When creating content for a digital marketing campaign, chances are you’re designing on a large, desktop screen. Of course this format is preferred for creating, but it certainly isn’t where consumers are tuned into most. The one thing in everyone’s hand or in everyone’s pocket at all times is their cell phone! People are constantly utilizing mobile devices for their everyday needs and for personal enjoyment. Of all the time spent online in America, 71% of the time is done so through mobile. With this constant attention to mobile in mind, shouldn’t we think mobile first when developing content?
Here at Fresh Ink, we work with a “mobile is mandatory” mentality. When designing and creating content for various digital marketing campaigns, we think mobile first. But what does this mean, and how does this affect the content we create? Read on to learn how to gear your content towards an ever-growing audience of eyes glued to their small screens.
What’s so different about mobile?
It may seem obvious, but mobile viewing is so much smaller! All of the content that can fit in your big and beautiful computer screens must now be crammed inside the confinements of your mobile device. This means layout and format get drastically changed. You might not think this is a huge deal, as long as everything is there, right? Well think of it this way – how many times have you been viewing content on your phone and a picture is cut off? Or maybe you need to type inside of a text box that is running off the screen? Perhaps the video you’re trying to view is pushed beyond the confinements of your phone? Is the content loading fast enough? Turns out, 50% of mobile users expect a page to load in less than 2 seconds! Furthermore, for every second delay in mobile page load, conversions can fall by up to 20%. Therefore, I know that I’m not alone in my frustrations. The problem is that many don’t design with mobile in mind. With a few simple tweaks and tips to keep in mind, you can have content displayed beautifully on both desktop and mobile platforms, maximizing audience reach.
How can I create more mobile-friendly content?
Think narrow and vertical. It certainly depends what you’re creating and what platform you’re creating it with, but this is a good idea to keep in mind. Most platforms, such as Unbounce, which we use for creating landing pages, have options to view your content in mobile form while editing. This is a wonderful tool to help simplify things, but make sure you take advantage of it! Any time you make adjustments to your design or add content, you should always be checking to see how things will play out on a mobile device. Fonts may need to be smaller, order may need to be rearranged, and images may need to be downsized, but the content can all stay the same.
If you’re creating on a platform that doesn’t have this nifty mobile viewing option, a quick web search can do wonders. Depending on the content, you can find appropriate sizing measurements online to make sure all of your media can be fit for a mobile screen. For example, if you’re using Photoshop, there are various articles offering advice on project settings for creating mobile-friendly content. Here’s a helpful one:
http://davidmckinney.com/blog/2013/12/31/designing-iphone-apps-how-to-setup-photoshop
In terms of design, make things clear and concise. Knowing that audiences are likely to be viewing your content on a small screen, don’t clutter your content. Especially on mobile, where internet loading times often increase, thinking with a “less is more” mentality is critical. In fact, 53% of mobile site visits are abandoned if pages take longer than three seconds to load. Therefore, don’t go overboard with content and graphics. Make fonts relatively simple and easy to read. Have your key content be quickly identifiable and located towards the top. With smaller screens, you don’t want your audiences to be squinting and searching around for the information they need. Instead, hand it to them. Reducing copy can help with this as well. Mobile users often spend less time on a specific page, so only provide the copy they need. This will make for a better experience for your audiences and lead to more conversions.
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