Short on Specifics

Now that you understand the size of the mobile market and the fact that it is ripe for explosive growth, what should your business’s mobile strategy be?

The answer is: no one knows for certain.

The reason why many businesses don’t have a mobile strategy is because mobile is long on potential and short on specifics.

The specific strategies that will be successful for your business are varied and many are unproven. We can look at compelling case studies like:

• Blyk which provides a phone service for 18 to 24-year-olds in Europe that offers free mobile and text messages in exchange for personal information and targeted advertising. Since launch, Blyk’s advertising has garnered a 29% response rate. Direct mail and web advertising rarely exceeds 1% response rates.
• ESPN.com which reported that mobile visits to their web site exceeded visits from desktop browsers during a recent 24-hour period.

These case studies show what is possible when you combine the right strategy with mobile-optimized content. But in both cases, you would be hard pressed to argue that either Blyk or ESPN are following proven strategies.

Instead, mobile is most reminiscent of the early days of the Internet when companies were just beginning to think about how this new technology might transform their industries. This period was full of experimentation as everyone rapidly tried to figure out how to build successful businesses and corporate strategies in this new world.

Our experiments will be better this time around because we have better infrastructure. We can draw on the lessons we’ve learned over the last decade. And we will be better equipped to measure our success.

But just like the early days of the Internet, those companies that are forward-looking—the companies that take risks and explore what is possible—will be rewarded with an early lead in this emerging market.