Creative Lewisham blog

September 04 2013 2:51 PM

With the increased use of smartphones, marketing with mobile in mind is an imperative, as opposed to a choice. The worst thing you can do is create a campaign that doesn’t have the desired impact or delivers a flat experience if viewed on a tablet or mobile, so take note of the following top 5 best practice tips to avoid giving your audience a disappointing experience of your brand.

1. Take an inside out approach - design ALL your campaigns with mobile in mind. If it looks good on mobile, you then have the opportunity to flesh out the layout for desktop users. Responsive design helps to cater for all screen sizes, so by using this principle, your campaign will respond and fit across a number of different devices removing the need for you to create two separate versions. However, be sure to test how the responsive design looks before going live with a thorough testing plan and programmes. Check for gaps in the design, legibility of design/copy/buttons/CTAs, random line breaks and the order the columns collapse down. Alternatively, create a mobile version that kicks in at a set trigger point on specific devices. This way you only need to test two versions of the campaign. A great example of a mobile campaign that we worked on for PayPal can be viewed here. The main focus of the campaign was to engage and educate merchants through an interactive visual guide. So with this mind, we used this as the ‘mobile’ version of the campaign. The results spoke for themselves and is now being used as part of their overall lead nurturing programme.

2. Email me – one of assumptions that you shouldn’t make is that the viewer of the campaign will take time and engage with the information at the very time they engage with the campaign as they probably won't. With the rise of people consuming information on the move, if you don’t offer the chance to send or save key information, you may miss the opportunity for the message to actually be consumed and understood. By offering an ‘Email me’ option will give the user the flexibility to download the content and read it at a later date at a time that suits them.

3. HTML5. Flash is so 2010! When working on digital campaigns, don’t even think about building it with Flash. HTML5 is compatible with the majority of devices so be sure add this to your technical requirements. HTML5rocks.com is a great place to find out more about its capability.

4. Concise copy – if you have a site that collapses down into a single column for mobile, the copy will take up a lot more space on a mobile so be as concise as you can. One idea is: ‘write down what you want to say, review it and halve the word count, and then halve the word count again’. A great example of a no-nonsense mobile site is the John Lewis site (m.johnlewis.com). When viewed on mobile a single column is used: you get an image, a brief overview, a price and a BUY NOW button. Simple, no fuss and straight to the point. Perfect! 

5. Let the design do the talking – make it as easy as possible for users to navigate around your site. The need for pinching the screen is near to being something of the past. All the content needs to be as accessible as possible so don’t hide the CTAs, make them clear and obvious. This will help to deliver a positive experience.  Also, avoid using words such as ‘Download’, ‘Click’, ‘View’ - the design should do the talking so include underlined copy, play buttons, hover over states.

So, in summary, be mindful of mobile in all you do. If you don’t, you are damaging your brand, it's as simple as that. If you want to see another example, pick up your phone and look at this blog (if you’re not doing it already)...