Top 10 Mistakes to Avoid in B2B Mobile Marketing

Almost every business owner relies on some type of B2B transaction for successful operations. Connecting, interacting, and forming mutual exchanges with other companies is what is needed to help take your business to the next level, and mobile marketing has the fuel to get you there.

However, many are sabotaging their own mobile marketing campaigns through poor execution. If you want to see the best results from your efforts, avoid these 10 common mobile marketing pitfalls.

1. Thinking Mobile Marketing is Only for Consumers

Consumers aren’t the only ones leashed to their mobile devices. Business owners and executives use their smartphones and tablets to stay constantly up-to-date on happenings within their industry: managing contacts, making decisions, and buying and selling products. This is especially true for the younger members of the workforce (under 40 years old,) and this trend will only increase as time passes. 

It’s important to start making contacts on these channels now instead of playing catch-up later.

2.  Not Having a Mobile Site

No matter who the audience, having a mobile-friendly site is vital. However, it may be even more essential in B2B marketing where you are trying to interact with incredibly busy people who are at work, multitasking, and used to dismissing advertisements. These decision-makers simply have no time or interest in waiting around for a site to load or fumbling around with a difficult to navigate page.

3. Overlooking the Personal Nature of Mobile Marketing

Quite often, B2B loyalties are formed because of personal interactions. This principle is what drives professionals to meet on golf courses or over drinks – it’s about forming relationships. But, with mobile marketing, you can form such connections without ever leaving your home or office through the use of social media, text messages, discussion forums, location-based deals, mobile-sites, and more.

You’ll find you have the best results when you strike a balance between self-promotion (deals, calls to action, announcements) and socialization (joining conversations, asking questions, sharing information).

4. Not Modifying Your Static Campaign for Mobile Users

It’s important to keep in mind that mobile devices and their users behave quite differently than desktops and their users. Mobile devices have smaller screens (show less content), less bandwidth, keyboard and printer limitations, and are operated by people who are on-the-move in fast-paced environments.

Thus, it’s crucial to keep your messages and their required responses short, sweet, fast-loading, and easy to navigate. Unlike PC campaigns, you don’t have unlimited space and graphics to make your point, so make sure what you say packs a punch.

5. Failing to Learn About Your B2B Customers

You wouldn’t miss the chance at gathering data about your regular consumers, and you should have the same eagerness when dealing with your B2B customers. Keep your ear to the ground to learn about trends in their industry, and devise ways to take advantage of those developments.

Also, mobile devices are fantastic data collection tools as you can gather information via text-to-win contests, promotions, calls to action, and anything else that requires input from your customers. Use this knowledge to create custom campaigns specific to the needs of your clients.

6. Not Optimizing for All Mobile Devices

Just as there are major differences between desktops and mobile units, there are also variations between mobile devices themselves (i.e. there isn’t one “standard” format). Because they all have varying capabilities and respond differently to certain computer languages, content that displays great on one device may look like a bunch of mumbo-jumbo on a different unit.

Have your web designer ensure your mobile site appears properly on every type of platform so you can effectively reach all your customers all the time.

7. Underestimating Social Media

Businesses are flocking to social media not only to find consumers, but to make associations with other businesses and to create brand awareness. By using Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn (great for professional networking), Pinterest, and others you can reach far more people than you can through your website alone. Managing multiple social networks is a lot of work, but having so many free channels at your disposal is unprecedented in terms of marketing potential.

8. Keeping Your Static and Mobile Campaigns Separate

If your B2B customers are used to interacting with you through their desktops, let them know the benefits of connecting with you in the mobile world (and vice versa).  The idea is to create one, cohesive campaign that allows people to interact with your business in as many outlets as possible. This will keep your brand front and center in their minds and increase your opportunities for conversion.

9. Ignoring Exclusivity

Your B2B Clients are often senior executives that demand great service, and their high-profile positions mean they don’t want the same deals that you’re handing out to everyone else; they are special and want to be treated as such. So, make sure your promotions to these individuals have an air of exclusivity. Why should they spend their valuable time on your mobile site or engaging with you on social media? Give them a reason to pay attention and, if possible, attract followers from other people within their circles.

10. Forgetting the Functionalities of Mobile Devices

Besides the fact that smartphones and tablets offer mobile internet access, people like them because of their features and convenience. They have cameras, phones, calendars, touch screens, respond to motion, and have apps – you should be using these abilities! By not incorporating these elements you risk having a boring site and are missing out on the opportunity to more fully engage your viewers.

Overall, the mobile marketing strategies used for B2B clients are not that different than the ones used for regular consumers. The main influencer, as with anything in marketing, is understanding your audience. Pay attention to the needs of your customers, apply them to your mobile efforts, and use smart mobile-design for an effective mobile campaign.