As of February of last year, mobile devices accounted for nearly half of all website views worldwide. Teenagers check their phones 150 times per day. Consumers in the U.S. spend up to five hours on their phone per day. With all that in mind, it makes sense to pump up your mobile content marketing strategy.
Of course, whether you should go mobile at all (answer: most likely) depends on whether your audience is accessing your content with their phones or tablets. To find out, go to your Google Analytics account, click Mobile under the Audience section, and you’ll see for sure whether they’re browsing your site with mobile devices.
If so, use these four tips to improve your mobile content marketing:
1. Create a Responsive Site
Aren’t all sites “responsive”? Not quite. “Responsive site” is a specific term for websites that automatically adjust to the resolution and screen size of the device, whether it’s a PC, smartphone, or tablet.
In other words, responsive sites create a seamless user experience across all devices. Sites that aren’t responsive need to be expanded on a smart phone by dragging your fingers outward, so you can zoom in. And that’s just bad site design.
Thankfully, easy-to-use creation platforms and content management systems such as WordPress automatically create responsive sites and allow you to preview how pages will look in mobile, tablet, and desktop views. That way, you can adjust and format text, photos, and video appropriately, so they fit all format types.
2. Go Vertical, Go Streamlined, Go Friendly
It’s surprising how often we still see some sites on mobile, including some major brands, not employ responsive. It was only semi-recently that GQ revamped its site for mobile users in mind, with ads tailored for mobile phone viewing and a sleek, streamlined vertical format that made reading and navigating easier for readers.
Before, the fashion magazine went with a clunky slideshow format for many of their image-heavy articles. That made reading text and waiting for page load times a pain, especially on mobile. According to a survey in April 2015, most respondents said they found slideshow formats annoying or completely frustrating. They were right. That GQ changed gears proves the effectiveness of responsive, streamlined site design free of slideshows or intrusive ads.
3. Create Succinct Copy with Short, Strong Headlines
Mobile users have little time and short attention spans. That’s just how things are. Think of when people read content on their phones—it’s when they’re waiting in line, commuting on the bus or train, or just killing time at the coffee shop. So, it helps to get to the point. Use less unnecessary words. Make everything easy for the reader to find, with bullet points, short paragraphs (longer ones require more concentration), and eye-catching headlines and images. Be engaging.
However, that doesn’t mean you should write less. In fact, long-form content performs well on mobile. Which makes sense given that people can start a long article, put their screen to sleep, and pick it up the next time they get a chance to peek at their phone.
4. Optimize Keywords for Voice Search
On mobile devices, users can ask their voice assistant (i.e., Alexa, Cortana, Google, Siri) for help. Google Assistant is available on more than 400 million devices. Cortana has 100 million monthly users. And Gartner predicts 30 percent of searches will be done via voice by 2020.
Voice is the future, so simple questions like “Where’s the nearest pizza place?”, “When does Avengers: Infinity War play?”, or “Where’s the nearest Target?” that can drive consumers to your product or service should be part of your targeted keyword research. Anticipate the types of questions searchers will ask and create content that answers those questions.
After some time, be sure to check your analytics. Measure the mobile visitors you get, check whether they stay on your site, and track the actions they take, and you’ll know if your mobile content marketing is on the move.
Need help taking your mobile content marketing to the next level? Contact us!
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