B2B marketing goes mobile

There was an interesting article by Christina Kerley over on Marketing Profs a few weeks ago on why B2B marketers should be taking mobile marketing very seriously.

Christina argues that, if we’re not taking advantage of mobile marketing, we risk “missing out on super-sized opportunities for integrating a valuable new brand touch point for their customers and establishing a dynamic new communications channel with professional audiences.” She cites the “explosive adoption rates” of mobile devices - especially smartphones, the fact that business professionals are always on them, and the idea that going mobile is a way to get up close and personal with your market. She absolutely makes a strong argument that we all need to make sure that our marketing strategy and tactics address mobile.

One area she urges us B2B marketers to think about is how to provide value - and not just noise. She points out that providing mobile tools/apps is a good way to build brand identify. This is definitely something worth exploring. If you’re a B2B tech company, there may be some sort of app that directly relates to your product - maybe a dashboard, maybe some sort of alert/response add-on. If there’s nothing direct that makes sense, you might want to come up with an app that helps your audience with some pesky little task that they’ve always found irksome. Put your brand on it, and - if it’s useful enough - it will catch on like wildfire. (Remember at trade shows the companies with the best giveaways? Sure, a lot of stuff got tossed in the rubbish basket - who needs another squeeze ball or day-glo yo-yo - but didn’t we all use the thumb drives? Providing something useful - whether it’s directly part of your application wheelhouse or not - associates your brand with - duh - usefulness. Which is never going to be a bad association.)

Christina ends by pointing out what should probably be point one: make sure that you have content that is optimized for the smaller form-factor of mobile devices (not to mention for our shortened attention spans). So, she suggests, if you’ve got a “10,000-word thought-leadership piece” make sure you’ve got a condensed, “100-word snapshot” that provides a flavor of the real thing, and will help entice someone to read the entire piece. Excellent idea!

Personally, I don’t want my personal smartphone space invaded by marketers (sorry, guys). But Christina’s not pushing mobile as a way to go outbound. She’s just saying that we’ve all got to consider where mobile fits in our mix.

Christina doesn’t have all the answers - who does? - but you should read her article. It’s a good shot across the bow about the importance of mobile. Certainly an interesting area to think about. Not to mention actually do something about.

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