IDC calls Mobility one of the Four Forces transforming the information technology industry. How big a force is mobility in tech marketing? Marketers at the forefront say that incorporating mobile channels into the mix is not an "if", but a "when".
Rampant Mobility Adoption
IDC projects that smart phone shipments will be $659.8M in 2012 up 33.5% from 2011 and expects shipments of media tablets to be $87.7 million, an increase of 38.6%. At the recent B2B's Digital Edge Live conference, Mark Wilson, SVP of Corporate and Field Marketing at Sybase, an SAP company, got lots of tweets when he claimed that there are more mobile phones in the world than toothbrushes (5.5B vs. 2B)! Businesses are rapidly putting smart phones and tablets into employees' hands in order to increase productivity and responsiveness.
Why Mobility Matters to Marketing: Better Buying Experiences Win
Mobile devices also enable better customer engagement and loyalty - this is the reason why mobility should matter to B2B marketers. Many companies continue to imagine that people make buying choices based solely on the value of the product or service offered. However, the buying experience itself is playing a bigger role in choice.
The internet has changed the buyer's selection behavior. Google has accustomed us to simply stating our needs and then enjoying the luxury of thousands of options. With such an abundance of choice, buyers can flit from option to option, deserting those that disappoint and engaging where they find an easy, clear, interesting, and possibly entertaining, match to their need.
To increase the chances of making a match and thus gaining engagement, B2B marketers already employ various types of buyer context including personalization, role, and vertical industry to the digital dialog. Mobility provides marketers with added potential.
- Convenience - Mobile buyers can engage anywhere and anytime. Time flexibility increases the buyer's control over the interaction and can make it more satisfying. Users can use otherwise wasted time, so they may engage more deeply. Some companies report average interaction time going from seconds to minutes.
- Relevancy - Vendors can better match a buyer's need by incorporating location-based context. Location-based context takes many forms. Offers can be linked to a nearby kiosk at an event, for example. Customer service representatives or sales people who are physically with a buyer can integrate mobilized digital content with the interpersonal dialog at the moment of need. Additional interaction time also increases the buyer's data footprint so that more preferences can be implied.
Going Mobile
Another panelist at the B2B Digital Edge Live conference, Jeff Klainberg, Director of Mobile Strategy, at American Express OPEN, recommended these three steps to mobilize your marketing:
- Establish mobile channels at parity with other digital channels. (Bring things you now do on the web to your mobile channel)
- Leverage open assets (such as free apps and free content) to create differentiated engagement and value delivery
- Breakthrough: once you get some experience, start creating differentiating new experiences that you can only do on mobile devices
Ideas for Successful Mobile Marketing
Sybase's Wilson provided his company's experience in successful mobile marketing applications:
- eBooks: Books published for tablets and published on iTunes has led to 20x demand over print for Sybase content
- Display ads: "Tap-rates" from mobile display ads get a substantially higher response over PC web click-rates
- Mobisite: Some microsites optimized for mobility have achieved more than an average of five minutes per session
- Events: Mobility enriches the event experience with the ability to buy goods on the event floor, to participate in contests, and recieve alerts
- Demos: Sales enablement is one of the BEST uses of mobility. The ability to augment a sales conversation with immediate use of experts (via video), demo's, or other digital enhancement can transform the sales job
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