The ubiquity of smartphones has made mobile marketing essential for success in today's business environment. Effective execution, however, requires more than launching creative campaigns. Companies have to integrate mobile data across channels, including SMS, MMS, voice, social, push, Web, apps, wallet and location-based services, as the demand for personalization necessitates a cross-channel approach.

To utilize customer data and develop hyper-targeted mobile content, commonly referred to as "mobile customer relationship management" or "mobile CRM," companies should take a phased, iterative approach. Mobile expert and Waterfall's head of strategy Matt Silk explores how companies can better track success and increase the return on their mobile investment by taking four small steps: Crawl-Walk-Run-Fly.

Best of all, marketers can launch many aspects of the initial phases right away. After developing a solid foundation of easy-to-implement action items, implementation of advanced mobile marketing that maximizes revenue and reduces cost becomes much more tangible.