By Daina Middleton

Intelligent and effective interactive marketing no longer relies solely on the Internet.

The influence of the mobile Web continues to grow, and savvy marketers ought to be thinking seriously about mobile. Unfortunately, according to digital strategy firm Acquity Group, only 12 percent of the top 500 Internet retailers have sites optimized for mobile devices.

The immediacy, intimacy and interactivity of mobile devices have spurred rapid growth, and greater adoption of mobile capabilities is essential for marketers.

During the remainder of 2010 and into next year, more commerce is expected to take place through the mobile Web.

Wired about Web
A recent survey by electronics comparison shopping site Retrevo found the proportion of people that had bought something with a mobile device had doubled to 20 percent in just the last four months.

Of those who have made a mobile purchase, 58 percent did so using mobile sites capable of transactions.

Furthermore, in its ?Economy + Internet Trends? report (see here), Morgan Stanley showed that mobile Internet adoption outpaces desktop Internet adoption.

This pace of adoption represents a significant shift in the way individuals interact with brands on a daily, if not hourly basis, and a quintessential opportunity to optimize digital actions for participation, leads and sales.

So what should marketers keep in mind to prioritize and get started on their marketing efforts?

Let us begin with search optimization. Ideally, a marketer should focus on optimizing both the global and mobile sites, but, as far as resource prioritization goes, a mobile site should outrank a traditional wired Web site.

Specific recommendations include:

? Create a mobile-specific style sheet on the main site with certain parameters that add or subtract features, based on what device is being used, to serve content across multiple mobile devices

? Build HTML5 coding into a Web site to provide new mobile capabilities, including better indexation on the engines and location detection, while also offering engaging mobile content for consumers

? Converting content from a desktop experience to fit a smaller screen size and the typically slower performance of a mobile device, first by singling out the features that have the most relevance in a mobile context

Deciding which content is most relevant to optimize for mobile means understanding the unique uses of the channel.

Local motive
The increasing prevalence of mobile provides natural interaction and is quickly becoming the primary way people access information, communicate a problem or complete a transaction.

Unlike the wired Web, people can use mobile anywhere and they do so in different ways: at home, at work, shopping, for banking, with friends or while travelling.

Additionally, since mobile has become so all-encompassing, it has intrinsically become the link for other marketing channels such as search, local and social.

According to online research firm Compete, nearly one in three smartphone owners called or stepped into a local business after finding it through a local search application during the first quarter.

The study also found that one-third of Twitter users on smartphones send tweets mainly through their handsets, while the same proportion prefer to read Twitter posts on phones.

With these findings in mind, marketers have the insights needed to best optimize mobile content and serve the needs of active participants.

All aboard, please
Mobile devices, Web sites and carrier networks are still in their infancy, but the number of people who embrace mobile will continue to grow as these things improve.

Progress is being made on nearly all fronts with marketers playing catch up.

There are more mobile devices available than ever before, people are becoming smarter mobile users, mobile device manufacturers are making better tools, and data networks have become much more functional.

These areas continue to ramp up, yet major consumer marketers still somehow believe their wired Web site will get the job done.

The key strategic move for any advertiser that recognizes the importance of mobile is to create a mobile-optimized Web site.

As the mobile train continues to move full speed ahead, marketers that do not jump on board by deploying and optimizing dedicated mobile efforts now will watch countless leads and conversions pass them by.

Daina Middleton is CEO of Performics, Chicago. Reach her at .