Without a doubt, mobile is a hot topic in the technology industry. Most small businesses and global enterprises alike are searching for ways to meaningfully integrate mobile solutions into their sales and marketing, e-commerce, and internal communications functions. Jody Haneke recently shared with Tampa Bay Technology Forum newsletter subscribers his five considerations for implementing a mobile strategy. TBTF is Central Florida’s largest and most influential technology industry association, and its newsletter, THE BYTE, reaches more than 8,000 professionals each week. This video was featured in the May 2 edition.

• Utility: Mobile applications should be useful and provide something more than just content. The mobile web works beautifully for delivering content, so an application should have a purpose that makes a user go back on an ongoing basis to perform some task or function.
• Context: The most important first step in understanding the mobile web as it relates to your mobile marketing strategy has to do with comprehending how, where, and for what purposes users will be accessing content on their mobile devices. Once you understand the context of user engagement, you’ll have a better idea of what’s most relevant from a mobile perspective.
• Drivers: Youknow that people are already accessing your content from their mobile devices on their own, so why not encourage that behavior with specific initiatives that would drive them to your site? Further, what can you do once you get them there? Ways to drive users to your site and content include text messaging campaigns to opt in for alerts or notifications, or QR codes that can be scanned by a smartphone and allow users to access additional online content.
• Efficiency: Enterprise is looking at mobile to increase performance and efficiency on a daily basis. One area for which mobile is demonstrating great promise is in the sales force. Custom native applications can be developed that provide employees and other approved users with secure access to corporate content via web services, like CRM and order information, that can be leveraged further by sales teams operating in the field.
• Leverage: In most cases you can build an effective mobile strategy simply by looking at your existing content and leveraging it in a way that’s mobile user friendly. One organization monetized its existing business directory by providing mobile users with remote access to it and tying that together with location based services and mobile couponing.