5 Ideas To Kick Start Your Mobile Content Strategy

If you’re involved in developing content for your business or organisation, you will need to consider content strategically over an ever-expanding range of platforms and delivery devices. This includes the growing range of tablets and smartphones, that are increasingly dominating both leisure and workplace settings.

No matter how well developed your content strategy may be, your mobile users are increasingly testing its strengths and weaknesses. So here are some top tips for kick-starting a mobile-led content strategy.

1. Get Internal Buy-in

Buy-in is critical, so consider organising top down workshops around the business benefits of mobile.

These should demonstrate how employees and board members can get the most out of their own mobile and tablet use. If you’re in a retail or transactional space, hot topics such as mobile payments and security are very important to brainstorm.

2. Build Your Business Case

Because most of us have been humming the responsive design mantra for some time, your organisation (and its budget holders) may well argue that your existing content is good enough. You need to work up a strong business case around how your users and customers use their mobile devices specifically for your business.

At the very least, a quick look at your website analytics will illustrate how many of your visitors are using desktops, tablets or phones, as well as how engaged these audiences are. If you don’t have a responsive website and your mobile audience (especially those using smartphones) constitutes 15% or more, you should certainly consider a responsive solution. Equally, if your mobile segment is far less engaged (high bounce rates, low time on page, few pages visited per session and low conversions rates), this will help you build a responsive business case.

3. Develop Personas

Develop personas or enhance existing ones to demonstrate how user engagement reflects the device and setting context.

For example, I have a persona I call ‘horizontal tablet user’, who I use to describe the time that suddenly becomes available to price compare between products when you’ve got your feet up on the sofa, Coronation Street on in the background and a tablet on your knees. Horizontal tablet user is a very different persona to ‘vertical tablet user’ who might be time poor or in a less relaxed setting.

4. Understand Customer Habits

Doing some work around mobile use by your users and customers can open up some interesting opportunities in terms of market penetration.

There is a lot of talk around the digital divide and people who don’t have access to computers and broadband in a home setting. This divide is being narrowed by smartphone and tablet use and bringing digital accessibility within the reach of previously disenfranchised socio-economic demographics. This can have implications for products and services related to, for example, food and utilities.

5. Create Or Revisit Your KPIs

Revisit existing objectives and KPIs and start to ask questions around how these can be enhanced or altered to reflect the growing importance of smartphone and tablet engagement. It’s easier to raise the profile of mobile content if it’s delivering against defined success measures.

Review how you engage with different parts of your business and its own reporting structures. For example, call centres and whether they record whether the call is coming from a mobile or a static line. Or, if you have retail premises, see if you can run some activity monitoring mobile use in store e.g. price checking.