Vertical content has entered the mainstream during the last few years due to the remarkable rise of smartphones and the way that these devices have transformed how people consume content. Brands that fail to tailor content for mobile risk getting left behind.
What is vertical content? It is basically an image that makes the most of on-screen real estate so that it captures the full attention of the viewer. This delivers a better experience to the end users, which in turn can drive better engagement. If you have only ever used traditional content and fancy pivoting towards vertical to enhance your content marketing campaigns, where is the best place to start?
Infographics are arguably the oldest vertical content format, and while they were not created specifically for smartphones, they are perfect for the medium.
Infographics enable you to serve up data-driven vertical visuals, tell stories, entertain, educate and inform within one easy-to-read format. They are ideal if you want your business to be associated with factual, valuable information, and they can also be branded.
A recent report by SurveyMonkey found that consumers trust content more when it includes data. Infographics are a form of shorthand that can provide concise and meaningful data and information in a way that readers can understand and digest.
Social media is also a treasure trove of vertical content. If you have a Snapchat or Instagram account, then you can use features such as Stories to publish images, videos or a mixture of both to push brand messages. When using social media stories, try to incorporate on-trend stickers and other creative tools, and give end users the ability to share them to increase awareness and brand reach.
Finally, videos that are optimised for mobile can be run alongside traditional written materials such as articles, blogs and whitepapers for a diverse content marketing campaign. Remember to shoot and publish in the vertical format. Both Instagram and Facebook are best for this. Vertical content doesn’t need to make up the majority of your content output, but it is a great way to make anything that you publish more readable on smartphones.
