A guest post by Mike Brown.

Mobile devices are on the verge of being mainstream. According to the latest data from comScore, more than 107 million Americans own Web-enabled  devices. That’s nearly half of the 234 million mobile subscribers that live in the country.

Mobile goes further than smartphones and traditional feature phones, extending into newly developed tablet devices, such as Apple’s iPad. A report released earlier this year by the Pew Research Center suggests the number of Americans owning tablets has also skyrocketed, growing from 10% in mid-December of last year to 19% in early January.

With more consumers using these devices to consume media—and by extent, promotional content—brands must incorporate these devices into their multichannel marketing initiatives. Smartphones and tablets are no longer toys; they can act both as a promotional medium to reach consumers with relevant messages and as a tool to execute these campaigns.

High-level executives are also using these tools to read client emails, message their co-workers, monitor company status, and conduct business. Whether chief marketing officers or other C-level staff are in their offices, at home eating breakfast, or in the field, they can stay connected via tablets and smartphones.

Mobility also empowers folks in charge of campaigns and folks on the ground level executing the initiative. Leadership can use mobile devices to keep track of their campaigns as they are being rolled out, enabling them to view analytics and reports even on the go.

In the grand scheme of marketing initiatives, that data is crucial because it helps executives determine which components of campaigns are working—and which ones aren’t. They can then make the decision to remove ineffective templates, images, and other assets to improve overall return on investment,  which helps them maximize ROI.

Mobile marketing automation solutions also enable people in the field to develop marketing collateral, such a promotional email or a presentation, on the fly.

Brands have always known the importance of relevancy. If a customer hates receiving promotional messages through email but doesn’t mind being engaged via text message, businesses should take the path of least resistance. They must reach the right customer with the right message through the right medium.

Where this may fall apart with central marketing campaigns is the fine-tuning of campaigns to be relevant to the consumer’s preferences. Traditionally, salespeople in this position have been saddled with three options in this scenario, none of which are ideal.

First, they can use the materials they have—but those are not always relevant or personalized. Second, they could make changes to collateral to ensure its relevance—but that may create branding inconsistencies. Finally, they could ask marketing to create customized and personalized materials–but creating them takes time, which means the lead could be lost. Folks in the field need to make the split-second decision of sacrificing preference for relevance because they don’t have the required assets to adjust.

Distributed marketing automation created for the purpose of sales enablement solves that problem by having pre-approved brand-compliant messaging and materials that have been approved for use by marketing executives. By integrating an automated sales-enablement solution, marketers at the local level can create content in real time that is suited for mobile devices. That enables salespeople to approach prospects through the channels where they want to be engaged, so brands can successfully move their targets through the sales funnel.

In that sense, this level of flexibility enables brands to get consumers’ attention through their preferred mediums, such as mobile devices, and then take them to the next relevant place seamlessly.

Whether you’re trying to reach consumers through their tablets or you’re using smartphones as a business tool, mobility should be in every brand’s arsenal.

Mike Brown is the CEO and Founder of Fision and regularly contributes to the Fision Blog.

(Photo courtesy of Bigstock: Black Woman Texting)

Tags: Content Marketing, Strategy and Tactics

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