The iPad is, quite possibly, one of the best way for marketers to enhance their brand image and interact with customers. With iPad in hand, your customers have the ability to view product information and engage with interactive content, all the while staying mobile.

More than half of all adults in the US own either a tablet or a smartphone, and one-third use mobile devices to surf the Web and watch video; no wonder marketers are creating platforms designed explicitly for mobile devices.

Creating a marketing campaign using the iPad can increase the customer conversation by delivering exactly what customers want, when and where they want it.

Though the iPad is the perfect marketing medium for reaching the new mobile generation, marketers are struggling to find new and innovative ways that encourage and enhance customer conversation.

Here are a few basic steps you should keep in mind when optimizing your collateral for the iPad.

Create customized content

The first step in adjusting your collateral to take full advantage of the interactive qualities of the iPad is to create customized content, which can be anything from branded content to articles, videos, and images that are told from your company's perspective.

With customized content, you are stepping away from static, generic messaging and taking advantage of the opportunity to optimize your marketing collateral for customer interaction—helping you to not only encourage customer dialogue but also plant the seeds for a long-term relationship in which the consumer will be able to associate your direct marketing strategy with a trusted brand.

Create visual content

Consumers are watching videos online at an increasing rate. As customers become more inclined to interact on mobile platforms, marketers must learn to adapt and cater to content-driven consumers with quick, informative, and exciting videos.

With the iPad in hand, you have the opportunity to take advantage of short-form visual content and make it an even more enjoyable experience for your prospect. However, to gain any real success with sharing videos, keep in mind messaging and length.

When creating your short-form video for the iPad, remember that you are not just providing information, but also telling a story. Beyond pulling together a series of shots and content, short-form videos are your opportunity to explain to the customer in a minute or less who you are, what you do, and—most important—why you do it.

Create accessible collateral

Make sure that your company collateral (whitepapers, blog posts, product information, and other important documents) has been adjusted to the iPad platform and is ready for customer interaction. Although that may seem like an obvious task, certain platforms, such as Adobe Flash Player, that are not compatible with the iPad. Take note of any software issues that may necessitate adjustments.

For marketers hitting the tradeshow floor, iPad sales apps are available pull thousands of up-to-date marketing content, including product catalogs, brochures, videos, and other marketing materials remotely from the iPad, without internet access. With CRM app integrations, sales reps can use those apps to send field-generated leads directly to their CRM account, such as Salesforce, reducing administrative time. Though not customer-facing, CRM integration via a sales app is still essential for providing consumers with content at an expedient rate.

With certain iPad sales apps, you can email product information directly from the app to a prospect. Accordingly, you can measure how many of these prospects actually visited to your website. This is a good time to take advantage of marketing automation software. Most marketing automation software allows you to see how many customers have visited your company website as a result of your email.

With marketing automation software, coupled with traditional website analysis tools, you will be able to go beyond pageviews and unique visitor statistics to get real marketing and sales intelligence, helping you boost your sales and allowing appropriate follow-up with your next campaign.

Share your story

Once your content has been made accessible via the iPad, you can begin educating consumers on your brand, products, and services.

To promote marketing collateral, companies have turned to social media outlets such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and YouTube. Those efforts to engage customer will lead some of them to your company website.

Though customer engagement is the goal, focusing on the "what" is as important as the "how." So take a step back and remember what "story" you are trying to tell about your company and services. Think of the content as your narrative. You are presenting customers with branded content that connects your marketing strategy with your brand, as well as visual content, such as short-form videos, that are excitable and keeps the attention of your customers.

When compiling your videos, blog posts, and whitepapers, keep in mind that your company should have one clear voice and all your content should be cohesive.