• 44% of all mobile users checked their mobile in the last 30 minutes.
• 86% are between 18-44 years old & 54% make over $50k a year.
• 68% own a smartphone.
• 45% say that when they wake up checking their smartphone is the first or second thing they do (smartphone was 2nd to going to the bathroom.

Even more compelling, average purchase intent of mobile marketing is 5x of online marketing.  Simply stated people use their mobile to “save time” or to “kill time”, and they can do this anywhere or anytime, giving the media instant dominance over online marketing.  So how can you use Mobile Marketing to enhance your B2B marketing?  The following are ideas for ways in which Mobile can be utilized as part of a B2B marketing/communication strategy:

1. Lead Generation – Offer something of value in exchange for signing up to your ‘opt-in’ list; provide potential customers a link to a white-paper, a special discount, a video, or other standard B2B strategic tools in exchange for adding themselves to your prospect list via Mobile opt-in.
2. News/Updates – Important and time-sensitive customer updates can be sent directly to your opted-in clients using SMS (text) messaging. Further, people like being ahead of the crowd and being among “the first” to know something; send your customers updates about product launches, product updates or upcoming events.
3. Emergency Notification – SMS (text) messaging is a great way to notify your employees or customers quickly. Send critical updates of last-minute event location changes or just before your company’s important meetings.
4. Special Promotions – Communicate with your customers, distributors or franchises via SMS with the details about special promotions they can offer to customers.
5. Employee Assignments – Improve your customer service and dispatch employees to their next customer location via text messaging.
6. Presentations – Communicate with your audience during in-person or webinar presentations, conduct polling.
7. Customer Service – Many companies offer customer support and problem resolution via text messaging. This can save you money and help you channel problem tickets more effectively.
8. Events – Implement a text messaging marketing strategy to promote weekly meetups or networking events for members, or remind employees about upcoming meetings. Send out key logistic information like changes of venue or detailed parking instructions. You can even take event registration information via text!
9. Customer Payments – Use mobile technology to allow your field-service reps to take customer payments via mobile; get immediate payment, encrypt customers credit card information, and manage payments risk-free!
10. Trade Shows – Use Mobile at trade shows to exchange information with prospects; allow them to enter contests, request and receive company information,  or see a video about your product or service.  Send text alerts to attendees about your next presentation so they’ll have time to get there before it starts!

As you can see there is a lot that you can do as B2B marketers to use mobile marketing in your communications mix.  As we know, B2B marketing involves multiple touch points with well though out lead cultivation process incorporated.  Mobile can be one of the tactics deployed to make you a thought leader in your industry and this leads to more business.  What are you waiting for?

Is B2B Ready for Mobile Marketing? is a post from: Lead Generation Strategies: No Longer A One-Hit Wonder!

b2b lead generation

1. Create a Game Plan:
The big reason why most lead generation marketing strategies fail is lack of planning. All too often ideas get implemented into action without the proper foresight to know if the idea is tangible or not. Carefully plan out a lead generation strategy from beginning to end and try to come up with possible problems that might arise. Before you start any of that, you need to clearly define your b2b lead generation goal. What do you want SEO to do for your company? Generate leads? Increase your online presence? Create sales?

2. Evaluate Your Resources Honestly:
Before you being your search engine optimization marketing quest, you need to honestly evaluate if your company has the capabilities to perform the task. Many times companies will sign up for the whole package only to find that SEO is an ongoing and arduous process. Ask yourself if you have the personnel to manage the job or if you will need to outsource the project. This involves content developers, programmers, competitive researchers and technical personnel to handle code and server issues. After your site is properly optimized it is going to take an ongoing team to promote the site, keep it current with fresh content and build a network through backlinking. Is your team knowledgeable with all aspects of SEO? Once you have determined that you have the necessary personnel and you have a good plan, you need to figure out if you have the budget to accomplish the task. Do you have the long-term budget to do search engine optimization marketing correctly?

3. Establishing Metrics:
After your goals have been set you need to see if your lead generation strategies are working. Different companies will have different goals for their search engine optimization marketing campaigns. Before you start your campaign you should implement analytics software into your websites code to track your progress. A lot of companies view an SEO campaign as a success by the amount of #1 rankings they achieve. This way of looking at things is irrelevant to the success of a lead generation campaign. Search results can be radically different depending on what computer you’re logged on to, if you’re currently in your Google Account or by the location of the searcher (Geotracking). You should be looking for keyword rankings over a period of time, the number of people coming to your site based upon keywords and most importantly conversions. It doesn’t matter if you bring 2,000,000 people to your site. If they don’t pick up the phone or fill out that form you are ultimately wasting your b2b lead generation efforts.

4. Ongoing Promotion:
Search engine optimization marketing is not a “One and Done” strategy. Search engines view websites almost like living creatures in the sense if they don’t grow and evolve they will not be ranked as important as other sites. Once you have chosen the right keywords, that fit your business, are ranked highly and have low competition, then you must implement those keywords into your content. Content is King! It is not enough anymore to simply stuff your website with keywords. Your lead generation team needs to produce regular content, promote the site through social networks using micro sites and landing pages as well as building an extensive backlinking network.

5. Establishing a Long-Lasting Image
Search engine optimization marketing is just one tool your company can use in this new age of digital media. SEO should be integrated with social media, video, podcasts, webinars, lead nurturing, email marketing, directory listings, affiliate marketing, mobile and sms marketing, pay per click and teleprospecting. All of these b2b lead generation tools put together, along with traditional marketing efforts, should create a long-lasting brand for your company that creates excitement for your customers. Coordination between public relations, brand managers, the creative team, sales and the website team takes a lot of effort but only through teamwork will your marketing campaigns pay off.

To Your Success,

John Clifford

Five Tips To Establish Successful Search Engine Optimization Marketing Campaigns For Your Business In 2010 is a post from: Lead Generation Strategies: No Longer A One-Hit Wonder!