We spend a large amount of time browsing the web from our smartphones and tablets. We also spend a large amount viewing videos on our smartphones and tablets. This article focuses on the importance of optimising all your sites for mobile usage, while at the same time offering the most crucial element thereof – video.

We’ve written numerous articles about the importance of using videos as a fundamental part of your content marketing strategy, now we need to discuss the importance of adjusting for mobile while incorporating video at the same time.

The Facts & Figures

YouTube is the largest video search engine in the world, and 40% of its traffic is made up of mobile devices. In 2012 this number was 25%, and in 2011 only 6% of the site’s traffic came from mobile. This growth is extremely steep and means that by next year the numbers should double. So what does it mean? Let’s not jump the gun, but imagine if 60-70% of YouTube’s traffic derives from mobile devices – the apparent observation is that mobile browsers want to view videos more than they want to read long copy.

PC sales are down, and simpler, more mobile and personal devices like smart phones and tablets are a big part of the reason why. According to Gartner and IDC, worldwide PC shipments for 2013 were 315.3 million units, down 10 percent from the 350.2 million units for full year 2012. – Paul Thurrott

So PC sales went down 10% in a year – does this mean that mobile will eventually completely replace desktop?

There is an understanding that computer use-cases vary widely between content creation and content consumption and most people argue that they prefer creating content on a PC while the mobile devices are well suited for content consumption. People usually say that the keyboard is too small to type longer passages, there is no mouse and the screen real-estate is too limiting. As a result, most of us use both PCs and mobile devices today. – Lubor Ptacek

At the moment, most people who work in office professions work with a computer. Tablets and mobile devices are used more for personal web browsing and entertainment. Mobile devices might very well completely replace desktop PCs one day – but for the time being they are two different devices used for different actions.

More Mobile = More Video

As a content marketer it is imperative that you accommodate video on all your platforms and devices. At the same time you have to implement video, as the two go hand-in-hand.

The point is that mobile is already big and it’s still growing – as such it can no longer be ignored.

Responsive Design

Responsive Web design is the approach that suggests that design and development should respond to the user’s behaviour and environment based on screen size, platform and orientation. The practice consists of a mix of flexible grids and layouts, images and an intelligent use of CSS media queries. As the user switches from their laptop to iPad, the website should automatically switch to accommodate for resolution, image size and scripting abilities. In other words, the website should have the technology to automatically respond to the user’s preferences. This would eliminate the need for a different design and development phase for each new gadget on the market. – Kayla Knight

At the one end of the spectrum we have responsive design which means that your websites should accommodate any device. On the other hand we have the fact that mobile users prefer video content. As such your website should be mobile browser friendly as well as be filled with interesting video content.

In an ideal world each page on your website would include video – except general pages such as ‘contact us’. Blogs and websites featuring excellent video content will have a major advantage above the rest as mobile users don’t want to read long copy, they want to view videos.

Check out our related articles for more info on video and mobile marketing:

• 18 Reasons Why Video Marketing is Essential
• A Move Toward Visuals: Why Video Marketing Cannot be Ignored
• Marketing with Mobile

Sound Idea Digital is a full service Video Production Company that specialise in health & safety videos, training videos, marketing videos, corporate videos, web videos, animation and motion graphics. We also produce industrial, mining, induction, and company launch videos. | www.soundideavideoproduction.co.za | info@soundidea.co.za