Mobile-First Content: Crucial for Business Success

If you've tackled marketing in the past couple of years you've likely run into the notion that businesses need to focus on mobile-first content. Some advocate this is a necessity for all businesses, regardless of their industry or how they market themselves. Others advise that this mobile-first approach is only reserved for some companies, while for others it would be a waste of recourses. Well, to investigate this, we will take a closer at mobile-first content and whether you should focus on it.

Understanding the importance of mobile-first content

As the name suggests, mobile-first content is the content you create with primarily mobile devices in mind. While you can put mobile-first content on other platforms, like PCs, they will look and feel best on a mobile device. Some content can be optimized for both mobile and PC. But, for the most part, you will need to make a decision between the two (or create separate versions). As such, all marketing managers need to decide whether they will invest recourses in mobile content, or focus more on PC.

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Ongoing marketing trends

If you were to follow modern marketing trends, you would easily come to the conclusion that focusing on mobile-first content is a must. Some would even go so far as to say that standard marketing content is pretty much dead and that the future will be all about mobile content. While we wouldn't go so far, we would definitely acknowledge that mobile connectivity is becoming more and more prevalent. As mobile devices become cheaper and more powerful, and wi-fi becomes more available, more and more users are using mobile devices as their primary way of going through online content.

Number of mobile users

To get an idea of big the mobile market is, let's look at some stats:

• 6,64 billion people use mobile phones today. This is around 83% of the world's population.
• Between 2017 and 2022, the number of users increased by 49.89% (from 4,44 billion to 6,64).
• By 2025, 72% of all internet users will solely rely on smartphones to access the internet.

These stats alone should give you a clear idea of why you need to focus on mobile-first content. If the size of the current mobile market isn't enough, keep in mind that it is steadily growing. So, even if you feel that mobile content isn't the best option right now, know that it will only become more and more prevalent as time goes by.

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Personalization

We've often mentioned how important personalization is for marketing, and how modern marketing trends gear towards increased personalization. Well, as it turns out, personalization is far easier to implement if most of your customers use mobile devices. With a PC you can never be sure who is using it. And even if you are, it can be hard to monitor user behavior. Meanwhile, mobile devices give you a plethora of ways in which you can learn more about your customer. And, you can rightfully assume that the mobile device will only have one user which behavior you can learn about. All this is to say that personalization and mobile devices go hand in hand.

How to focus on mobile-first content

Let's now assume that you understand the importance of focusing on mobile-first content, but are unwilling to put actual resources into it. After all, if you've spent years building your brand around PC content, it may seem that a shift toward mobile content will be too costly. In actuality, focusing on mobile-first content doesn't have to be a sizable ordeal.

Creating mobile-friendly content

Most of the PC-oriented content that you have can be repurposed for mobile. To make this possible, your best bet is to hire an experienced content creator. They will be able to go over your content and outline key aspects that can be transferred to mobile. While some of you may feel that you can do this on your own, we would advise you to at least consult with an experienced professional. Outlining the important aspects and optimizing them for mobile is not easy. And while we all appreciate it when we see it done right. know that it requires a fair bit of experience.

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When you go about creating new mobile-friendly content, there are a couple of things to keep in mind. Firstly, you need to focus on vertical content and the limitations it brings. With standard content, you are mostly focused on the landscape format. This is why transferring to a vertical format might need some getting used to.

The second thing to keep in mind is that you ought to minimize written content as much as possible. Yes, it is possible to read blog posts and even entire books on your phone. But, it is important to remember that the people doing so are already interested in the content. Visual-heavy content tends to do far better in the mobile market. You can pick between web stories, images, videos, animations... And even combine them to great effect. So try to use written content only when other types are unavailable. And even when you use written content, try to keep it short and sweet. The fewer words you use, the better.

Grow to understand your brand

The third aspect of creating mobile-friendly content is one that most companies get wrong. This is why we will take a whole paragraph to go into it. Namely, optimizing your brand for mobile-first use is easier said than done. You not only need to consider logo placement but also outline the design aspects and the content tone that you'll use. If you have done this with standard content, you likely have an idea of what branding entails. But, know that it takes experience to transfer that knowledge from standard content to mobile-friendly. There are a lot of elements you will have to incorporate, and not all will be as intuitive as you might think. Again, having an experienced professional at hand helps. But, if not, we would at least advise researching how to make your brand mobile-friendly. Especially if your business will heavily rely on mobile usage.

App design

Another thing to consider once you focus on mobile-first content is whether or not to create an app. On the one hand, investing in an app can be a great idea. Once people install your app, they will have a strong incentive to explore it and use it to do business with you. With websites, this incentive is not as strong as customers can more easily compare you to other businesses. But, while an app can be effective in keeping customers engaged, it can be hard to convince people to install it.

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Namely, it takes far more to convince people to install an app than to visit a website. And even if you do decide to create an app, you will need to ensure that it is properly optimized and that the process of onboarding is top-notch. All in all, an app is a costly investment, but it can pay off. It is up to you to analyze your audience and see whether they will be willing to rely on an app.

Should you only focus on mobile platforms?

If you haven't done so thus far, we would definitely advise you to focus on mobile-first content. There is a minute number of businesses out there that wouldn't benefit from having mobile-friendly content. And as time goes on, the number of those businesses is only going to become smaller and smaller. Therefore, regardless of what industry you operate in, we would definitely advise you to consider your customer base and see how they would benefit from interacting with your brand on mobile devices.

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