Check your content on a different screen than the one you produced it on

A free, easy, and ultimate hack to improve your content instantly

Here’s my ultimate hack to immediately improve your content, which almost every content team overlooks. Your team probably does as well.?

Let's assume that everyone wants better readability for their content, right? Nobody gets excited by big chunks of unaccessible text that already make you feel tired just looking at it.?

You might also feel there’s a gap between the content created and what you see once it’s published; you can’t pinpoint what’s up, but it feels off-brand.?

If so, this hack is for you.?

→ Check your content on a different screen than the one you produced it on. Experience firsthand how your audience sees it.?

Let's dive into the details and how to nail this.?

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Why your readability s*cks on mobile: screen differences

The root cause is that most marketing and content teams use a laptop to produce and review the copy, visuals, and videos. Unfortunately, they forget to consider that mobile is the default screen for your audience, and that's where the pain comes in.?

Seeing the content on a big laptop screen or a small mobile screen makes a world of difference, not only in UX but also in how accessible and, well, … sexy your content looks.?

It's good to realize that about 80% of your audience is on mobile, and that’s even more for social.

Checking your content on a mobile gives you a new perspective and makes it painfully visible where you need to rework, edit, improve, or even delete what you just created.

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Learn from my mistakes?

This is what I learned from my mistakes; now, you don’t have to make them.

1. Make it skimmable; make your content look light and airy, easy accessible. Final check on your iPhone in exactly the same way your audience sees it
2. Visual first, copy second; the first impression counts. Keep your visual next to the copy when you are writing.?

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A little disclaimer, this hack originally applies to content with a lot of copy. However, checking your content on a different screen than the one you produced it on also does wonders for all your other content: emails, social posts, visuals, and videos.?

It just gives you a fresh perspective.

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Lesson 1. Make it skimmable

The biggest difference between laptop and mobile is the skimmability of your content. Realize that people don’t read on a mobile; they ‘skim,’ and if they find it interesting, then they read.

On a mobile screen, the copy lines are generally about 30% shorter, resulting in paragraphs that are generally 30% longer. That's how those big, chunky walls of text arise on a mobile screen.?

Therefore, adjust your copy accordingly if you want to get your message across.?

See below for my tips.?

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How to use AI for this

My first step is to use AI. ?Being nerdy and paying for ChatGPT, I use Custom Instructions and a self-built GPT for proofreading with the mobile readability and skimmability prompt baked in.? For your convenience, here is a prompt you can use in your ChatGPT: ‘Please write for reading on a small mobile screen. Use short paragraphs, use many break lines, and use subheaders. Use B1 intermediate English and avoid buzz and jargon.’

This prompt will make a world of difference in the length of the paragraphs and the usage of subheaders. And the B1 part results in simplifying your English for even better readability.?

Try the prompt yourself and check out what happens.

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Toggle mobile view on your laptop

The easiest and quickest way to check how your content appears on a smaller screen is to toggle the mobile view on when you're working on your laptop.?

In Chrome, simply hit ‘option + command + I’ on a Mac. For Windows, it’s probably ‘control + shift + I’ or ‘control + shift + M’ to open the developer's toolbar, where you can select the mobile view.

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Once you experience how your freshly produced content appears on a very small screen, you can apply my tips to improve readability right away.?

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My tips to improve your readability immediately

• Open with one sentence or super short paragraph, hook and catch your reader
• Avoid big chunks of text, use short paragraphs, and add many break lines
• Use lots of big sub headers to give structure and group the paragraphs
• Use bullet lists for speed reading; these are eye-catching
• Add bold for another resting point for your eye and enhance hierarchy and structure
• Stick to 3 formatting styles to keep it clear and uncluttered

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My little awkward tip

This is very simple. I create the content on my laptop and write the draft in PressPage (my CMS) or native in a social channel. Before I toggle the mobile view, I can always guess the mobile readability.?

I know that when my copy looks awful, like a toddler wrote it with too many short sentences and lots of whitespaces, it probably looks great on mobile. And vice versa. If my copy looks sexy on a laptop, it’s probably very chunky with big, inaccessible walls of text on a mobile.

Below, you see 2 examples of how formatting can improve readability.?

• Use whitespace for clarity and accessibility
• Use bold for more hierarchy and structure

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Everything looks and feels different on a smaller screen

This last lesson is a real hands-on tip. Once you think you’re done and dusted, do this very last thing. Trust me, this final check matters and elevates your content from good to great.?

• Get your phone, unlock it,?
• and check your freshly produced content on the small screen

From experience, seeing your content on your iPhone in your hand always has a different feel and vibe than seeing it on the laptop screen, even when you toggle the mobile view.

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Show that you care, invest the time that's needed

To manage your expectations on how much time this editing for readability and skimmability takes, it's about half of the production time. Often, I even sleep a night on it and re-edit the next day with a fresh pair of eyes.?

The devil is in the details. Going above and beyond by giving this love and attention with a meticulous eye for detail pays off and shows that you care.?

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Lesson 2. Visual first, copy second

My second lesson to get my message across is to focus on the visual, even before the copy. The visual and the copy go hand in hand; they should strengthen each other.

It's good to realize that the visual isn’t there for mere decoration. When done right, it is the first point of contact, not only on social, also for your .com pages.

Based on the great book ‘A Self-Help Guide for Copywriters ’ by Dan Nelken, a strong visual must have a lame headline. And a lame headline should have a strong visual. Both need to work together, not fight for attention.?

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My tips for visuals that work on mobile

• Use high-contrasting colors within the visual to make it stand out. Your visual will not get noticed if it is too smooth, beautiful, and crafted. Often, a visual that looks great on a big screen is blurry and patchy on a small screen
• Apply the Rule of thirds for a compelling and well-composed visual. This is as much as placing the subject of the visual at the left or right and leaving two-thirds open. I prefer to place it on the left to create a feel of openness and motion as we read from left to right
• I create bespoke visuals for each channel. This process takes me about 5 minutes, while it looks like a million – use templates in Canva to speed up your process
• I always copy-paste the visual into the document while working on my copy. Seeing the visual next to your text does something to my brain

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Below is an example of the different formats of my main visual, all produced within 5 minutes with my self-made templates in Canva Pro.?

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Again, final check on your mobile

Also, for the visual, always do a last check on your mobile phone, not in the toggled mobile view on your laptop. ?

• The vibe and feel of a visual can be totally different on a small screen in your hand than on a big laptop screen in front of your nose
• Sometimes, due to the smaller screen and automated resizing, the colors and saturation of the picture can unexpectedly change. What looks amazingly bright and clear on a laptop can appear greyish and dull on a mobile

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Conclusion and key takeaways

Long story short, you learn from my mistakes and benefit from my lessons learned. If you apply this, I'll guarantee you that your content is much more readable on an iPhone, and you'll get your message across slightly better.?

It will not make a world of difference; however, in this world of content abundance, every little bit helps grab your audience's attention.?

1. Make it skimmable; make your content look light and airy, easy accessible. Final check on your iPhone in exactly the same way your audience sees it
2. Visual first, copy second; the first impression counts. Keep your visual next to the copy when you are writing.?

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Inspiration for this blog: https://nicolascole77.medium.com/the-4-step-editing-checklist-108eb2117cf8

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