Thinking Mobile First

Nobody challenges the idea that the first interactions people have with a business are disproportionally important. They don't know you, like you, or trust you. But it's your job to get in front of your audience and demonstrate why you deserve their attention.

That's why I'm surprised every time I come across a consultancy that completely ignores the importance of mobile in its marketing initiatives.

When you email people, chances are they will read it on their phone first. When you share a blog post, video, event invitation, or even a PDF, it will probably be opened on their cellphone first. That video call you have with a new prospect? They might be on the move and join with their phone app.

This is not an opinion - it is backed by numbers.

While in 2015 the share of mobile device website traffic was 31%, today it is closer to 59%. The US and much of Europe are closer to a 50/50, but in Asia and Africa around 2/3 of total website traffic comes from mobile devices. In India, it has surpassed 75% (stats here).

This means whenever you communicate with your audience, it is probably helpful to imagine people consuming your message while holding their smartphones.

It's easy to extrapolate how this fact should inform your content creation, digital assets, and overall communication:

• Using images, videos, and animation that load fast;
• Having website pages that are responsive on different screen sizes (avoiding poor readability, small text, horizontal scrolling);
• Having a simple mobile navigation menu on websites;
• Keeping your messaging concise and avoiding large chunks of text;
• Having buttons that work easily on a phone;
• Having social sharing links on your content.

People are impatient when using their phones. Take one of the biggest mobile problems, for example, which is slow load times. Google says over half of sites are abandoned on mobile if they take more than 3 seconds to load. Do you know yours?

While these issues are much more critical for B2C companies or larger consulting firms, I believe it also deserves some attention from boutiques. It impacts your marketing effectiveness. It impacts your brand and client experience.

Whenever you or someone in your team create a new digital marketing asset, remember to think mobile first.