Brands understand the importance of reaching consumers on their mobile devices, yet many still find it difficult to implement a mobile CRM strategy.

There are many challenges to implementing mobile CRM, including that mobile information is often siloed, the ecosystem is complex and the scale may not be there yet for some companies to warrant the investment. Companies are starting to address these issues but it may take a while before targeted mobile advertising works as a direct feed into mobile CRM programs.

?There is a little bit of a distance between the vision for mobile CRM and the actual reality,? said Josh Herman, vice president of product strategy and innovation for Acxiom Corp., Little Rock, AR.

?Companies want to get mobile CRM right because it is a personal interaction with their brand and a reflection of the brand as well,? he said.

?You really do need to have mobile closer to the center of marketing because that is where the consumer eyeballs are. It can create lots of confusion inside an operation and with consumers if there is not this kind of efficiency.?

Mobile needs a home
The benefits of having an integrated mobile CRM program can be significant and can help drive revenue.

Connecting key data to CRM databases can also help brands determine if mobile is a more effective channel to reach and interact with customers.

?By segmenting the database and customers, brands can execute more intelligent marketing strategies resulting in revenue, while consumers will start to see personalized communications,? Chris Wayman, vice president of digital development for the mobile practice at Merkle Inc., Columbia, MD.

Integrating mobile with CRM strategies can also help marketers provide a better customer experience.

As mobile penetration grows, it is key for marketers to track customer behavior not just online but via mobile as well, which can tie together customers offline and online behaviors.

"Integrating mobile with CRM programs is crucial to delivering an enchanting client experience for three reasons: Immediacy, Location Aware, and Contextual Relevance," said Ashley Johnston, vice president of marketing at Experian Marketing Services, New York. "It connects the digital world with the offline world in ways that couldn't be accomplished in the past.

"Apps and mobile search are key to making this happen in addition to consumers opting into alerts which can be triggered based on geo-fencing technology," she said.

As with any new communications channel, mobile has been treated as an appendage to other operations. One of the challenges marketers face with integrating mobile is where to put it.

Should mobile be a part of the digital marketing team or a corollary to email? Is it best as a part of the Web site or with the database marketing team?

As mobile is maturing, some companies are beginning to make decisions as to where it should sit within the organization. For example, one of Acxiom?s clients recently asked the firm to handle mobile as part of the email work it does for the client.

?Part of the power of multichannel marketing is the interplay between channels,? Acxiom?s Mr. Herman said. ?The client said let?s have my email CRM team take responsibility of mobile marketing so that they help feed and fortify the experience regardless of which channel a customer decides to access us through.?

A complex ecosystem
Another challenge is that because mobile is so complex and has so many sub-channels, it can be difficult for companies to decide what information they need to collect from customers so they can market to them more efficiently.

The goal should be to collect the data necessary to connect a company?s mobile efforts to all of the marketing information that is already in its marketing database. The mobile information can be any combination of a name, email address, a mobile number, ZIP code, location, device type and unique device ID.

?We're not sure that brands have a consistent view of what data elements should be collected from mobile,? Merkle?s Mr. Wayman said.

?There are many discrete mobile channels that exist within the mobile medium itself,? he said. ?Few brands understand that mobile marketing tactics for each of these channels are delivered by separate platforms and technologies, resulting in silos where the data sits in many third party platforms with no consistent measurement standard.

?Once you incorporate these elements together the marketer can start to build a mobile ?view? of the customer enabling segmentation and targeting opportunities.?

Despite the growth in mobile, it may still need to reach scale at many companies before they can make the kinds of investments needed to put all of these elements in place.

"Brands that have begun building their mobile programs and strategies at scale, for example, Target, Starbucks, to name a few are working closely with their CRM teams on utilizing their mobile CRM strategies," Mr. Wayman said.

?In order for marketers to make the investments in mobile CRM, there must be scale,? he said. ?We define scale in terms of large SMS opt-in lists and volume of regular app users.

?However, most brands are seeing traffic in the 15 ? 25 percent range where consumers are attempting to engage Web sites and email through mobile devices, not the traditional desktop." 

Synchronization
Once companies begin to capture mobile customer information and feed it into a CRM program, they will be able to take better advantage of the unique benefits that mobile offers.

This is when companies can also start to have a more fluid flow for the acquisition of a new customer directly into the mobile CRM framework.

?As it relates to loyalty, the new dimension is how to add the element of time and space in terms of who gets what where and how,? Acxiom?s Mr. Herman said. ?This adds a whole new skill set for campaign managers to learn, acquire and master.?

?The next layer of sophistication is to synchronize mobile advertising to the desired audience and have a mobile ad drive the consumer to opt-in to a first-party mobile relationship so that the targeted mobile advertising is working as a direct feed into a mobile CRM program,? he said.

Final Take
Chantal Tode is associate editor on Mobile Marketer, New York