When you're trying to implement inbound marketing for B2B customers, mobile is perhaps the single most important platform to target.
Studies show businesses without a strong mobile presence fall in search ranking, enjoy less mobile traffic and have a higher average bounce rate. Beyond that, a majority of people in the United States own a mobile phone, and 90 percent of all smartphone owners use their phone for prepurchase activities.
It's clear that if you want to be successful — even when attracting B2B customers — you need a strong mobile marketing automation strategy.
To get you started, here are four ingredients to a strong mobile marketing automation plan:
1. Find the right communication channels
Mobile marketing is all about finding ways to reach your customers on the devices they use the most. That's why it makes sense to leverage text marketing services.
By using an SMS text messenger, you'll ensure that 90 percent or more of your messages are opened in less than an hour. Most importantly for B2B, 80 percent of people already use SMS for business purposes.
Another good option is using push notifications. If you have a mobile application, you can simply send users mobile messages using built-in functionality. Like text messages, push notifications have an incredibly high and instantaneous open rate.
2. Put your audience in charge
Mobile marketing — especially when you're using SMS or push notifications — is more intrusive than other types of marketing. Your messages are going directly to their mobile phone, sending them the same notification that a message from their family or friend would.
It's important to keep this in mind and give your customers complete control over what types of messages they receive, and how often they receive them. Make sure not to overdo your mobile marketing by sending no more than several messages per month.
3. Focus on social media, too
Mobile automation shouldn't begin and end with SMS and push notifications. Mobile users spend an enormous amount of time on social media, so boosting your presence there is critical.
You can create automated responses to check-ins, posts and direct messages, buying you some time before you have the chance to respond personally. With the right technology, you can even integrate automation between social media and SMS.
4. Treat everyone differently
Not every lead is the same, so they shouldn't receive the same marketing communications from you. It's important to identify where in the sales process each lead is, and nurture them appropriately with a unique, targeted automated marketing campaign.
To get started, you need to develop a way to qualify and score leads. For B2B prospects, this should be done based on the source of their registration, your past relationship with them, and the size and industry of the company they work for. These scores should be used as guidance, and you can move leads further down the sales funnel as they take important actions. You'll also want to use these scores to determine which leads are worth prioritizing over others.
Do you have a strong mobile marketing automation strategy already in place? Make sure to leave your own tips or questions by leaving a comment below.
