Mobile Magic: The Saatchi and Saatchi Guide to Mobile Marketing and Design

Chapter 11: Making the Stuff: The Basics of Mobile Production

As a marketer, you probably won’t be too involved in the nitty-gritty of production and implementation. However, if you’re the project lead you need to know what to look for.

Know Your Scale

Just like tee shirts, mobile marketing comes in various sizes. The first thing you need to do when you start thinking about production is decide what size you are, what kind of scale you’re going for. How much can you spend? Who do you need to reach? What will it take to go from marketing to sale?

Each of these types are more or less complete packages, not levels to pass in order to reach the next one. Starting small is certainly an option, but if “as small as you can” is “large” then that’s fine—start large. Figure out what kind of scale it makes sense to start with, and begin the production process there.

Small

Individuals, entrepreneurs, and local or small companies will probably want a small-scale mobile marketing effort, especially their first time out of the gate. You’re in the test and learn / small bet phase and all learning here is good.

Small-scale production means using inexpensive or free off-the-shelf tools like Apply, AppMakr, BuzzTouch, goMobi, and/or Appsbar. At this level, you should also take advantage of mobile-friendly blogging platforms like Tumblr that can be customized with free mobile-optimized themes and templates.

Medium

For a medium-sized mobile marketing effort, you’ll be calling in external contractors ...