When you publish a new blog post or send out an email newsletter, how does it look on different mobile devices? If you don’t know the answer, you may not be getting the most out of your content marketing efforts.
In 2014, mobile digital media use overtook desktop and is now sitting at 51% of all digital media time. Google also cares about mobile-friendliness in a big way and sites that haven’t been optimized are likely to get crushed in mobile search results.
If you want to stay competitive in today’s market, you need a mobile-friendly, or possibly even mobile-first, approach to content marketing. Not sure how to dive in? No worries; we’ve put together a set of essential strategies for making your content mobile.
Mobile Usage by the Numbers
If you’re not convinced that it’s worth the effort to make your content mobile, a few stats might change your mind. One 2015 study showed that smartphone use has risen 394 percent in the past four years and tablet usage increased by an unbelievable 1,721 percent.
What accounts for this surge? Some demographics, especially millennials, have moved toward a mobile-only pattern of Internet usage. People are also taking their phones everywhere – 75 percent of Americans admit to using their smartphones while in the bathroom (the other 25 percent are probably lying) and 80 percent use their phones within 15 minutes of getting up in the morning.
Key Factors for Mobile-friendly Content
Keeping the following ideas in mind will help you provide the optimal experience for your mobile users:
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Focus on rendering
Check out your content on your own phone or tablet. How is the user experience? Content that looks good on your computer may be difficult to read and navigate on a mobile device and that can have a big impact on your content marketing efforts. Research shows that 40 percent of users will abandon a site that isn’t optimized for mobile. Don’t forget to optimize your email content while you’re at it – over half of all emails are opened on a mobile device!
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Limit friction
Nothing kills conversions faster than friction. Friction can take a few different shapes. It can include the mental block a visitor experiences when they’re confronted with hard-to-read text or a lengthy form. It can also include real obstacles such as a call-to-action button that’s too small to click or a page that requires too much scrolling and pinching because it’s not optimized for mobile.
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Add interactive elements
Interactive maps, clickable phone numbers and other interactive items make it easy for users to act on the call-to-action.
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Consider colors and text
Think about the context of a mobile device when you’re planning your optimized design. Bold colors work best and small, easily digestible paragraphs help prevent the “wall of text” syndrome that can drive users away.
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Keep it simple
Simplicity is key for successful mobile content. A clean layout will help your content look good regardless of screen size or WiFi capabilities. Clickable buttons are a better choice than a list of multiple links, which can be clumsy to select on a small screen.
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Test, test and test some more
There are some great tools available to test your website for mobile-responsiveness. Try Keynote MITE or Google’s PageSpeed Insights, to learn more about how your site looks and acts on various devices. Google’s Mobile Friendly Test is useful for SEO purposes, helping you see how the Googlebot views your site.
Remember
You put a lot of effort into creating great content, so you’ll want to make sure your users have the best possible experience with it. Making your content look great for your mobile users can go a long way toward growing your readership and boosting conversions. With these essentials in mind, you can ensure that your content can go everywhere it needs to go and reach every user.