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NOTE: This article original appear on Mobile Marketer.com. You can find it here: http://www.mobilemarketer.com/cms/opinion/columns/8657.html

In a previous post, I outlined a framework for describing mobile websites.  The goal there was to outline a set of experience and execution standards and site features that can help marketers evaluate the evolution of their mobile web presence.

In fact, what should precede the development of your mobile website are decisions about the type of experience you can and want to offer your customers. Each potential experience can be linked to your business and brand objectives. And there’s no reason why any particular approach shouldn’t be viewed as an evolutionary step towards a deep mobile web experience.

Here’s a survey of four types of mobile web experiences you can offer your customers:

1. Conversion-Led

The conversion-led approach prioritizes customer acquisition. Generally speaking, you’re looking at mobile as a channel extension of your CRM or promotions funnel.  These sites could be mobile optimized versions of your contest micro-sites or loyalty programs. And it’s likely they’re having traffic driven to them via other channels – either mobile like SMS or mobile advertising or through non-interactive media prompts like print or TV ads.

It’s fair to say that the conversion-led approach is more akin to a landing page strategy where light weight sites are used to provide a frictionless continuation of a brand experience. Key to a successful conversion-led approach is appreciation and iron-willed adherence to a customer-centric value exchange. Make it very clear what you want the consumer to do. Give them an offer that makes it worth their while. Make the design experience suit the medium.

2. Look-up-Led

This approach is arguably the best starting point for any brand marketer looking for a sustained mobile presence. It sets a foundation that can be easily built upon. Its intent is to address the most pressing needs for the widest variety of customers.

The essence of the Look-Up-Led approach is the recognition that a customer visiting your site on their mobile phone is most likely there to find a very specific piece of information which they can they apply to their daily tasks or current circumstances.

Contact or location information would be the best example of this but it would also include price or schedule checking or other product background information (nutrition information, for example, if you’re a QSR or CPG company).

3. Transaction-Led

With a transaction-led approach you’re focussing on driving product purchase. That may mean enabling on device transactions. But it can also be about increasing purchase intent through more immersive product experiences or bridging customers from device to retail through incentives or concierge-like interactions.

Consumer comfort with on-device transactions is definitely on the rise and you can encourage that behaviour by porting familiar shopping chart cues to your mobile site. Existing account authentication, transaction security and clear progress metering are important. Customer support channels should be prominently displayed and will minimize shopping cart abandonment.

Having on-device ordering with in-store pick up is a complementary feature to direct on-device commerce and one that also stands up well on its own. Many customers may come to your site with look-up intent. Price comparisons or inventory availability may be their initial focus but by allowing customers to reserve goods on device and schedule pick up at their preferred location can turn window shopping into revenue.  You can also manage that ‘clicks to bricks’ experience through mobile couponing where site visitors can unlock coupons good for their next visit.

4. Content-Led

Publishers, TV networks, and others whose business is based on producing a steady stream of content are the obvious candidates for this approach. But they are not the only ones.  The content-led approach can be the evolution of the look-up-led approach and a companion to the transaction-led approach.

The main attributes of this approach are well structured category architecture, a deep and searchable content library, multi-channel sharing (email, SMS, social media, etc…) and multi-media content formats.  A content-led approach also benefits from allowing visitors to specify content preferences. While easier to do on a native app, a minimalist registration option can allow for saved preferences and make for meaningful and frequent visits. That can be a real benefit if you’re looking to monetize your content through advertising.

Your own mobile web presence may not fit neatly into just one of these categories. As I mentioned with the content-led approach, combining elements of each may make the most sense given your business and marketing objectives.

What should be front and centre regardless of the chosen approach is an evolutionary view where initial efforts are monitored and visitor traffic data is fed back into your content and design strategies and implementations.

The mobile web is becoming increasingly important and many expect it to overtake native applications as the primary source of customer mobile data consumption. Be prepared. Take advantage.

Possibly Related Posts:

• Making the Mobile Web a Friendlier Place
• When Web Meets Mobile, Brand Meets Hand
• Three Simple Ways to Get Started In Mobile

For all the talk of operating system fragmentation becoming a development burden in the mobile space (and it is a big issue), I’d argue that another type of fragmentation poses an even greater challenge for marketers looking to intelligently explore and evolve their mobile programming options

Welcome to the age of customer fragmentation.

Customer fragmentation for mobile, as I define it, has both a ‘macro’ and ‘micro’ definition. At the macro level it concerns how a marketer’s target audience is rarely neatly confined to a single device family or operating system. Marketers will have customers that use iPhones, Android devices, Blackberries and so on. Investment decisions need to be made about which platforms and device features offer the optimal mix of reach, experience and response.

At the macro level, there’s also the issue of distinguishing between Smartphone users and non-Smartphone users and whether SMS (for example) would prove to be a more effective channel than a native application.

However, it’s at the micro level that added wrinkles place emphasis on smart customer persona definition and segmentation activities that should be a part of any thorough and thoughtful marketing exercise.

Even within broad segments such as ‘iPhone users’, there are nuances in how device features are used by individual consumers. Massive app download numbers may suggest that everyone is an app user, but how is that overall trend distributed among ‘gamers’, ‘productivity fiends’, ‘social networkers’, and ‘brand loyalists’?

The same can be said for Blackberry users.  Deep enterprise penetration means a strong core of white collar email power users, but Blackberry has also been gaining traction among younger audiences who are addicted to the Blackberry instant messaging client.

Of course, then you need to consider how SMS, LBS service and camera use may be distributed among your customers by age, geography or demographic profiles.  And perhaps the mobile web is the better choice given any number of reasons from development costs to how customers interact with your existing brand assets.

Before hands get thrown up in frustration, it’s worth noting that the costs and time required for smart customer profiling and segmentation will be recouped many times over as you create a foundation for value-laden programming that delivers genuine and recurring utility.

Here are 5 tips for effectively addressing customer fragmentation:

Use existing assets to gather direct-from-customer data

You already probably have a website, an email list, a bricks and mortar location and so on. Use these as vehicles for asking questions and gathering observations about how your customers want to be engaged via mobile.

Mine existing 3^rd party research and validate against existing customer profiles

Market research firms are perpetually pumping out reports on various consumer habits, preferences and activities. Publishers, ad networks and industry associations routinely trumpet audience data. Take advantage.

Be thorough with competitive analysis and extract learning from in-market examples

Case studies abound. Most brand apps are free for you to download and pick apart user experiences.  Nearly every phone has a browser and SMS campaigns are easy to enter. Put some thumbs to phone and discover what works and what doesn’t.

Analytics, Analytics, Analytics

Your website’s analytics package should tell you what mobile devices and operating systems are hitting your site. There will be some. How do those results index against wired web norms? Tools like MapInfo (Disclosure: a sister company of my employer Digital Cement) offer deep postal code level data on consumer behaviour and preferences.

Pilot programs with lower barriers to entry to gain deeper insights

Perhaps my most important recommendation is ‘try stuff’. You can’t beat running a real world campaign for actionable insight. Mobile advertising and mobile search are a good way to start and developing a mobile landing page can be very cost effective. Create mobile friendly versions of your email campaigns. Most SMS providers offer the use of shared short codes to help minimize start up costs.

If you find yourself thinking I’m not saying anything new, perfect. You have the right orientation for maximizing mobile marketing returns. If your agency is recommending a mobile program without this kind of leg work or justification….well, you know.

The velocity with which consumers are integrating mobile into their lives is only slightly ahead of their expectation to be able to get what they want, when they want it on the device. Your customers will want to find you there if they don’t already.

Possibly Related Posts:

• The 3 Dimensions Of Effective Mobile Email