By Bob Gold

Mobile is finally here ? it is bigger than the Internet and it is changing behavior and commerce. 

Having said that, what is the strategy most publishers have deployed to capture the new mobile consumer and commerce market?

Typically, the answer is: ?Let?s monetize our content using mobile? and add to our media kit ?mobile banner ads? and maybe a ?sponsored SMS text blast.?

But, just like the size of the banner ads, the financial results have been ?tiny? for most publishers.

Needling concern
Financial analysts covering the media business are having trouble understanding from publishing executives how they are going to move the needle of their stock price by positively exploiting this new mobile consumer paradigm and buying behavior. 

Even if the above mentioned mobile ?media buys? work, how does a publisher avoid further shrinkage given the revenue trade-off from reduced print ad revenue? And can a publisher actually add velocity to its financial model and P&L?

How about a publisher who says, ?Let?s monetize our audience, not our content.? Now we are getting closer to a strategy that can produce better financial results. 

But what does ?monetize our audience? really mean and how do publishers create, sell and manage those programs? How can publishers change their brand and relationship with marketing executives from one of an ?expense? to that of ?revenue??

The answer is fairly simple but extremely stressful for many publisher executives: measurable interactions and transactions. 

Publishers need to insert themselves into the purchasing cycle ? not necessarily taking an order but moving consumers through the various phases of a sales cycle such as awareness, promotion, education and purchase, regardless of how they buy ? mobile, Web, store and event.

Just like anyone who has years of experience in a particular field, it is extremely hard for publishers to let go of revenue strategies that are based on their content. 

Publishers need to view themselves as a commerce and loyalty engine for their advertisers.

It is key for publishing executives to truly understand that their content is the critical tactic that enables a strategy of driving transactions for their advertisers. It is not an easy realization that publishers need to shift from the business of content to the business of commerce, with content as the competitive advantage).

To help jumpstart that strategy, here are five examples on how publishers can drive significant incremental revenue by being more involved with consumer commerce.

But let me warn the reader, only those publishing executives who are dedicated to deep change can truly adopt these strategies:

1. Engagement/commerce kit replaces media kit. A publisher needs to present itself as being a part of its audience?s lifestyle and pro-actively involved in generating sales. 

Moreover, marketers like to think of themselves as no longer just placing ads but rather driving transactions. Therefore, just buying media from a ?media kit? does not fit with how today?s marketing executives ? who are approving dollars ? get promoted.

Summary: publishers should examine their entire naming sales conventions when it comes to how it presents to today?s marketing executives. Items 2-5 below reinforce this statement.

2. Retail engagement kit. Provide a retail engagement program that includes experiential involvement with consumers when they are in shopping mode.

Use the company?s strength as a value-added content provider to capture, over time, consumer preferences and then drive them to retail, incent their purchase, educate on the products they are considering, and enable a coupon or promotion to be transacted at point of sale. 

Believe it or not, mobile CRM and loyalty platforms can be private labeled by the publication to enable this entire purchase lifecycle. There is real money in being involved with your audiences? purchases.

3. Event engagement kit. Certain marketers spend significant dollars on both conducting and sponsoring events.

However, most of them woefully admit that they have not yet figured out the best way to drive transactions and ROI at these events. 

The publication can fill that need. The mobile platform solution can be enabled to provide ?in-the-moment? location-aware incentives and transactions, reserving a product, taking an order via mobile right then and there, or driving them to the nearest location with a time based incentive.

Instead of advertisements the publisher is creating adver-actions that produce measurable outcomes.

4. Loyalty management kit. Only a handful of the largest advertisers have a strong loyalty program and even those are searching for the best way to integrate mobile to increase member spend. 

Just think of the ?stickiness? if the publication had a loyalty program for both the audience and one that can be managed exclusively for one of the advertisers.

Remember, the vast majority of consumer product companies cannot afford to nor have the manpower to manage their own loyalty program ? but the publisher can for them.

The good news is the publication can monetize over and over again the cost to initially implement and deploy advertiser-specific loyalty programs that leverage the audience but enable all of its consumers to join.
 
5. Day in the life involvement. In today?s mobile world the bottom-line financial results will be measured by the publisher?s active involvement in consumers? commerce lifestyle ? and since publishers are already trusted advisors to consumers, they are in an excellent position to create, manage and sell contextually relevant ?engagement and commerce? programs.

So, fire or promote your publishing executives?

Publishers, already trusted advisors to consumers, are in one of the best positions to transition to be a resource that directly stimulates more revenue for marketers and away from being a ?media buy? that is deemed a necessary expense. Those executives who lead that change should be quickly promoted.

Bob Gold is CEO of Gold Mobile, a Clark, NJ-based enterprise mobile CRM and loyalty platform provider. Reach him at .