I firmly believe that we will look back at Christmas 2010 as the moment mobile went from a really interesting topic to a serious tactic within all retailers’ marketing mix, and what better way to assist retailers in the build up to Christmas than to put together a mobile wish list. Now what a present that is!

Ok, maybe a bit of an exaggeration but below are my top 10 tips and considerations for mobile:

1. Don’t think for too long!
Mobile is still heavily in the planning stage and everyone seems to be talking about theories rather than proven conclusions. This has lead to many retailers waiting to see what happens with mobile before taking the plunge themselves.

However, you shouldn’t wait too long as in a few years mobile will be a crucial part of everyone’s customer engagement strategy.

2. Do you need to Mobile-ize?
You need to demonstrate a need for creating a mobile strategy and the first step is to check your analytics  and find out how your customers are interacting with their mobiles. Customers may use different mobile devices to interact with your site and this research is invaluable in shaping your mobile strategy to best communicate and engage with them.

3. Do not alienate your customers
Shopping habits are becoming increasingly mobile centric, and with 90% of the UK population owning a mobile phone and 12% of all UK shoppers using mobiles to research before they shop, retailers that do not have visibility on mobile could potentially alienate their customers.

4. Innovate don’t duplicate

You need to go beyond replicating your desktop site within your mobile web build, as customers will require a different user experience when they arrive on a mobile site in comparison to what they usually expect on a desktop site.

5. Mobile is about ‘on the move’ not keyword rich
Location and context are the main factors to consider when optimizing for mobile, and search strategies should not just be an extension of the desktop strategy already in place. This relates to both PPC and SEO approaches, but also text messaging and Bluetooth marketing.

6. Connect with PPC
One in three mobile search queries have a local intent. With this in mind your PPC strategy should look to engage with the searcher and offer various forms of interaction to cater for their mobile needs. This involves including click-to-call functionality and showing location extensions within your text ads to allow searchers to see where you are and offer them the opportunity to call you at the press of a button.

7. ringtone, ring tone, buy ringtones
As for mobile SEO, results listings are not there because the search engine knows they belong to a site designed for mobile browsers, but because the content of the listing includes keywords that are associated with being mobile, or the site has mobile specific content, like ringtones and games.

8. Incentivizing via localizing

Incentivize your customers by sending them mobile coupons (m-coupons) which they can take into nearby stores for redemption. This can be done through text messaging with a link to the barcode coupon or available as an app or on the mobile site itself.

9. Time to get hyper!
Your customers on their mobiles can also be told how far away they are from their desired location, which is a great feature based on hyper local functionality.

10. SMS - a good call
Mobilizing your business is not just about Apps, most businesses could save a lot of money simply by using text messaging to better communicate with their customers and staff.

Text messaging is still the tool used most widely by customers, and business can interact with their customers by providing services such as order status updates, FAQ’s, price checking, coupon distribution, store finding capabilities and so on.

Mobile is on course to be positioned as the hub of all digital channels as it can bring the user in, engage and where appropriate guide the user to other channels to continue their journey.

Mobile search traffic from Google has increased 5 x in the past 2 years, and with the functionality now available via search to engage with customers at a local level and even optimize websites based on location, I believe that this Christmas mobile will have a very festive time I am sure it will be right at the top of all retailers’ wish lists, as well as to do lists, in 2011.