Last month, at the Mobile Premier Awards — an international competition for mobile start-ups held at the Mobile World Congress — the message was clear: Web sites are old school, and mobile is a growing requirement for every industry and business.

Winners were eager to offer tips and predictions to help all business owners — not just those with technology companies — prepare a mobile strategy. Here are some of their suggestions:

All businesses need the ability to be seen by mobile devices. “The idea is that if a consumer is looking for you on the run,” said Chetan Sharma, a mobile consultant who judged at the M.P.A. competition, “your info must be available in any format where they are looking to consume that information — or else you miss an opportunity.”

Content in most sites isn’t coded to be read or found by people using devices on the go, with small screens and mobile browsers, search engines and operating systems. Smartphones, for example, can’t read Flash content.

It was also recommended that companies check business directories, map and review sites and apps already popular with mobile users to see if you’re listed. If not, you can enter basic details like your location, contact information and a short description free on many sites and apps. You should check Google Maps, Yahoo Local, Nokia’s Ovi Prime Place, Microsoft’s Bing Local Listings, Yelp and Foursquare.

You may also need to optimize your company’s existing Web content, suggested David Harper, chief executive of Percent Mobile, a New York-based mobile analytics company that won a Gold Award for Early Stage Innovation. If you maintain a blog on WordPress, for example, you can use the free WordPress Mobile Pack to convert the blog to a format that is fast-loading and readable on a smaller screen.

One of the best free or affordable things you can do is build a list of mobile phone numbers for customers who are willing to receive text-message alerts or text-message coupons. Other things include creating a mobile microsite coded in XHTML, CSS or other languages easily read by new mobile Web browsers and devices; or building a branded app and mobile ads to promote it using the services of companies like AdMob, GetJar, Mofuse, Mippin and MediaLets.

Businesses should be able to develop or use more powerful mobile apps to their advantage soon as new mobile devices, from their hardware features to their more open operating systems, are serving as “a richer substrata on which to build apps.”

All of the new technology aside, an essential function of the mobile phone is still making phone calls. But even that’s changing. Adaffix, an Austrian, is offering voice calls that use search listings and social media data as a supplement. That means a mobile user with an Adaffix app running can call a taxi service and get no answer but know that, upon hanging up, three alternative listings will be presented. The taxi services can offer coupons to try to scoop up the business. It’s a high-tech way to advertise that could serve traditional Main Street businesses well, said Adaffix founder and chief executive Claudia Poepperl.

Understanding the differences between mobile and Web audiences is crucial. Someone at a home computer who checks out your restaurant’s Web site may be interested in videos of your chef or a PDF menu. Someone accessing your site by mobile is more likely to need to get directions instantly or to see if you have an open table. If you know how the majority of your users are accessing your brand on mobile and what content they need most, you can be sure that they have a positive experience.”