The possibilities for mobile marketing are exciting, and they are growing every day with the rapid development of new technologies and techniques. Mobile is changing, and—from AI to group chat integration to wearables—that change is happening quickly.

The ability to reach customers on their mobile devices with the right message at the right time can deliver customer satisfaction and loyalty while bolstering a company's bottom line. With that potential ripe for the picking, are you ready to adopt a mobile marketing mindset in 2018?

Customer expectations are rising, and it's the marketer's job to exceed them with personalized journeys. This article will explore three tips that will help you create personalized and engaging customer experiences by using mobile marketing.

Tip No. 1: Use both outdoor and indoor location-targeting

This tip seems almost as obvious as the answer to "Who is buried in Grant's tomb?" (which, by the way, is a trick question!). However, many marketers approach the mobile channel simply as another outlet for existing messages and communications. Sure, marketers will likely connect with their customers (because mobile device owners have their device on their person or within reach 90% of the time). The miss is that the message is connected to neither the right time nor the right place.

Marketers must incorporate the location of a consumer to deliver a message that will inspire engagement. When you consider location and also time of day, offers can be localized and highly targeted, ultimately increasing conversions.

Using geo-fences or "virtual geographic boundaries" to surround locations that are important to your brand is a no-brainer. Your mobile marketing solution should allow you to easily establish geo-fences for physical locations where your goods or services are available—or perhaps where your competitors' goods or services are available! To save time, automate that effort by regularly synchronizing to a list of locations.

You'll need to decide what will serve as the trigger for your message: entering a location, exiting a location, or dwelling in a location (for a minimum amount of time).

Taking the use of location further, you may wish to subdivide a geo-fence. A multistory location (such as a department store) or any large location (entertainment venue, airport, etc.) could benefit from the use of location beacons—small and inexpensive devices that can identify the precise spot of a customer within a location.

Say those new coats you've recently promoted to your best customers are displayed at the back of the third floor. As customers enter the store, remind them where to find the coats. Guide your patrons to the latest products, designs, and restaurant locations—and then deliver a special offer. The use cases of these highly targeted in-the-moment interactions are limitless.

Tip No. 2: Use AI-powered preferred locations

AI-powered marketing is here, and it can transform your mobile marketing efforts.

What if you could securely and noninvasively determine whether customers are approaching or leaving their home or work location? Marketers cannot possibly provide contextualized messages to every one of their customers based on home or work location… or can they?

Artificial intelligence can be used to securely determine preferred locations, such as "home" and "work," and that information can be used for AI-powered marketing. The information certainly must remain secure, known only to a device and residing only on that device. An automated campaign or message would use a trigger provided by the mobile device (essentially a "Yea" or "Nay") to deliver the message.

Equipped with those cognitively determined locations, a marketer could create programs that, quite simply, previously wouldn't have been possible. Here are a couple examples of how AI-powered location information could be used:

• Ted has a flight reservation with a departure time in less than three hours. The moment he departs his "home" location, he might receive a notification from the airline (either via mobile push or SMS) reminding him of the departure terminal and confirming status. That saves Ted effort and can improve satisfaction and loyalty.
• When Lori leaves her "work" location within a certain time range, such as 5:30-7:30 PM, a grocery chain may suggest to her that she stop by to pick up a prepared meal for dinner, and offer her an incentive to do so. Communicate with your customers in the moment for optimal response and results.

The possibilities are exciting. (Check out how brands are creating smarter AI-powered marketing campaigns.)

Tip No. 3: Connect mobile with other channels

Mobile marketing shouldn't be used in isolation. Behavioral and profile data from other systems must be used to properly target marketing efforts. And, to access that data, a mobile automation platform needs to connect to other marketing and related solutions. Even better, those channels should be managed from within a single, multichannel marketing automation platform.

Accessing data, offers, and messages within one solution creates efficiencies and helps ensure consistency across your customers' journeys. When you have a multichannel automation solution speaking the same language as the rest of your ecosystem, you'll be able to do your job more quickly and effectively. More important, your customers will be experiencing your brand more naturally and consistently, helping the brand exceed engagement and conversion goals. See how teams are transforming their marketing campaigns to drive better results.

Prepare for the next opportunity: serving customers in the moment

According to Forrester Wave™: Mobile Engagement Automation Q3 2017, the next battleground for marketers to win, serve, and retain consumers is in the moment. That means an enterprise must ensure it can deliver personalized content and services when and where a consumer expects them.

Engagement via mobile is at the heart of that effort.

The key to delivering communications and offers to customers when and where they expect is to use what Forrester terms a "Mobile Engagement Automation" solution, the core components of which include...

• Data integration
• Audience creation and management
• Campaign and moment orchestration tools
• Behavioral and campaign analytics tools
• Artificial intelligence

(Read the Forrester report to learn more about mobile-engagement automation—and also see why Watson Marketing is a leader). Good luck with your mobile marketing automation efforts in 2018.