In the B2B world, marketing is more influential than it’s ever been, as it’s increasingly playing an integral role in organizations’ business strategies and technology purchasing decisions. All you need to do to understand marketing’s prominence in the B2B arena is glance at this infographic detailing the marketing technology landscape in 2017.
And as with most technology-dependent sectors, B2B marketers are realizing that in order to reach their audiences at the right place and right time, they need to have a mobile marketing strategy. Not surprisingly, it’s a trend that Google has jumped on: per Robert Allen of Smart Insights, “More than half of Google’s ad revenue is coming from mobile ads last year … it’s clear that the smartphone has become a gateway to the majority of customer attention.”
It makes sense that mobile has become one of, if not the most important platforms to connect with customers and reach an audience, but marketing for B2B presents a unique set of challenges and requirements for organizations to overcome in order to effectively reach their audiences.
Mobile has connected people not only to each other, but now to content, and this has created a new subset of marketing: content marketing. This is necessary now that over 84 percent of millennials believe their cell phone is imperative for business and not following far behind that the Gen X and baby boomer generations.
With this statement, you could only imagine how important it is for PR and marketing professionals to understand this mobile tool and tap into the creativity of using cell phones for the beneficial platform of the company.
There is new importance in the market and it is content marketing through mobile devices. This is the time to ramp your marketing budget up and apply it to the mobile sphere for your company.
Global marketing is taking new stride in importance. We can see this with the rising popularity in mobile content marketing, overall in the graph above.
With the shift from desktop to mobile visibility, marketers are recognizing that mobile is now more than half of the web traffic they are receiving on their sites. This is shocking to many as we typically think it is desktop, but putting it into perspective how often are you on your mobile device verses your desktop?
Even the giant Google is launching new mobile-first index. Although there is no set date for this, Google does plan to make the switch for their platform this year. This is mainly because they are able to identify as a company that their consumers are mostly transitioning into mobile now.
Google released three pieces of advice to follow in order to prepare your website for the mobile-first index. With more structure to come in the upcoming months.
- Make sure your mobile site has the content you want to rank for.
- Make sure structured data are on your mobile site.
- Make sure rel-annotations are on your mobile site.
This is imperative for marketers and PR professionals alike to understand where the readers are progressing to. It is mobile, and that is where the creativity, time, and budget should be shifting towards.
The next step to take is to update your companies mobile site. This is become more important than the desk top version. If you are not already doing this, it is essential to make this a top priority. Missing out on the curve of the mobile marketing trends will be a lost opportunity.
Today, more than half of B2B companies have mobile sites and apps. Although, the viewership is mainly on the sites verses the apps.
The benefits of going mobile is now being seen by marketers. The top metrics are being aligned with top goals and there is a 75 percent increased in audience engagement and the number of leads increasing by 72 percent additionally, a 57 percent increase in help with company sales.
To create a successful mobile platform, make sure content is relevant and creative. Additionally, emphasize that it is necessary to have content that your audience will value in the little bit of time they have when shifting through their mobile devices.
Mobile, mobile, mobile.
By Gabby Garcy
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Sources:
http://www.smartinsights.com/b2b-digital-marketing/key-b2b-marketing-trends-2016/
http://ww.iamwire.com/2017/06/top-marketing-trends-2017/152475
https://dzone.com/articles/6-mobile-commerce-trends-in-2017-infographic
http://digitalmarketingphilippines.com/the-hottest-b2b-content-marketing-trends-in-2017-infographic/
http://diginomica.com/2017/07/18/b2b-content-strategy-a-quick-twenty-point-gut-check/
http://searchengineland.com/googles-mobile-first-index-still-months-away-271851