Marketing on the move

Sarah Weller, MD of Mubaloo and B2B trainer, discusses the expanding opportunities for mobile as a communications or marketing channel for B2B brands.

When it comes to mobile, the buzz is all about the impact the channel has on consumer marketing. Actually though, mobile has just as many opportunities for B2B marketers to tap into. Mobile is everywhere – with some estimates saying the average professional has up to 3.5 devices (smartphones and tablets) on them at any one time.
Gartner predicts by the end of 2013 some 80 per cent of businesses will support a mobile workforce. Whether fuelled through bring-your-own-device (BYOD), or company-deployed smart devices, the number of employees now using mobile devices as their premium communications channel is staggering. They’re not just being used for communication either with more than 59 per cent of B2B purchase decision makers and influencers using their smartphones to gather information when purchasing products or services (via eMarketer 2012). Search is mobile. Social is mobile. Email is mobile. Your audience is mobile.

It is therefore surprising how many companies are not yet making the most of this. A 2013 Adobe report on digital marketing, highlighted that almost half (45 per cent) of digital marketers surveyed say their organisations don’t have a mobile-optimised site or mobile application, relying on desktop sites only. Even though a bad tablet website experience will drive 46 per cent of users to competitive websites (netbiscuits, 2013).

Content king of inbound marketing

Marketers need to consider their customer and prospect touchpoints, and understand how they can improve and enhance them through the use of mobile. There are many different opportunities in mobile for B2B marketers, firstly with any online presence and marketing communications. Expectations mean that responsive websites are the standard (though many companies have been slow to respond to this.) The volume of different devices and screen sizes that marketers need to consider is vast. This is why it is vital to understand your audience and make sure your brand is well presented where it is being viewed.

With content being the king of inbound marketing and so many people viewing content via mobile devices, it is vital to make sure material is optimised for mobile. This includes blogs, articles, email, video (Flash is dead), campaign websites and any other collateral. For example, if you have whitepapers consider how they look via mobile devices and the fact people might want to share them via email or social media. The ability to download for offline viewing and bookmarking are also things that should be considered. It’s also key for companies, not just to mobilise existing touchpoints, but also understand the opportunities that mobile brings and how they can add real value. Could relevant content be sent out using location-based services? Or could the camera and real-time data capture be used to save time for customers?

When you consider, outside of search, people will often find out about a B2B company from trade publications, events or word of mouth it’s important to remember they won’t always be in front of a computer. This can extend from using image based augmented reality on print adverts to trigger videos and additional information, to being able to download an audio version of whitepapers so that targets can listen to them on the move. When it comes to mobile, there is no limit.

Enterprise mobile apps

A second trend we’re seeing when it comes to mobile in B2B marketing is around the use of enterprise mobile apps. Companies are using both off-the-shelf and bespoke apps across the organisation to improve productivity and efficiencies. This is happening in many guises but one of the really interesting areas for B2B marketers is around the use of sales tools. In the B2B environment where the sales process can often be long and complex, we’re seeing businesses create sales tools to improve conversion rates, and with great results. This ranges live demo apps, to apps with user analytics installed to help customers through a purchasing decision, to heavily integrated CRM apps and beyond. Mobile is helping to improve collaboration between marketing and sales teams, as well as improving the customer sales experience and, essentially, conversion rates.

Mobilising products and services

Thirdly, businesses are mobilising products and services to add value to their offering. From mobile portals and customer support services, to real-time portfolio information, mobile tracking, ecommerce mobile websites and product catalogues. Depending on the business offering there are numerous ways businesses can add value through mobilising certain products or services. I was at a conference recently listening to an IT director talk about different software solutions, and one of his comments was that when they looked at solution providers, they wouldn’t even consider companies who didn’t have mobile apps as part of their package. So not only are businesses using mobile apps to attract and retain business, but it would also appear that you could be losing business by not offering this to potential clients.

A final area of expansion in mobile for B2B marketers is around partner and supplier channels. Mobile is enabling marketing teams to work much closer to partners and suppliers. This has numerous benefits both from the perspective of making sure people have the very latest information in the palm of their hands, but also for accessing and reporting real-time data to improve efficiencies. One such example is a logistics company that developed an app for their suppliers. The app enabled far better visibility for tracking deliveries; improved efficiencies across the organisation through better job allocation based on location, and improved customer satisfaction through the use of real-time data.

I’m not saying that every B2B marketer should immediately go out and create a responsive website and 10 mobile apps, far from it. But that the need to properly analyse the data we all have available to us has never been greater. Google analytics lets us see our mobile audience and determine which devices and operating systems are being used and with what results. Emails should be measured: who is doing what and from what devices. It is this data, coupled with understanding your mobile audience and creating a suitable mobile roadmap around key business objectives, that should form the basis of a solid mobile strategy. There is no blanket approach.

Top questions for marketing on the move:

  • Where are people going to be introduced to your company? What can you do to make it easy for them to find the most relevant information and capture the data you need to extend their interaction?
  • How much traffic comes to your website from mobile devices (tablets and smartphones?) What is the user experience like from those devices? Is it easy to find the most relevant information such as office location, product info and testimonials?
  • Can you make use of new technology such as location-based targeting to show innovation? Professionals are still consumers – if you can wow them, they’ll show colleagues and you will stand out from the crowd.
  • Are your sales and marketing teams equipped with mobile optimised presentations? When they’re out and about it’s useful to have collateral they can share with people they meet.
  • Do you need to print it? If your collateral changes on a regular basis, mobile means your material is always up-to-date.
  • Are you searchable? If someone searches for your company what happens on the top mapping applications? Where are you on mobile search pages?
  • How responsive are you? From your website to your thinking, it’s a multi-device world now.

 

 

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