Mobile Musings: Watch and Wait or Take Immediate Action?

With an ever-changing technology like mobile, it's important to stay up to date with the trends and take action on the already tried-and-true strategies. Let's take a look at some of these trends and must-do tactics.

Wearable Mobile Technology
The biggest buzz in mobile right now is wearable mobile devices — e.g., smartwatches and Google Glass. All the talk is about a Jetsons-like future with watches we can use to monitor and interface with our lives, or wearing glasses that put an augmented reality literally right in front of our eyes all the time. Despite the excited talk, widespread adoption of these devices is a few years off.

The reality is that right now most people are already "wearing" their mobile devices by having them in their pocket, purse or strapped to their belt. We don't need to wait for the future of wearable devices to arrive; for all practical purposes, it's here now.

For now, just watch and wait on the new phase of wearable mobile devices, but jump on the fact that everyone already has their phone with them at all times.

Mobile Responsive Websites
Without a doubt there are two things that every retailer should have nailed down regarding mobile right now. The first is a mobile-friendly website. With mobile internet usage soaring and Google recommending that a mobile responsive site is a best practice for remaining search engine compliant, it's an absolute no-brainer.

If your website isn't yet mobile responsive, get it that way as soon as you can. As Google says, "making a website that's friendly to smartphone users has now become a critical part of website management." The search engine giant's top recommendation for doing so is using responsive design.

Mobilize Your Email
The second is mobilizing your email. Knowing that 43 percent of consumers check their email most often on a smartphone or tablet is one thing, finding out that 80 percent of them will immediately delete an email that isn't optimized for their mobile device is another. If you're using email in your marketing mix, make sure that every email you send from now on is friendly to mobile readers.

Use a mobile email template from your email service provider. If it doesn't have one, get one designed for you. The template should use a single column, keep graphics small and have enough space around clickable links that it works for fingers to tap — and make sure those links go to a mobile-friendly environment.

Relevance is Increasingly Important
Relevance has been touted as critical to mobile marketing since its earliest stages. With more and more businesses jumping in on mobile marketing, relevance takes on even more importance because simply reaching out via mobile isn't unique enough. Your business has to stand out.

Here's an example of being relevant: On New Year's Day, Famous Footwear sent a text message to its opt-in list that said, "Happy New Year! Check out these popular resolutions paired with the perfect shoes to set them in motion." The message included a link to a mobile-friendly blog post that showed slippers paired with a resolution to reduce stress, athletic shoes with a resolution to become fit and sandals with a resolution to travel more. That's a smart and relevant campaign.

Mobile Payments
Accepting mobile payments is one trend that retailers should pay close attention to. Starbucks is leading the way in this area with its rewards app. As early as last spring, Starbucks reported that 10 percent of its sales were paid for via mobile device.

Whether or not you develop an app like Starbucks, you should make sure that you explore all the various ways that your customers can pay for their purchases with their smartphone. This ranges from accepting payments on your device to upgrading your point-of-sale system to accept near field payments. You may find that accepting PayPal via mobile device would be helpful to your customers.

Kim Dushinski is the founder of Mobile Marketing Profits and the author of "The Mobile Marketing Handbook: A Step-by-Step Guide to Creating Dynamic Mobile Marketing Campaigns." Kim can be reached at kim.dushinski@gmail.com.