In 2014, mobile devices overtook desktops as the most common way to access the internet. The advantage of that is you can be with your customers anywhere they go—with near-constant access to Wi-Fi or 4G, people are moving from device to device with increasing ease. In fact, Google revealed that 90% of users move sequentially between multiple screens to complete a task over time. It means that while a user my start shopping on your mobile site they might check-out and pay on their phone.
The implications for your content is that users should have a consistent experience regardless of the device they’re using. Some people call it “device-agnostic” content, but it simply means creating flexible content structures that can go where they go. Here’s how to get started:
Brainstorm content that works across platforms
Before you can get started on the actual strategy, you need to model the types of content you already create or plan on creating. Whether it’s video, images, or text, you need to work out how they will look best on all devices. The purpose of getting started here is because “device-agnostic” isn’t about creating different content to fit each device, it’s about creating one piece of content that looks good on any device thanks to back-end customisations.
Determine the structure
Your content should have a particular structure that can be followed regardless of the device. It may take on different forms on tablets, mobile phones, and desktops, but the user should be able to predict the elements that will be found on each page. For example, if you always have captions under the photo on the desktop site, they shouldn’t suddenly disappear or turn up on the left of the photo.
Keep in mind that these should be the most important elements: check-out icons, social media sharing buttons, photos and captions, headlines and the like. Be sure that these elements will translate well onto all versions.
Consider the customer journey
Learn more about the people who will use your websites and understand the kinds of things they do on each device and when. You want to make content accessible to all users while offering a good user experience. Work with a UX designer or think about the customer journey yourself when to figuring out which elements of the site should be displayed when. If your business relies heavily on images, then you may want to ensure that the photos look good regardless of the size; maybe you will want to emphasise different types of content on each device (e.g. videos on desktop versus listicles on mobile).
Customise your CMS
There should be no need to “edit content for mobile”. To help you do this, customise your CMS so that includes all of the necessary pieces to publishing once and everywhere. The structuring you did earlier will help you understand how to format the CMS so that publishers only have to enter information once while having it displayed properly on each platform.
Final Thoughts
If you’re trying to build a more efficient content strategy that doesn’t require editing for mobile, then you need to think through every scenario in advance. Model the types of content you will create while planning out how they will look on each device. Make it easy for your publishers or editors to implement the new strategy by building or bending your CMS to do your will, and you’re on your way to displaying content that provides every user with a great experience.
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