facilitate the exchange of value?

It is important that you consider these questions and work with your partner (see partnering below) to answer them.

? Your objectives: You need to know what you want to accomplish and by when? Are you trialing a program? Running a campaign to build awareness or to generate ad-hoc transactional business?

Or, maybe you are looking to mobilize your community and build a permission-based list that you can remarket to in a precise and targetable fashion in the future?

Keep in mind with this last objective: once you open the lines of communication between you and individual members of your audience, you need to understand how you will maintain them. Who will maintain and grow the conversation with individual members of your audience?

Finally, in addition to knowing what you want to accomplish, you should also know by when you want to accomplish it. Set a date when you look to accomplish your goals and consider what you need to measure so that you will know when you are done.

Getting started with mobile
Once you have considered the three areas above -- customer, value and objectives "you are now ready to consider mobile and how it can be used to help you address the needs of your customer, deliver them value and meet your objectives.

As noted above, mobile has infinite possibility. To get started -- this is assuming you have not already -- you need to consider ways of making this possible. You can do this by learning the channel, focusing on a primary objective, putting together a phased approach and picking the right partners.

? Learn the language of mobile marketing: The best place to start is to first learn the tools and the language of mobile marketing. It is important to learn the language of mobile whether or not you will be having a partner launch and run your programs for you or if you are running them yourself.

In the former case you will be able to ask the right questions and in the latter case you will be able to run programs on your own.

You need to understand the language of the different paths of mobile, their capabilities and the mechanics of launching and running programs and how to integrate and measure the impact of adding mobile into your marketing mix.

Take a look at the reach numbers, for instance. You should know how many people are using SMS (50 percent to 90 percent depending on demographic) versus those that have and use an iPhone (less than 2 percent) so that you can pick the right mobile channels for your business and be able to set your expectations properly.

To get information like this and build your knowledge base you can subscribe to the Mobile Marketer publication online.

You can also attend events such as Mobile Marketer/Direct Marketing Association's Mobile Marketing for Agencies and Media Buyers that was held last month in New York (search for stories on Mobile Marketer's site) or the Mobile Marketing Association's Mobile Marketing Forum due to run in New York June 2-3.

If you can't make these events, try viewing the introduction to marketing videos by iLoop Mobile on YouTube or buy a copy of the MMA's Mobile Marketing Forum DVD set.

You may also consider getting a copy of Web Marketing for Dummies, which has a mini book on mobile marketing, or the Mobile Marketing Handbook (full disclosure: I am a coauthor of both books).

Finally, reach out to your partners, members of the Mobile Marketing Association and CTIA: The Wireless Association, the DMA's Mobile Marketing Council and your local Mobile Monday's chapter.

The information on understanding the mobile channel is out there and it is plentiful. You just have to go and get it or have a partner handle it for you.

? Start now, simplify and focus: Once you have a good understanding of the various pieces of mobile, you need to start -- get out there and launch a program. If you are on the sidelines you will never get anywhere.

When starting, start simply. Pick a simple program, one with the broadest reach and ease of use for all concerned.

Moreover, first focus on accomplishing just one of your objectives. Don't try to do everything at once.

For instance, you might consider building a permission-based SMS audience (a.k.a. an alert group). You can accomplish this by promoting an invitation to join your alert group via your Web site or other traditional media channel.

Once people have joined, just like with an email blast, Facebook status update or Twitter Tweet, you can message to the group, interact with members of your audience -- share value with them, such as news alert, coupons, product samples and store locators.

Just refer to the Cold Stone Creamery example mentioned above and on Mobile Marketer. The store mobile-enhanced a radio spot to build its community and sent an event announcement to invite members of its audience to the store opening.

Keep it simple. Mandee, a retail apparel chain, does this really well. See http://www.mandee.com/mobile.

If you are not ready to build a text alert channel, then you may consider building a mobile Web site or mobile-enhance your voice channel (IVR) programs.

Again, the key to getting started is to focus on the mass-market channels of mobile: voice, SMS and mobile Internet. This will have the broadest reach with the most general audience.

Remember, mobile need not be a one-way street. You should encourage an interactive dialogue with members of your audience. You can invite members of your audience to respond to you and give you input on your programs, to detail their needs and let you know if you are hitting the mark on value delivery.

? Phased approach: Once you have launched your first program, as in the example above, you can then begin rolling out other elements to the program in a methodical and phased approach.

For example, you may want to experiment with other methods of generating awareness for the program -- in-store point of sale displays, radio spots, local events sponsorships or adding a mobile Internet component to the mix to enhance and enrich the communication with the audience.

The key to the phased approach is to always balance the customer need, your value and objectives.

Make sure that each piece you add to your program is helping address customer need and is delivering your value and helping you meet your objectives. Don't lose your focus.

? Pick the right partner: There are six core elements to any mobile marketing program: Knowledge of the customer and your business, strategy, tactics, creative, technology and partnerships, and measurement.

Look at your business, determine which of these six areas you want to develop an expertise in and then find a partner to help you with the rest.

For example, you may consider working with an agency to help you with the strategy, tactics and creative or a solutions provider to help you with technology and partnerships.

Point being ?
The practice of mobile marketing is here, and here to stay.

There is no time like the present to get started. You simply need to know your customer, yourself, what it is you want to achieve, and then develop a plan of attack. That's it.

You will find that once you get going and engaging your audience through the very personal channel that is mobile there are many meaningful and rich rewards awaiting you.

This article was adapted with permission from a post on the iLoop Mobile blog.

Michael Becker is vice president of mobile strategy at iLoop Mobile, San Mateo, CA. Reach him at .