Hot on the heels of business to customer mobile marketing is the advent of business to business mobile marketing. However, B2B mobile marketers need to fully embrace mobile marketing or they’re going to get left behind.
Mobile marketing is quickly overtaking traditional marketing in a big way due to higher viewing rates and proximity to purchase decision. That doesn’t mean traditional marketing no longer works because some of it does. It does mean, however, that B2B companies need to rethink the way they handle their campaigns. That could mean the difference between success and failure.
The easiest way to start the transition is to take your traditional marketing methods and learn how to promote them via B2B mobile marketing. You’ll also need to ensure that your website is fast and mobile-friendly. In addition, you will need to add some new mobile marketing methods to your marketing strategies and combine them into one phenomenal mobile marketing campaign.
1. Prove To Them You’re Worthy
Prove to your prospects that you’re worthy of their business. You can do this with a value packed eBook written about a hot trending topic in your industry. Ultimately, you want that book to educate, train or inform your prospects in a way that shows how you contribute to their success. This concept also works by providing them with professionally made training videos or something else with a high perceived value. Then you need to give this to your prospects even if they decide not to buy from you.
You are probably wondering how this ties into mobile marketing. Well, this goes back to what I said above when I was talking about incorporating your traditional marketing methods with mobile marketing. Once you have your high value content completed, you will need to promote it using one of the many mobile marketing methods that are available, such as: SMS, MMS or a mobile app.
Some users may be reluctant to download content to their smartphone since they do most of their reading on a laptop. Use the mobile contact information you gather to remind them to stay engaged and provide additional value-added content that they can access later in their decision process.
2. Don’t Forget the Value of Entertainment
A great way to create a positive brand reputation while building your business is through entertainment. People love to be entertained.
Sponsor a festival with other local merchants participating. You can use the high value content you had created for the above method to use as giveaways along with other branded materials as well.
Then you simply promote the event via as many mobile methods as you have available to you.
And don’t forget to promote your festival using traditional methods such as radio advertising as well. Announce your festival to popular forums such as LinkedIn and business-related Facebook groups.
3. The Magic of Trade Show B2B Mobile Marketing
Trade shows are great for networking and are perfect for B2B mobile promotion. They’re like hitting the B2B lead jackpot. You begin by promoting your participation via mobile for an upcoming industry trade show. Send anyone who responds free tickets, prizes, etc. Then, before and during the trade show you can send out a series of text messages reminding participants of your soon to start seminar, prize giveaway or demonstration. This is a great way to attract businesses to your booth and away from your competitors.
You can even develop some virtual reality-based demonstrations that use B2B mobile applications to create a draw to your booth. Of course, anyone participating provides you with lead information.
4. Create Seamless Experiences
B2B prospects are extremely savvy and expect to be treated professionally. And that includes providing them with a seamless mobile reading and purchase experience across all your channels. The experience needs to be user-friendly and consistent across all types of devices. Mobile users are in a hurry and reluctant to enter lots of repeat data on a small screen. Failure to create a simple mobile experience will cause you to lose the business.
5. Make Sure You Offer Interesting, Appealing, Relevant Content
People expect high quality graphics, videos and interesting (entertaining) content; otherwise, they won’t even bother reading it. Therefore, you must develop content with broad appeal and great graphics to keep your readers’ interest. The best way to do that is through hot topics, current events or funny trending videos.
You use that to grab your readers’ attention then incorporate your message into or around that subject. Additionally, videos are great for showcasing your products and services as well. So you can use the attention grabbing content and include a video showcasing what it is you have to offer.
However, if you develop content just for the sake of developing content, and it’s not something your readers are interested in, you will risk them unsubscribing, or worse, damaging your brand’s reputation.
6. Offer a Live Chat Service
In a world where people want real-time everything, you should consider offering a live chat option. If your prospects can’t get an immediate response to whatever it is they need, they might click out and find someone else who can help them now versus having to wait until someone gets back to them. A live chat service is extremely helpful when it comes to grabbing a hot lead and turning them into a customer. Consider the use of a live chat service to help those prospects who are exploring your options through your mobile channels such as an SMS text you sent them or a company who is visiting your mobile app.
7. Take Control of Peer Pressure
A B2B buyer’s journey can be greatly influenced by peers’ comments on public forums and other private online channels. That means if someone says something about your company, and you aren’t listening or positively influencing these conversations, they could very well cause you to lose business and damage your brand’s reputation without you even being aware of it.
People trust other people and they will go to social networks and recommendation websites before making a decision. Therefore, you need to actively participate everywhere your prospects are searching. If you find a negative comment or someone who had a bad experience, you need to respond to that empathize, explain your side of the story and offer a solution. This will have a huge impact from the public’s perspective. Showing people you care and how you handle mishaps, will generally be enough to give them the information they need to make a decision for themselves as to whether or not you are trustworthy.
How does this relate to B2B mobile? Social platforms as well as social service aggregator platforms all listen to conversations about your company. And all of them have mobile versions so you can listen and respond on the fly. Today’s customers expect a quick response.
8. Rewarding Your Prospects and Buyers Alike
Consistent follow up and communication is key to growing your business. B2B mobile marketing automation has made it easier than ever to do just that. You should setup a mobile marketing campaign that is continually offering your prospects valuable content and customized special offers that will build your brand recognition to the point where they finally begin to trust you enough to make a purchase. If you don’t, you can be sure your competitors will, which means you could lose their business to someone else.
You can easily do this by setting up some sort of interactive method of engagement via your prospects and customers mobile devices. Perhaps you could send out games or puzzles and offer prizes for the right answers. You could send personalized exclusive offers or door prizes if they call or visit your business within an allotted amount of time. You could (and should) setup a customer rewards program with a monetary value attached after a certain number of transactions or dollar amount has been spent. Then periodically send them push notifications to remind them how much they have earned along with an invitation to spend it.
I’ve summarized 8 ways you can use B2B mobile to drive better results in a marketing context. By making sure your websites are mobile-friendly, your content is accessible via mobile, and using mobile promotional tactics, you can achieve better results with your business prospect. But it’s important to begin your mobile efforts now.
How do you ensure that your customer is getting the best mobile experience possible when interacting with your brand? Make sure to share in the comments.
