• by Bridget Roman , Op-Ed Contributor, December 17, 2015

The speed of adoption of mobile devices is the most rapid in history, eclipsing adoption of PCs, cars — even electricity itself! Today consumers expect an always-on connection with brands anywhere, anytime and on all devices. To meet new consumer demand for engagement, companies — regardless of industry — need to behave more like media companies in order to succeed. This means creating and delivering relevant content at a breakneck pace across every marketing channel — including mobile devices.

It’s stiff competition for consumer attention, so it’s critical to hit the mark with content to attract an audience, engage with them and keep them coming back for more. It is also a challenge to aggregate content in a meaningful, compelling way and provide an experience that facilitates bi-directional communication. This is where mobile comes in. Brands can take the greatest advantage of rising mobile adoption rates by creating apps that aggregate and unlock their content and provide a bespoke, actionable brand experience.

Unlock your content

Brands create a vast amount of content from their Web site, brand magazines and printed collateral to blog posts and point-of-sale materials -- it is becoming a challenge to manage it all and the amount is increasing. Creating a mobile app that acts as an aggregator unlocks all of the content you have invested heavily in and sets the scene for a wonderful, curated experience for app users. Qantas, the largest airline in Australia, created their Qantas Magazine app with a keen eye on aggregating their deeply engaging content to sate consumer appetites for travel. Rather than just providing a digital replica of their highly regarded in-flight magazine, the app leverages content from across all Qantas properties, allowing the brand to maintain a dialogue with customers even when they aren’t traveling. Now the brand shares compelling content when it is relevant and is no longer beholden to a monthly magazine cycle.

Create a branded experience

Consumers today are looking for immersive, inspirational experiences. While unlocking content is important to bring consumers back for more, creating a beautiful and compelling brand experience in your mobile app is critical. The National Theatre of Great Britain’s app, National Theatre Backstage, was designed to bring the passion of theater to users’ screens. Compelling content, immersive design and thoughtful user experience work together to create a branded experience that allows users to feel as if they have a backstage pass whether they are sitting in the theater, at home or commuting to work. Selecting and organizing content that is relevant and timely and feeds into your unique brand experience is critical.

Make it actionable

The third (and possibly most important) concept to keep top of mind is to make your experience actionable. Gone are the days when mobile acts as a billboard, providing one-way communication and not much else. Consumers are craving opportunities to interact and brands that are able to integrate actionable experiences via mobile apps are gaining a competitive advantage. Angie’s List Weekly, the mobile app from the popular resource site Angie’s List, has harnessed actionable content and used it to help push readers deeper into the purchase funnel to ultimately affect their bottom line. The content on Angie’s List Weekly is bite-sized and easily digestible, often inspiring readers to take on projects around their home by making it easy for users to shop local service marketplaces, best service providers and prepackaged offers. And it is effective: 27% of clicks on Angie’s List Weekly point to actions that drive commerce.

As mobile adoption rates continue to skyrocket, mobile content marketing is becoming more and more important to brands. To give consumers what they crave, smart marketers will figure out how to transition legacy marketing plans to more dynamic, actionable campaigns in order to keep up with consumers’ need for fresh, immersive experiences every day.