The majority of digital content is consumed on mobile devices now, so if you aren’t making all of your content mobile friendly, it is time!
Websites are on the decline. They just aren’t as necessary as they used to be.
Consider Starbucks … if their website went down, it would be bad but not the end of the world. But think about if their app went down: ~25% of Starbucks transactions are done via the mobile app, a number which will likely be 50%+ in a couple of years. They would lose money by the second if customers were unable to access their app.
Just look around, it doesn’t take stats to see that it’s a mobile dominated world. Granted, I am a digital human, but it’s not unsual for me to look at my phone for 7 hours out of a day. The average person looks at their phone 46 times per day, and 65% of digital time is spent on mobile.
Convinced mobile is important? Good.
Here are 4 tips for building mobile friendly content.
Step 1: Test your content on all digital channels
Test on all devices and never assume people are going to consume content a certain way. Don’t build a horizontal video and assume people will view it horizontally, people are pretty unwilling to change their phone to horizontal in the Snapchat era of video. Get rid of PDFs, too. They just don’t work well on mobile.
You can click and drag to make your browser window smaller for a quick simulation of what your content will look like on mobile. Make sure to do your final check on an actual phone. Have an Android and an iPhone available? Even better.
Step 2: What can you tighten?
Eliminate unnecessary words and gain valuable real estate on the mobile screen. Mobile content is good content because it gets to the point. You’re always competing with a 140 character tweet, the perfect communication experience on a mobile phone.
Shorten your headline, if your content must be longer summarize the main three points at the top. If your videos are more than 1:30 minutes, break them into multiple videos. Remember: Graphics must load quickly, be respectful of data usage.
Step 3: Can you make your content interactive?
Interactivity and less steps will increase engagement.
Save people from having to scroll with interactive content “tap to reveal info” style. Take advantage of geolocation if you can to make sure they get the most relevant info possible.
Are your visitors buying something? Make it happen with one tap. Take some queues from the Amazon app, masters of the quick buy.
Step 4: Pay attention to your analytics
Check your stats and continue to iterate. Look at your comments, look at your app ratings, track your name on social. Take heed, and revise. Don’t hesitate to pay expert testers or use mobile software to identify your weak points.
Shoutout to Susanne Frame for the inspiration for this post. Susanne is a Content Stragtegist for IBM Interactive, so she knows her stuff. Follow Susanne on twitter.
