Content. Formatting and size matters

The most made mistake in content production is reviewing on the laptop. Or, even worse, reviewing the copy in Word without the visual.

Mobile is not a derivation of the laptop. It should be mobile by design.

~80% of your audience is on mobile.

Why it matters

Honestly, I don’t know where to start my rant. 

• First, your audience is on mobile, so should you.
• Second, reading on a mobile is significantly different from reading on a laptop.

It’s up to you to adjust to your audience to a) create a user-friendly experience and b) get your content seen and read.

I sum this up in the self-made statement, ‘easy on the eye.’

Easy on the eye

This means the content, copy plus visual, are sexy to look at, light and airy, and invite you to read. 

If something (or someone) looks attractive, handsome, and sexy, they’ll get our attention. If something looks ugly, heavy, and looks like it’s going to take an effort, you'll click or swipe away.

Formatting tips

What looks lame on the laptop looks great on mobile. And vice versa. You can’t have both; my advice, pick mobile.

• Short paragraphs, sometimes just one sentence.
• Short sentences, however, do vary between short and a bit longer to keep it interesting and flowing.
• No buzz and jargon. Use plain English, as if you’re talking to someone.
• Use whitespace. Lots. The longer my copy, the more whitespace I use. I even insert white lines in bullet lists to keep things airy.
• Love the subheaders. Usually, I use one every three to five paragraphs. This gives structure and easiness to scan the entire content piece.
• Visuals. Header visual, of course, and in between paragraphs if it adds value and visually explains the examples. A little as possible, as much as needed.

Below is an example of a page's lameness on the laptop and easiness on the mobile. What a difference the size of the screen makes. 

Review on mobile

This should be mandatory before even considering publishing.  

Once my draft is more or less final, I'm happy with it, and I'm ready to publish; I hit ‘command + option + I’ to switch Chrome to the preview modus of an iPhone 12 Pro.

Now the real rewriting and editing work starts. 

More rigorous formatting, adding subheaders, shortening paragraphs, adding white space, and switching words are done in mobile preview.

Final thoughts

Mobile by design is the way forward. Once you did all of the above, step back and take another look at your content on the mobile.

• Are you proud of it?
• Is it easy on the eye and invites you to read it?
• Would you like to read it yourself?

If the answer isn’t f**k yes, reconsider publishing.

 If you want to know some more details, don’t hesitate to drop me a DM or jump on a quick call.