• by Christian Weichelt , December 1, 2010

No doubt, mobile marketing is on the agenda of almost every company. Consumers are increasingly adept at using mobile phones, along with social media and Web applications, to inform our buying decisions. The challenge becomes how to efficiently personalize communications across all these touchpoints, and leverage user context to drive brand loyalty and conversions.

There is a lot to be learned from wildly successful Groupon and not just in terms of how to be the fastest company in history to reach $1 billion in revenue. To stay on top of the ever-growing group-buying market, Groupon quickly evolved its business model to better address the needs of its customers. It did this by tapping into the user context.

Groupon started off fairly simply -- use some of the more basic user contexts such as gender, location and buying history to better target users.

It then hit the road, creating mobile applications for both iPhone and Android platforms so customers can search nearby offers using GPS, keep track of their purchased offers by location, date and expiration, and get any deal with the touch of a button.

This is not groundbreaking -- with today's Internet and tech-savvy consumers, it is expected. They are very aware of the many personalization capabilities and mobile marketing services and expect a unique experience for all online interactions. Like Groupon, marketers need to explore how to leverage "contextualization," which involves providing customers with a personalized Web experience that is tailored to their preferences and circumstances. Such customized experiences satisfy the evolving expectations of sophisticated consumers and convert visitors into loyal customers; it's no longer enough to deliver great content.

We've talked about some of the basic layers of contextualization, but it can go even deeper -- social context such as Web site ratings and comments, "likes" or tweets, for example. Additional layers include GPS information, device parameters, time of day/year and data from CRM systems. One of the most important factors is how the user is accessing the information, considering the device parameters and the intentions that come with it. A lame iPhone interaction with a brand will turn the consumer off, no matter how great the offer is.

So how do you get started? Many companies take a point solution, and address each touchpoint individually -- an iPhone app here, a Facebook page owner there. Since the ecosystem of consumer touchpoints and customer information is getting increasingly complex, this is not an efficient or sustainable approach. A content management system that can orchestrate content and context as well as the different systems and end-devices involved can tackle this complexity from a central point. Imagine a control system where your content (advertisement, marketing campaign, product or customer services information, corporate website) resides. That content is then automatically adapted and delivered to each touchpoint and user.

Here are some things to consider when evaluating content management solutions:

• How technical is your marketing team? You don't want to rely IT to deploy each mobile marketing campaign.

• Do you need multi-language/country capabilities to adapt campaigns to different geographies?

• Are you able to tap into social media by incorporating customer ratings, likes and comments? Or are you just need to be able to listen?

• Are there back end systems (CRM, ERP, etc.) that contain valuable insight that you can easily incorporate for a truly personalized user experience?

• Can you preview each user experience before you publish it to ensure it will be personalized enough across different mobile platforms?

Contextualizing the mobile customer experience is just one aspect of our rapidly evolving marketing practice. It's critical for businesses to learn from the early success of companies like Groupon to customize every interaction with customers for improved brand loyalty and ambassadorship. If you have any questions or want to share your success stories, please feel free to comment below or contact me via my MediaPost profile.