Mobile has long since overtaken desktop when it comes to consumers’ preferred channel for digital content. Mobile devices now account for over 54% of digital media usage.
According to a report from comScore, the total usage of digital media has tripled since 2010, up more than 30% since 2013. Smartphones account for more than 90% of the total increase in minutes spent on digital media.
So why isn’t more B2B content specifically tailored for mobile? There is a common belief that most business to business marketing can be done on the computer, after all that is device of choice for most office workers during business hours.
As millennials make up more and more of the workforce, the generation that has lead the way in the march towards mobile, it has become clear that more and more people are actually doing more work than before from their mobile devices.
Which is why we created this post. We’ve compiled the most effective and popular types of content for mobile and explained how you can integrate it into your marketing campaign.
Add Images
Obviously, images are simply a popular form of content. But this is even more true for mobile, where images garner most attention. Whether it is in social media posts, directly on Instagram or in a blog posts, images are one of the key types of content that will result in mobile marketing success.
In a study that mapped out the rapid eye movement of users on a website, it was found that the user’s eyes were drawn directly to the images, especially in mobile. Make sure your images are relevant though; your viewers’ eyes will often start there.
Post the Right Length Video
Video is clearly a good fit for mobile, but not in long form. Since video takes over a mobile device making it practically unusable for any other function, keep videos for mobile short. By short, I mean no longer than three minutes. It’s hard to convince someone to watch something longer than that.
What makes video good for mobile is that it takes dry topics and breaks it down in an interesting and informative way. This lends itself perfectly to B2B marketing where the topics being covered as less exciting than they may be in B2C.
The key here is to know who will be viewing your video, as always. This is important because the device that the video is viewed on matters. Your viewers could be watching primarily on a tablet, a smartphone or on a computer. People are less likely to view your video on smartphones compared to a tablet. But tablet users are more likely to watch, because they won’t need to stop the video to read and answer a text.
Format Ebooks Correctly
When you create downloadable content like white papers and ebooks, make sure to make sure that your download is both mobile-friendly and desktop-friendly. There are a couple ways to accomplish this.
The first is formatting.
While PDFs can be read on both computers and cell phones, it may be a bit harder to get them to open on e-readers like Kindle or Nook. Consider creating them in epub format, which not only works on most e-readers, but also can be opened on many smartphones, in a better format.
The other thing to keep in mind is that PDF’s are difficult to read on smaller screens. That means that a PDF might technically open on a smartphone, the formatting might not be ideal. If you must, keep mobile in mind by making your images larger and easier to view on smaller screens.
Learn to Live Stream
Live streams are becoming increasingly popular with services like Facebook Live and Periscope. While it may seem like live streams would have no place in B2B marketing, all one has to do is look at Litmus’s email design conference to know that that isn’t the case. Litmus streamed all their speakers, making it so that those that couldn’t attend the even in that particular city could still enjoy the conference. That’s just good marketing. MarketingSherpa does the same for its trade shows.
Millennials, who will continue to make critical marketing decisions, spend more time streaming than they do watching live TV. Live streaming caters directly to that ever-growing audience.
And since a lot of what makes B2B marketing work is education and personal connections, live streaming is a natural fit. Make more people part of your conversation when you hold live events by inviting users to join you online.
These are commonly used content formats, but often B2B brands don’t realize how critically important they are for mobile. Optimizing these formats for the mobile future will lead to increased success for both your content and your brand.
Is your content optimized for mobile? What do you do to make it so? Let us know in the comments section.
