The piece, titled "Mobile Set To Be 'First Screen' For Customers" explores three facets of B2B mobile marketing, namely: (#1) Why it's important for B2B marketers to begin focusing on mobile-marketing opportunities, (#2) Why B2Bs in particular have been slower to move into mobile than their B2C counterparts, and (#3) What should be the top priorities for B2Bs in setting their mobile strategies.
The article is located here and in case you seek my full guide on B2B Mobile Marketing—The Mobile Revolution & B2B—just go here and for all mobile-marketing video clips just go here.
While mobile-marketing tools and strategies will differ amongst different companies; like any strategy worth its salt, there's no one-size-fits-all solution. There is, however, one action that all companies—yes, every single company—must take. We must optimize our content for the mobile environment.
Why? Because the mobile environment is unique, our audiences' needs are unique when they're mobile, and the mobile environment has a unique set of best practices, opportunities and constraints.
I feature an example above of my own sites (desktop and mobile), which I'm constantly working to improve based on audience feedback. Whether users' type in www.CKB2B.com through their browsers on their laptops or their smartphones they're automatically provided the right experience for the environment they're in right now.
That said, websites are but one part, as we need to think this way about all of our Web content, including enewsletters (how often do you read email on your smartphone vs. your laptop?) and campaign landing pages.
In the video below I hit on this, and refer to it as "thinking inside the box". Remember, at any given time, we don't know through which environment our target audiences are accessing our content—be it through their laptops, tablets or smartphones—but our job as marketers is to delight them through unique content experiences.
Why? Because in a world where our competitors are just a click away and marketing clutter abounds, we are fortunate to have audiences accessing our content... so we want to ensure they keep accessing it in the future. And we really want to delight them so much that they buzz about us to others.
So, while optimizing content for mobile devices is not a strategic endeavor (I go through some strategies in my paper here), it is a marketing imperative. Make sure it's at the top of your list for 2012. For all videos, just go here.
While leading two mobile marketing sessions at the 2012 PPAI Expo in Las Vegas on January 2nd and January 3rd, I did a quick 2-minute video interview on mobile and its tremendous impact upon the promotional products industry... you might find some mobile gems in here to leverage in your own marketing.
And for all videos, just go here and for my mobile marketing guide go here
Just click around the below image to launch several videos (you'll see several hotspots when you roll your mouse over several parts of the graphic ). Videos are a collection of clips covering many facets, implications and best practices on mobile. Best of all, you don't have to leave the image to enjoy the video content.
I created this dynamic graphic through ThingLink—which was both fun and easy—and I can see many uses of it going forward. In this anytime-anywhere, always-connected world, I like how several images within one graphic can also be connected and become veritable channels to my content. Gone are the days of flat, one-dimensional images.
In a recent class lecture on mobile marketing, I hit on several key changes and imperatives and I wanted to share some of the snippets with you through the below 3-minute video.
In the clip I hit on anytime-anywhere media and how it changes our behavior, mobile's explosive ascendancy to the most-used media of all time, the real revolution on how mobile drives permanent shifts across our expectations and thresholds, the unique "bridge" that mobile provides between all marketing efforts... and how "better, faster, easier," is the mobile mantra for succees (be your audience consumer or executive).
Apart from my consulting and speaking, I've been hard at work getting my own branding nipped, tucked and tweaked to kickoff 2012 with a bang! I recently relaunched my B2B Mobile Revolution site (the site that houses my B2B Mobile Guide) and it was time to refresh the website that is core to my business, CKB2B, as well.
Because just like people, brands need constant care and maintenance to grow, evolve and break new ground.
Jon Vanzile interviewed me for his article, Going Mobile, that aired this week in BtoB Magazine (access the article here). The piece addresses the surge of mobile devices, and skyrocketing opportunities of marketing through mobile... but hits squarely on the challenges with which today's B2B's are grappling.
Here's some excerpts from the article:
On the consumer side, mobile apps allowing people to remote-deposit checks with a simple scan or receive coupons after checking in to a location are taking off. But there is no simple analog on the b2b side, which is often characterized by longer, more complex and higher-ticket sales cycles that don't lend themselves easily to 160-character texts or simplistic apps.
Still, Christina “CK” Kerley, a b2b marketing specialist, suggested an easy place to start: Optimize Web content for mobile users.
“It's common sense, but sometimes common sense isn't so common,” she said. “Some companies are making a mistake by advertising on mobile devices, then sending people to a website they can't read. Many times, you can't scale to fit, or the website is using Flash technology. It's enough to make a marketer tear her hair out.”
Once a site is optimized, the challenge is to design mobile marketing campaigns that reach your customers where they are in a way that makes sense. Ultimately, Kerley said, mobile campaigns should make life “better, faster and easier.”
Get the full article here. And for my B2B Mobile Marketing Guide—The Mobile Revolution & B2B—you can get that right here.
The website which features my B2B Mobile Guide, all B2B mobile content, and videos has undergone a makeover! Readers will recall that earlier this year I launched The Mobile Revolution & B2B to shine a much-needed light (and connect many dots!) on how mobile is prime for B2B companies and audiences.
You see, whether or not “going mobile” is yet on the B2B priority list, the mobile revolution is expanding at an unprecedented, almost unbelievable pace all around B2B organizations. A revolution, by definition, changes the current order in a relatively short period. And with over 5 billion mobile subscriptions worldwide—eclipsing the combined penetration of PCs, landlines and TVs—5 billion apps downloaded in 2010 alone, and $5 billion in sales in the three quarters following iPad’s launch, mobile not only qualifies as revolutionary, but also firmly stakes claim to being the most sweeping set of media of our time… or any time.
Packed with mobile statistics, supported by 10 B2B mobile examples, and featuring 7 lesson-rich video clips, The Mobile Revolution & B2B is a seminal guide—a must-have road map—for B2B companies that need to adjust, align and advance their businesses in a newly mobile planet undergoing a unique revolution.
More mobile and B2B insights are coming but, for now, if you've not yet read the paper—head on over there to download the PDF, accompanying videos and a lot of B2B mobile content to help you as you prepare your 2012 strategies, plans and programs.
Earlier this month I had the tremendous honor of being a featured speaker at the MarketingProfs B2B Forum where I spoke on the subject of The Mobile Revolution & B2B (get the paper here, watch the videos here). It was a terrific event with a smart lineup of sessions and speakers, a large turnout of B2B marketers from companies all over the nation, and a series of networking sessions that fostered conversations and relationships.
During my session the very talented marketer Leigh-Duncan Durst (find her on twitter here) captured the session's key points through this cool InfoDoodle. I don't know how she managed to design this so quickly and perfectly, but I'm thankful to her for creating this wonderful takeaway that we can all enjoy.
It never ceases to amaze me just how fortunate I am to be marketing in a time when we have such exciting media in our midst... and to have the opportunity to meet such amazing minds that aren't only strategic geniuses, but have amazing doodling skills, to boot!
In but one month from now, the most-important, most buzzed over, and most advancing B2B event of the year will be in full swing. And I'm armed and ready with a high-energy, heavy-duty mobile marketing message laser targeted just for B2Bs.
I am honored to be a featured speaker at The MarketingProfs 2011 B2B Forum and will be enjoying every minute of the amazing lineup of speeches, networking functions and consulting sessions of the event. Most of all I'll be enjoying the 100% B2B focus and getting to meet the event's attendees hailing from a wide range of B2B companies and B2B market sectors.
I'll be presenting on The Mobile Revolution & B2B (Get the paper here!Watch the videos here!) and I'll also be holding one-on-one "mobile therapy" sessions throughout the event, as well as closing the event with a full panel of B2B smarties who will outlay 10 B2B Marketing Imperatives for attendees... consequently, those will inclue a whole lot of mobile as well.
So if you're a fellow B2B, make plans to be in Boston on June 13th-June 15th and please introduce yourself as I truly learn as much as I teach at the event.
