Google Releases A Playbook For “Winning With Mobile”

As Google continues to push businesses to embrace mobile advertising, it’s trying to make that process a little less intimidating with a new publication titled “The Mobile Playbook: The Busy Executive’s Guide to Winning with Mobile.”

The playbook is co-written by Jason Spero, Google’s head of mobile sales and strategy (he joined through the acquisition of AdMob), who predicated in February that one million small businesses globally will build a mobile website this year. I don’t think any of the advice is particularly revelatory, but it’s still a nice distillation of how Google thinks businesses should build their mobile strategies.

Amid the cute graphics and brief case studies, Spero and his co-writer Johanna Werther have scattered some specific to-do items, which they gather into a big list at the end:

Define your value proposition by determining what your consumer wants to do with your business in mobile. Benchmark against others in your industry for ideas.
Build a mobile website. Once you have a mobile website, check the
stats and optimize based on consumer usage.
Build an app for a subset of your audience after your mobile site
strategy is in place. Don’t forget to promote your app.
Assign a Mobile Champion in your company and empower them with a cross-functional task force.
Set up a meeting with your agencies about what’s working and what’s not
for your brand on mobile and tablets.
Search for your brand in mobile, as a consumer would. Take 5 minutes
and do this today. What’s working? What’s not?
Separate mobile-specific search campaigns from desktop search campaigns so you can test, measure and develop messaging specific for mobile.
Run rich media HTML5 ads to extend your branding message to reach the mobile audience.
Assign everyone in your marketing org the action item of reviewing their programs through a mobile lens.
Check out your tablet consumer’s experience with your brand. Take 5 minutes today and search for your brand on a tablet as a consumer would. What’s working? What’s not? Maximize the tablet environment with rich media creative.