Providing Optimized Media-Rich Content for Mobile

We all know the saying, “A picture is worth a thousand words,”. This means that a multifaceted idea can be conveyed in just a single image. It was made popular about 100 years ago in an article about the power of imageries in advertisements, and this rings just as true in this digital age. Did you know that the brain processes visual information 60,000 times faster than text?

This makes graphic media, both pictures and video, a very powerful tool filled with marketing potential. 85% of digital marketers plan to increase their mobile marketing budget for videos in 2018 by 10% mainly because of 2017 levels. That’s to match a surge of interest in videos, which are an excellent medium for personalization and digital connections.

The visual web has altered the game. All signs lead to continued development in the use of media-rich content to engage digital consumers.

Mobile is still king

Mobile reigns supreme in the digital world. More than 50% of the time we devote each day with digital media is through our mobile devices, and 80% of all shoppers make purchases via smartphones.

By 2019, mobile advertising will represent 72% of all US online ads. Particularly, smartphone owners often search while on mobile devices and are a lot more likely to leave a mobile-unfriendly website. If you do not give them the best mobile experience, you are likely losing out to your competitors that do.

If media-rich content provides a potent vector of communication with your target customers, and you need to get to them on their platform of choice — their handheld device — the path forward is clear.

It is easier said than done

Unfortunately, this can be more challenging than a lot of you may think. For over three years, as an outcome of the ubiquity and large file size of non-text media, the normal weight of a webpage has increased by nearly 85%, leading to slower load times. Even a three-second loading time causes a 53% bounce rate.

Considering the shift to Mobile-First Indexing by Google, and that page loading speed will be a factor for mobile searches, enhancing your mobile content is important to your SEO and user experience. Then, add on top of that the hundreds of many mobile devices, numerous networks, browser types and screen sizes, and generating a robust experience for customers requires a steadfast collaboration, teamwork and coordination among knowledgeable marketing and development professionals.

How to overcome the challenges?

1. File size:Compressing file sizes can accelerate page load times. Establishing a stratagem for this requires expertise accompanied by a detailed evaluation of many factors like data types, quality and resolution. Formats and distribution methods are also key considerations.
2. Design: Your design must be dynamic and deliver an adjustment of the layout. The more media-rich content you add into the layout, the more complex it becomes to offer a fluid responsive design.
3. Asset management: Often, several versions of the same asset are in simultaneous use. What will happen when you need to update those assets or add new photos? Is marketing or design creating a responsive design? There could be many management overhead.

Addressing the technical challenges

Achieve a balance between the need for faster response to market and the need for a media-rich visual experience that is also enhanced for mobile. Here are a few tips.

1. Compress:Image compression can significantly reduce the file size. You can also think about adjustments between the quality of an image and image size. Can you visually see a drop in the resolution of an image? Compressing files is a worthy start to achieve faster load times.

2. Format:Be sure to apply the best image and video formats for the various devices and browsers. When should you use JPEG vs. PNG vs. JPEG-XR vs. SVG?
3. Adopt a digital asset management (DAM) solution: This can help you enhance the workflows and procedures needed to manage a new inflow of rich content so you can:

• Classify and organize files; add, edit and store their metadata; and coordinate with the local files and folders.
• Collaborate, manage and streamline your workflow; allow notifications; and maintain the versions to guarantee up-to-date downloads.
• Sort media library results according to predefined criteria.
• Publish and share content according to a comms plan and review access criteria, then archive the automatically generated code into the CMS.
• Organize performance and usage analytics; screen and correct errors; and produce all-inclusive reports with emphasis on the key metrics.

Bridge the gap between marketing and development

Distributing an optimized, media-rich proficiency to mobile consumers has become an analytical connection of marketing and site engineering. Marketing’s demand to provide visually rich, enhanced content that will involve users and help SEO is colliding with technical considerations that must be focused on through engineering workflows. An intimate collaboration between the two departments will be required to get past technical challenges and effectively provide customers with an engaging and lucrative experience.