The future is definitely with mobile – and this is creating some challenges for content marketing. After all, smartphone screens are relatively small, so any publication has to be succinct and must get to the point right away. However, it is still essential to give readers valuable content alongside an experience that is comparable, if not better, than the desktop. To achieve this, there are various methods for marketers to use.

The first thing strategists need to be aware of is that people are now consuming content on their mobiles more than ever before. The latest devices are optimised for web browsing, and are extremely powerful – allowing content to be viewed immediately instead of saved for later when a user has access to a larger screen. Therefore, mobile content needs to be a continuation of high-quality web content, and not a poor second-best. It is wrong, therefore, to assume that mobile content needs to be a ‘dumbed down’ version of web copy.

Marketers also have to bear in mind that smartphones vary widely in their power, size and operating capabilities. This means that though a piece of content might be optimised for one platform, it could offer a poor experience on a different device. Therefore, content marketing needs to utilise an adaptive strategy that caters to all platforms, and not a micro strategy that focuses on individual platforms. It means that all content needs to adapt to the device, situation and customer, as well as being free from any design constraints. To write optimised content, traditional pages and paragraphs should be thrown out in favour of blocks, nuggets and ideas.

There is also a great need to conduct ongoing content audits to ensure that mobile strategies have the best chance of noting success. When developing new mobile publications, it’s worthwhile to audit all current content and identify what’s turning consumers off and what’s being shared. Much of the positive material could be re-purposed for mobile devices simply by breaking the content down into key engagement metrics, ideas, audience and potential future value. With mobile, the first three words can be the most crucial, and there are just seconds to impress people. It is not, however, about stripping content away. In fact, it’s about offering a small titbit and inviting audiences to stay for more.

Finally, it is absolutely essential that all mobile content appeals to a user’s priorities. In the digital age, it is vital to provide people with information quickly to make the consumer journey swift, easy and efficient. Therefore, scrolling and tapping has to be avoided as much as possible. Particularly when it comes to mobile content marketing, information architecture needs to be orchestrated to meet user priorities over things like animations or interesting visuals. If the latter takes precedence, it could have a large and detrimental impact on user-experience, resulting in site engagement levels falling.

With mobile marketing becoming a larger part of any advertising strategy, it is important that content also evolves to meet expectations. And, though material must be easily read and digested, it remains essential to continue providing an audience with valuable material if success is to be seen.