To state the obvious: digital consumption has exploded in recent years. What may be slightly less obvious is what devices are driving this growth.

According to Comscore’s latest white paper “2016 U.S. Cross-Platform Future in Focus”, the answer is mobile devices.

The report attributes more than 90 percent of the total increase in minutes spent consuming digital media since 2013 to smartphones. They now account for just over 54 percent of digital media consumption or just over 13,000 hours.

When combined with tablets this number rises to 65 percent or over 15,000 hours of digital content consumed.

In simple terms, if your website, and indeed your content itself, are not optimised for mobile devices, you are probably missing out on valuable audience and customer growth.

Mobile-friendly content needs to be quick, compelling, scanable and easy to digest. It is highly likely that your content will be consumed by busy people, in noisy or distracting environments while doing other concurrent tasks.

Here are some tips to consider:

1. Use concise, engaging headlines. A long or unclear headline can take up the effective viewing area of a smartphone, so make the most of your space and make sure you can fit a strong headline and a hero message above the fold.
2. According to some reports, the modern attention span is somewhere in the vicinity of a gold fish. When it comes to video content, shorter videos, like you might find on Vine or Instagram, are more easily consumed (and a lot of fun to create).
3. Try to keep messages and paragraphs short and to the point. You need to give the reader value to keep them reading, so make sure you lead with a strong introduction and make sure you continue to include engaging messages throughout your article.
4. Break up your content into bite size pieces. Keeping in mind it needs to work on desktop also, using sub-titles and call-outs will keep your article interesting and easy to read.

Given that websites and other channels are used across all devices, including desktops, the content you create will need to be suited to desktop, tablet and mobile devices. If you follow these tips, your content will be highly effective, regardless of who is reading it and what device they’re using.

Finally, having a responsive and contemporary design for your website will give the best platform for an effective content marketing program that mobile users can easily engage with.