According to a recent study by Millennial Media and comScore, time spent with mobile devices is surpassing time spent with desktops in the B2C (business to consumer) world. In addition, evidence points to the growth of this trend in the B2B (business to business) small business world as well. According to the Marketing Sherpa’s “2012 Mobile Marketing Benchmark Report,” 64 percent of B2B companies listed mobile websites as their number-one mobile marketing strategy.

According to the survey, after mobile websites the second biggest mobile marketing focus for B2B companies is QR codes at 53 percent, with mobile email coming in third at 40 percent. Other popular mobile marketing tactics used by respondents were mobile landing pages (at 33 percent), mobile apps (at 31 percent), mobile searches (at 22 percent), mobile advertising (at 22 percent), and social and local, and mobile campaign testing (both at 15 percent). Perhaps more significant is the level of importance that respondents placed on mobile marketing techniques for the future. In fact, 52 percent of marketers answered “very important” to the question: “How important is mobile to your organization’s growth in the next 3 years?”

So how are mobile marketing strategies being leveraged by B2B companies? The company Caterpillar, for instance, has in place a versatile mobile site that is customized to meet the “on the go” needs of its clients, enabling visitors to do everything from check product specifications to finding dealers and starting the quote process. Grainger’s mobile store offers a mobile site for prospective customers and an app that’s streamlined specifically for the company’s existing customers (the app includes both push notifications and a physical presence on a customer’s phone screen). Avaya offers a functional mobile site that’s designed with the mobile user in mind, adjusting content to meet specific mobile needs. Finally, Cisco has customized its mobile experience so that its site adapts to different screens and prioritizes content to each form factor.

References

MECLabs. “Mobile Marketing Benchmark Report.” MECLabs Training & Publication Center.

Paez, Gaby. “Mobile Marketing: What 4 Top B2B Companies Can Teach Us about Mobile.” B2B Lead Roundtable Blog. 10/7/13.