Create a Winning Mobile Content-Marketing Strategy with 7 Key Ingredients

Mobile and tablet devices are quickly becoming the strongest drivers of traffic on the web. Over half of Americans own smartphones and about a third own tablet devices and use them for almost everything, from checking emails, to shopping and comparing prices online. This makes it imperative that your content-marketing strategy covers these trends. By ensuring that your marketing and website are compatible with these devices, you are also making sure you don't lose out on business.

Here are some things to focus on when creating your companies mobile content-marketing game plan:

Mobile isn't just about the device. Don't just look at the mobile channel as a series of devices. It's true that your content needs to be optimized and look great across different brands of tablets and smartphones. But mobile is also about the context and behaviors of your customers while they're on those devices.

Base your strategy on how your audience really uses mobile. An effective mobile content strategy demands an understanding of your audience's mobile usage.

Think before you shrink. The old model of content creation was to adapt content from other formats, usually the web, to a small screen. Text was chunked differently, visuals updated and overall layouts simplified and made more “tappable” for touchscreens.

Rethink your user experience through design. Every business needs a website that looks great and functions well on mobile devices. If information is hard to find or your site is impossible to navigate, you'll lose customers.

Expand your understanding of conversions. In the mobile universe, conversions go way beyond the sale. Signing up for a newsletter, sharing your content or downloading a white paper may be valuable customer touch points. Think about the range of mobile conversions with value for your business and develop mobile content to support that funnel.

Take advantage of location. Geolocation technologies are giving businesses creative ways to engage customers, from sending market research surveys to customers nearby to offering discount codes to drive sales.

Leverage the rise of micro-video. As visual content such as videos and infographics become the preferred form of content, specific opportunities are appearing for mobile. Short videos on Vine and Instagram have provided marketers another way to reach their audience.